ORNAMENTAL GRASSES 101: 3 REASONS THEY'RE AWESOME & 5 VARIETIES
If you’re looking for high-impact landscaping elements with minimal maintenance requirements, then ornamental grasses are your answer. Grasses are often overlooked and they’re very underrated as landscape plants. Ornamental grasses bring several elements to your landscape: movement, texture, sound, drought tolerance, and eye-catching three-season beauty.
Pay attention to this often passed-over perennial! Here are the three main reasons that ornamental grasses are so great for your landscape.
1. Ornamental Grasses are easy to care for.
Ornamental grasses are one of the lowest-maintenance landscape plants you’ll find. Most of them only require one task–cutting the old dried stalks off in the spring–and some should have their seed heads cut off before they dry. They are very drought tolerant when they get established and will thrive for years to come.
2. Ornamental grasses give three-season beauty.
Ornamental grasses are one of those hard-working plants that give you eye-catching beauty in multiple seasons. They’re lush and green in summer, adding texture and movement; in the fall, the seedheads top them off and dance in the wind as they dry; in winter, they’re a rich summery-gold contrasting against the snow and are great for feeding the birds.
3. Ornamental grasses make stately focal features.
Ornamental grasses really stand out when used as a focal feature. The texture, the movement, the shapes, the size all contribute to ornamental grasses bringing a refined and elegant personality to your landscape.
Five Of the Best Ornamental Grasses
Here are five fantastic ornamental grasses that will thrive in our Indiana climate.
Maiden Grasses
Miscanthus, also called Maiden Grass, is a large family of beautiful ornamental grasses. There are quite a few different colors within the family, from silvery-gray to red to yellow to classic rich green. The feathery seed heads also vary widely in color but are all very eye-catching. Depending on the cultivar, they will mature into relatively large clumps that reach 4-8' tall.
Hameln Fountain Grass
Fountain grasses are another bold statement for the garden, with plenty of color variation in the family. Hameln is a beautiful variety that features deep green leaves and beautiful silvery seed heads in the fall. Hameln is a dwarf variety getting up to 30" tall, but there are varieties as tall as 5' within the fountain grass family. They do best in full sun locations.
Red Baron Japanese Blood Grass
If you're looking for striking color, Red Baron Japanese Blood Grass is the right choice. This perennial grass grows to about 18" tall. The bases stay green, but the top of the blades turns a vibrant berry red, deepens to a purple in the fall. It will give the best color variation if planted in a full sun location.
Golden Variegated Hakone Grass
Golden Variegated Hakone Grass is your ornamental grass choice for areas with part shade to full shade. It will thrive best in a part-shade location with moist but well-drained soil. Too much sun will burn the foliage, and too little will reduce the intensity of the color variegation. It has a beautiful pale yellow base color, with strips of green and sometimes pink. It mounds up to 18" tall and may cover up to as much as 24" wide.
Blue Fescue
Blue fescue is a smaller ornamental grass growing into mounds about 12” tall. It’s a great groundcover and brings some striking silvery-blue color variation to the garden. It’s a perennial, and it grows pretty fast. The more sun it gets, the more silvery-blue it will get. Blue fescue, like most grasses, will benefit from a layer of mulch around the base to maintain soil moisture while it’s getting established.
Visit the garden center today to see all the gorgeous ornamental grasses we have available. You’ll even get to see the beautiful seedheads many of them produce. Fall is the perfect time to plant ornamental grasses, so don’t wait too long!