Ornamental Grasses

Using Ornamental Grasses to add grace to your gardens

With an array of colors, sizes and textures, ornamental grass can add year round interest to any garden. A slight breeze brings them to life, animating the mass and creating a soothing sound like a calming ocean wave lapping onto the shore. Grasses can be used as specimen plants, focal points, or planted in masses to be used as screening or to frame a view.

Ornamental grasses are rapidly increasing in popularity. They adapt well to a wide range of growing conditions and are basically trouble free from diseases and pests. They are also among the easiest plants to grow. As I mentioned before, most of them do require full sun, but several like Sedge grasses and Hakone grass tolerate part shade. Some are very short like the foot-high Blue Fescue, but others like Giant Reed grass can grow up to 25 feet tall.

There are a few types of ornamental grasses. Cool season grass and warm season grass, and there are the perennial grasses and the annual grasses. Cool season grasses do the most active growing during the cooler parts of the year. Some may stay green throughout the winter. Cool season grasses start growing much sooner than the warm season grasses and will bloom earlier in the season. Their best feature is that grasses are beautiful spring, summer, fall and winter. At first frost, the foliage and seed heads turn golden tans and offer a nice display throughout the winter.

Warm season grasses are dormant through the winter and will break dormancy only when the soil warms sufficiently enough. Then they will start to grow rapidly. These grasses are best cut back annually in late winter to very early spring. Warm season grasses thrive in hot weather and once firmly established, are tolerant of drought. Most require a long growing season to establish flowers in late summer and into autumn, when many perennials have ceased blooming and start to die back for the season. Ornamental grasses are also grouped by how they grow. Some grasses form small clumps, some large clumps. Still others after they have established themselves, which is usually three years, will under the right conditions, form huge dense clumps. Clump forming grasses will stay where you plant them, but will increase in size, so be sure to give them ample room when you initially plant them.

Other grasses can be considered spreaders. This group of grasses spread by stolons or rhizomes. These grasses need space to roam, and should not be planted where they will overtake your other garden plants. Spreading grasses will quickly invade a space unless they are contained. Often they can be used as a ground cover and for erosion control on a slope.

Ornamental grasses need very little maintenance. Aside from frequent watering the first year or two, most grasses are almost carefree. Most varieties prefer well-drained soil in full sun, but some can tolerate shade. Fertilizer requirements are very low. Over fertilization may lead to tall lush growth but may cause the grass to fall over. Some tall grasses that have a tendency of bending or falling over may need staking. Warm season grasses will need to be cut back to allow for new growth, but be careful you don"t cut too low; depending on the grass, two to six inches should be above the crown should be sufficient. Occasionally, ornamental grasses die out on the center of the clump. This is a natural occurrence. To reinvigorate the clump and to promote growth in the center, you can simply cut out the dead area, and fill it in with good topsoil. The grass will fill in the center within a few years, increasing the density of the clump.

Designing your gardens using grasses is very easy. You have many varieties to choose from that offer year round appeal. For an effective screen at maturity, choose grasses that come to at least eye level. Single plants can be used as specimen plants. A small mass planting using different varieties with differing heights are especially appealing. Be sure to layout the garden with the shorter grasses in front, and the taller grasses in the back. Small evergreens mixed in will add color during late fall and winter. Variegated varieties add interest as well.

In addition to a wide range of heights and spreads, there is a tremendous variation in leaf size and color. Colors range from pale greens to bright powder blue to brilliant yellows to blood reds to predominately white and even black. There are also many types with horizontal patterns as well as the more familiar vertical patterns. When it comes to the flowers which can bloom any time from the late spring to late fall depending on the variety, you can find many variations from small bottlebrush arrangements to large showy plumes in many wonderful colors from white to yellow to pink and deep maroons.