The unstoppable growth of GRASS
THERE was a time when the only place you would find any grasses in the garden was in a lawn. Nowadays, ornamental ones are the backbone of all sorts of displays, from traditional beds and borders to prairiestyle plantings, gravel gardens and container schemes.
A quick head count reveals that there are eight different grasses or grass-like plants in my small back garden and another in a hanging basket around the front – a bronzeleaved sedge that rubs shoulders with seasonal bedding stalwarts such as fuchsias, petunias and trailing helichrysum.
It’s a similar scenario in many gardens across the country, regardless of their shape, size, style or location. Grasses are considered an integral part of planting schemes, and garden centres satisfy demand by stocking scores of varieties.
How things have changed in a short time. Old gardening books barely mention grasses, apart from the ubiquitous pampas that was a fixture of many suburban front lawns during the 1960s and 1970s. Even when I worked at a nursery in the early 1990s, we sold only three different ones. The popularity of grasses began to soar in the late 1990s thanks to Ground Force and other TV makeover shows.
As far as I’m concerned, few groups of plants offer as much. They provide movement, colour, texture and even sound, and help displays knit together. Evergreen ones look good all year round, while deciduous types tend to have stunning flower heads and foliage that changes in autumn.
Ornamental grasses vary remarkably in habit, from low-growing to giants that tower above head height. There are those that form neat, rounded hummocks – and there are upright forms with a fountain-like display of leaves.
One of the first ornamental grasses I ever laid eyes on was blue fescue (Festuca glauca), an evergreen with steely blue leaves. For years it was the only one readily available, but there are now a host of varieties with much stronger colour, such as ‘Elijah Blue’ and ‘Blaufuchs’.
There are plenty of other lowgrowing grasses that will turn heads. Carex comans bronze-leaved makes a 12in-tall tussock of bronzebrown leaves, while Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’ has wide green and yellow variegated foliage.
The lime leaves of Imperata cylindrical ‘Rubra’ turn blood red in late summer. Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ is actually a clump-forming perennial in the lily family, but looks and acts like a grass. It has 8in-tall tufts of coalblack, strappy leaves and spreads slowly to form large clumps. As a bonus, it produces short spikes of lilac flowers in summer followed by glossy purple berries.
My favourite compact grass is Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, a deciduous beauty from Japan that forms a gently cascading hummock of yellow. Leaves turn brown later in the year and last all winter. I’ve planted a group under a cut leaf elder.
If you’re looking for something taller, try Molinia caerulea subsp. caerulea ‘Variegata’, Pennisetum thunbergii ‘Red Buttons’ and Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’. Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’ produces a haze of purplish flowers above bolt-upright leaves in autumn. All grow to about 3½ft. Stipa gigantea is an attention-grabber due to its 8ft-tall stems of golden flowers that rise above 2ft clumps of arching green foliage in early summer.
AT THE very top end of the scale, miscanthus are a must-have. M. sinensis ‘Malepartus’, ‘Goliath’ and ‘Kaskade’ are all architectural specimens with wonderful flowers from late summer. Aptly named Miscanthus x giganteus is the tallest of the lot, with stems than can easily reach 10ft. It’s best grown as a foliage plant as the flowers are almost non-existent.
Arundo donax, or Spanish reed, is a wonderfully exotic plant due to its stout stems clothed with broad blue leaves.
Most grasses prefer a sunny spot, although there are exceptions. Hakonechloa, chasmanthium and molinia tolerate light shade. Panicum, luzula, acorus, carex and several others are happy in damp conditions but most need welldrained soil.
Grasses are easy to look after. Tidy up deciduous types by cutting back foliage to just above ground level in early spring.
With evergreens, simply snip off dead or damaged foliage, and remove spent flowers.