Give ornamental grasses a good home!
Pots and containers are a great way to grow grasses and there are so many to choose from
Grasses work so well for busy gardeners, simply because they’re such an adaptable group of plants. Growing plants in pots and containers has always been popular, and luckily there are a huge number of grasses that will grow happily in pots for many years, with only a few basic rules to ensure success.
Firstly, always choose the right grass for the position the containers are in. For example, if you’ve a shady balcony, choose grasses such as luzula or hakonechloa, that will cope easily with these conditions. Secondly, and just as critical, use a pot that can hold as much soil as is practical for its position. The larger the volume of soil in the container, then the better the grasses will grow. It’s that simple.
Thirdly, use a properly balanced growing media for best results. On the nursery at Knoll, all our grasses are grown in compost with long-term fertiliser added so that we never have to feed the plants. Neil Lucas is the UK’s leading ornamental grass specialist, owner of Knoll Gardens, author, RHS Council member and judge, and holder of 10 consecutive Chelsea Gold Medals. Known for his naturalistic style, from his Dorset-based garden he spearheads a charity dedicated to promoting his ‘more wow, less work’ style. Possibly one of my favourites to grow in a pot in sun or shade is Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’. The elongated and very refined leaves make a most lovely mound of bright foliage that lasts all season. While slow growing initially, it lasts for many years and becomes a firm friend. Not all the larger grasses, such as miscanthus, panicum and calamagrostis, make ideal container plants, simply as they can get too large for all but the biggest of planters. However, Miscanthus ‘ Morning Light’ has a rather distinctive, vase- like shape that lends itself neatly to being used in containers. Some of my most successful containers are of the ‘long tom’ style. This is just a general term for a pot that’s rather taller than it is wide. They’re great for showing off foliage grasses such as the evergreen Carex testacea. This is a really lovely grass-like plant (a sedge, in fact), that has evergreen leaves in many shades of orangey-
brown, with a gently-drooping habit, and is frequently used in borders to great effect. When planted in a long tom pot, however, it takes the opportunity to display
an endearing trait that’s not evident when planted at ground level. The foliage gradually extends downwards so that even in the tallest of long toms (mine are around 1m/ 39in tall), the drooping foliage will eventually reach the ground. Slow-growing grasses, such as
Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, make good pot subjects as they’ll live happily in the same pots for several seasons.
Another good example of this is the striking black mondo grass that has the equally impressive botanical name of Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’.
This will thrive happily for any number of years in a pot, in sun or a fair amount of shade, and has the blackest foliage of just about any kind of plant.
Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’, the Japanese blood grass, is another slow growing but very effective grass that does well in a pot for a good number of years. In fact, in many gardens it does rather better in a pot than it does in the ground!
Lastly, but most definitely not least, don’t forget to water grassy containers in dry weather. While many grasses have a deserved reputation for being drought tolerant in the ground, the soil in a pot can dry out completely and this will harm the plants.