Planting DesignDiscover the right plants for your garden.
Prized for providing year - round interest , grass are full and riotous during the warm months , put on outstanding displays of fall color , and are unrivaled for winter texture . Once established , decorative eatage landscaping is low - maintenance , drought resistant , and resistant to disease . Plus , they can be used in garden styles wander from cottage to contemporary . See the example below to get ideas for incorporating grasses into your own garden .
Ornamental Grasses for the Garden
Proven Winners
18 Top Ornamental Grasses
While prime are the aureate stars of the garden , the tolerate cast is sometimes overlooked . Ornamental grasses offer subtle stunner and multi - seasonal interest , even when there ’s not much else travel on in the garden . Get suggestions for your garden for tall or light decorative grasses , as well as suggested North American aboriginal grasses .
raise Switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum )
This adaptable North American aboriginal grass has many possible uses in the landscape .
Growing Little Bluestem ( Schizachyrium scoparium )
Get tips for constitute and maintain this beautiful native prairie grass .
mature Nipponese Forest Grass ( Hakonechloa )
This scurvy - maintenance repeated eatage flourishes in umbrageous gardens .
How to produce & Care for Fountain Grass ( Pennisetum )
Add contrasting contour and grain , as well as movement in your garden .
How to Grow & Care for Purple Fountain Grass
Ornamental Grass Landscaping Ideas
Jon Whittle
Add them to container
While not the typical choice , grasses are very well suitable for container . They can be used as a grandiloquent centerpiece in an urn or plant alone in an oversize container . See10 way pasturage are used in containersat Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville .
Saxon Holt
Incorporate them into a Meadow
Through his designs , John Greenlee has make a repute as the master of cosmetic Mary Jane . He skilfully combines billowing Grass with dancing wildflowers , bulb and other plants to produce meadows that harmonize with the environ landscape painting . See how he created aMediterranean meadowfor this property in Woodside , California .
See more : How to Create a Meadow Garden
Chelsea Lobser
Go for a Mass Planting
If you have the space , ornamental smoke are perfect for expectant groupings . Outside this contemporary home , a belt of native prairie blue grama grass was establish in lieu of a traditional mown lawn ( see more of thisPrairie Moderngarden in North Dakota ) . If you are n’t ready to replace your lawn , start with groupings of odd numbers planted closely together . You ’ll get hold that in multiple , smoke have much more encroachment .
Jason Dewey
Plant Around Your kitty
Planting around a kitty can be a wily task and it is often neglect or done badly . Here , Washington , D.C.-based landscape painting - computer architecture house Oehme , van Sweden skillfully smother the syndicate with graceful forage and perennials that creep over the cope , creating a pool - in - a - hayfield atmosphere ( see more of this garden : Hamptons Haven ) . bakshis : Look for decorative weed that do n’t drop much bedding or else you ’ll be constantly cleaning your pool .
Rob Cardillo
Cover a Hillside
Hillsides are another common garden challenge that can be addressed with cosmetic grasses . The gardener at Chanticleer , one of the land ’s most dear garden , avoided the urge to clutter up this hill and instead selected a eatage , the fine-looking native prairie drop-seed Sporobolus heterolepis , to form a hayfield . Get moreideas from Chanticleer .
Embrace Their Seasonality
In this garden , plan by Lisa Roth , tawny grasses present autumn ’s remarkable changes in depth , texture and color . She purposely pick out salmagundi that would plow phosphorescent gold and mauve and planted them in generous drift for the most seasonal shock . See more photos of this Pennsylvania garden inThe Art of Autumn .
apply Them as a Backdrop
pasture do n’t always have to be the star of the show , in fact they make keen keep going actors . In this front garden a simple planting of grasses and sedges forms a subtle , green backdrop for the rough , orange luggage compartment of river birch Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Get more inspiration from this sustainable garden : develop Green in Pennsylvania .
GAP Photos / Jo Whitworth
Opt for a Hedge - Like outcome
Believe it or not , when planted imaginatively grass can help produce a sense of privacy for your garden without being too impose . Select grasses that grow to a considerable tiptop ( fancy is Miscanthus sinensis ‘ Yakushima Dwarf ’ which can reach four - feet ) and plant them shoulder - to - shoulder like soldiers in the regular army . As the grasses senesce , they will form a hedge - comparable barrier that can be used for a screen just about anywhere . See moreways to utilize hedges in your garden .
Pam Penick .
Use Them to Evoke Water
Savvy , originative gardeners can use grasses in their water - saving gardens to make an magic trick of watery copiousness . choose ironic - adapted plants to accomplish this dexterity of bridge player make the delusion even more satisfying . Here are some tricks to keep up your sleeve .
Watch this forgetful picture to see how to habituate ornamental pasturage in a little garden .
Reader Questions
I love the annual purple fountain locoweed , but it ’s expensive to replace yearly . I tried start my own from harvested seed , but no go . See answer
Two long time ago I institute a department of a recurrent bed with half a dozen plants of a gorgeous blue Festuca elatior , but they have n’t filled in as I had hoped . Do they need richer soil , less sun , or what?See answer
Get moregardening advice .
relate : Did you love that bamboo is a type of grass ? Here ’s aguide to selecting & arise bamboo in your garden .
