Oranamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses are about as close to care-free as garden plants get.
They’re terrific additions to East End landscapes for a number of reasons.
And late summer and autumn is their time to shine.

Why grow them? Grasses bring texture, movement and music to gardens
(their swishing and swaying in the breeze is soothing to both eyes and
ears). They are attractive from spring through fall, and not many plants
can claim that. Their look suits the informal, easy style that works so
well in many gardens in this part of the world. And they offer a host of
design possibilities—grasses are available in a range of plant heights and
blade widths. They aren’t just boring plain green, either. Grasses come
in many shades, from classic crayon-box green to chartreuse to bluish
and silvery blue-gray green. There are grasses striped or banded in silver,
cream or gold. Their leaf blades can range from an inch wide to narrow
and needlelike.

At this time of year ornamental grasses “bloom.” They don’t produce
flowers in the flower-garden sense, but their seed panicles may be
shimmering copper, golden, tan, beige, creamy white or even dramatic
black. They may look like fans, tassels, bristly bottlebrushes, soft plumes
or delicate clouds of tiny seeds.

In addition to their visual attributes, ornamental grasses are ridiculously
easy to grow. They don’t need much fertilizing or watering. Grasses hold
up well in salty air, and they can tolerate a fair amount of wind, making
them especially useful here. You don’t need to deadhead old flowers or
prune the plants—just cut them back within a few inches of the ground
once a year, in late fall or in early spring before the new growth emerges.
Best of all, from a gardener’s perspective: deer don’t eat them…at least
not yet.

Using Grasses in the Landscape
Ornamental grasses can play a variety of roles in the landscape. They
look terrific near water—alongside a garden pool or swimming pool,
forexample. They combine beautifully with perennials in beds and
borders. Tall types can screen a deck or patio, driveway, or property
boundary. Or, they can serve as a backdrop for flowers in a garden.
Small grasses, such as Pennisetum ‘Little Bunny” or grasslike sedges, can
go into rock gardens or along the edge of a path.
Good Candidates To Consider

Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis), such as the variety Karl Foerster,
form an upright clump of arching green leaves about 2 feet high. The
feathery seed plumes are pinkish or bronzy at first, then dry golden,
finally aging to beige. A good vertical accent in a flower bed or border.
Blue Lyme Grass (Elymus) is a beautiful blue-green color that is lovely
with pinks and purples in the flower garden, or with silver foliage. It
forms a clump of half-inch-wide leaves that can grow to 3 feet long but
flop over for an overall height of about 2 feet.

Miscanthus is probably the most widely grown of all. There are lots of
cultivars in different heights and colorings, and they grow from 2 to 7 feet
tall. The leaves can be narrow and needlelike to an inch wide, and come in
plain green, edged or striped with creamy white, or banded with gold. Many
miscanthus will spread, some vigorously, so consider installing edging strips
around them, or planting them next to pavement, or in a large container.
Switchgrass (Panicum) is native to the prairies and is quite drought
tolerant. It forms a clump of narrow bluish green leaves 3 to 6 feet tall
depending on variety. In late summer the plants send out delicate, airy
clouds of seed panicles on tall stems—they capture raindrops or dew and
glisten in the sun to beautiful effect.

Fountain grass (Pennisetum) has graceful, arching leaves and bottlebrush
seedheads; most average around 2 feet in height. The most dramatic is
Moudry, which has near-black seedheads. The very popular Pennisetum
setaceum ‘Rubrum’ has purple-red leaves and seedheads that combine
that purple-red with beige. It’s very pretty in pots or in the garden but
alas, it’s an annual here and needs to be replanted every year.

Writer, editor and author Anne Halpin has published 17 books on gardening
and related subjects and edited many more. She has been living and gardening
on the East End of Long Island for 23 years, and has cared for many private
gardens here.