Sway To Go

Ornamental grasses.

Ornamental grasses give so much and demand so little. They add unique character with their graceful, arching forms. Stirred by breezes, their movements make the whole garden come alive. They have low maintenance and water needs and are not prone to pest or disease problems. In addition, they soften hard surfaces and add a wealth of textural interest. Most change through the seasons, marking the passage of time, while their abundant seed heads are a magnet for small birds.

A sea of grasses is a fast and low-effort way to fill a large space, and they’re also ideal for gravel gardens and slopes.

Leading the way

Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf is credited with popularising the ‘new wave’ style of perennial planting, which mixes drifts of flowering perennials with ornamental grasses in a natural style. It’s all about texture rather than colour. Oudolf’s landscaping of New York’s High Line, a disused freight railway line-turned-public space, is one of the most famous examples. Here in Australia, designers such as Ian Barker, Michael Cooke, Michael McCoy, Fiona Brockhoff and Myles Baldwin also use ornamental grasses of various sizes as key elements in their designs.

Splendour in the grass

Small Blue fescue grass ( Festuca glauca) has blue-silver foliage in a neat tuft up to 20cm tall, while Lomandra ‘Little Con’ has a ball of lime-green foliage to 40cm. Japanese sedge ( Carex oshimensis) is especially decorative, with glossy, arching leaves; the cultivar ‘Everest’ has handsome white and green stripes to 40cm, and ‘Evergold’, reaching 30cm, features yellow and green stripes.

Medium In the 50-100cm range, there are several native lomandras to choose from. ‘Tanika’ is a proven performer, with fine, bright green leaves to 50cm. ‘Nyalla’ is bluer and a little taller, while ‘Lime Tuff’ is perkier and forms a neat lime-green mound to 50cm. Also native are Poa labillardieri ‘Eskdale’, with fine blue-green, upright foliage to 80cm, and Poa poiformis ‘Kingsdale’, whose bluish, arching foliage reaches 50-60cm. Miscanthus ‘Adagio’ (70cm) features silvery, feathery seed heads. For fat, furry plumes, choose Pennisetum ‘Nafray’, a foxtail grass with fine, green foliage to 80cm and creamy plumes.

Tall Stately grasses over 1m really command attention. Purple foxtail grass ( Pennisetum advena ‘Rubrum’) has dark burgundy leaves stretching to 1.5m and prolific plumes.

There are many tall varieties of silvergrass ( Miscanthus sinensis), most of which offer an autumn show of foliage colour. The ‘Gracillimus’ cultivar has narrow, striped blades in green and white to about 1m; ‘Zebrinus’ features bold gold bands on the leaves and can top 2m; ‘Flamingo’ (1.8m) has prominent, purplish seed heads and is particularly lovely in autumn; and ‘Sarabande’ displays fine, silvery foliage to 1.2m that turns tawny bronze in autumn, topped with fan-shaped seed heads.

Switch grass ( Panicum virgatum) varieties are stiffer and more upright but produce a froth of seed heads; ‘Heavy Metal’ is a favourite cultivar for its steel-blue leaves to 1m and pinkish flower spikes. Reed grasses ( Calamagrostis) are similarly stiff and upright; ‘Karl Foerster’ is a standout for its dark green foliage to 1m and elongated, feathery seed heads that are nearly as tall again. It has strong vertical lines and is long flowering. ‘Overdam’ is similar but has variegated leaves.