Ornamental grasses provide many desirable qualities to our home landscapes and containers, especially in the fall season. They add wonderful texture, color and structure, and when the breeze blows they also add motion and sound to any garden. There are essentially two types; perennial varieties that are beginning to “plume” right now (and will continue to do so through the fall) and evergreen selections that can offer year-around colorful foliage and work nicely as low border plants. As our nights get colder and Mr. Frost approaches, the vibrant fall color that develops on many is certainly something to behold.
There are a number of excellent grasses worthy of anyone’s consideration. I would recommend starting with some questions to ponder, hopefully steering you towards the right ones for you.
Know your location. Do you have full sun, part sun, or shade? Is this a dry area or one that stays a little wet, especially over winter? As with all plants, the right grass in the right location brings success.
Do you want to go evergreen or perennial? Remember, not everything has to be “evergreen” as perennial selections add autumn color and superior plumage. In my opinion, both should be utilized in every garden, in multiple locations.
How much height are you looking for? Grasses that literally grow under one foot in height can be found, all the way up to big old clumps 8 feet or taller if you have the room to make a statement. Look at your site and picture an ideal height come summertime – what would fit nicely into that area?
Consider planting some varieties in a mass for a simple yet striking presentation – call it an “ocean of motion.” Now that sounds fun! Others will shine as fabulous, stand-alone specimens, creating a wonderful focal point in the garden that shows off your style.
Utilize them in your containers, especially evergreen varieties for winter, as they add great texture and color to pots, serving as ideal fillers and spillers in well-designed container gardens.
Grasses are very low maintenance plants and the vast majority boast superior drought tolerance. Many grow as clumps, which get wider with time but are not invasive by any means. A few, like Blood Grass (Imperata) for example, will run underground a bit and “naturalize” into more of a patch. When planting all grasses, some compost mixed with native soil works well, and be sure to use a good organic transplant fertilizer to get them started properly. Long term, I doubt you will need to do much feeding in the landscape, perhaps one spring dose with a simple organic rose/flower type food. Clumps can be easily divided anytime during our dormant months by grabbing a good sharp shovel and simply cleaving a large clump into smaller divisions. As long as we have roots and part of a crown, it will burst back to life, quickly re-establishing itself the following spring.
My OCD side says that the one thing that should be done each year is an annual clean-up in order to keep grasses fresh and attractive. With evergreen types, you may cut them back to essentially start them over (if needed) in April, after frost. Sometimes tips get brown and blades get spots, but giving them half a hair cut will not fix this. If one is truly looking tired, cut the entire clump back to 4-inches tall or so and then feed it, finally marveling as it pops back to a new life. With perennial types, cut them back anytime from later in the fall until the following March. This has to be done at some point, but when is totally up to you. Personally, I do some of mine around the holidays after enjoying the color, sound, plume and that frosty fall look for quite some time. Others I wait and do after Valentine’s Day, as even when “brown”, they exhibit a nice winter garden presence. The key is simply this, you must chop back all of the growth to a few inches from the ground at some point to allow all of the fresh spring growth to start anew.
As I pretty much state with any plant we discuss in these articles, there are many good ones to be found and never enough room to mention them all. So let me drop a few names for you to explore, which will give you some distinctive choices for the autumn garden…
Big Blue Stem (Andropogon): An excellent choice for a taller specimen in hot dry areas. Very drought tolerant with lovely fall plumes, and an even better foliage color. These will start to show purples and deep red overtones on bluish-green foliage in the summer, intensifying in fall into a very unique look.
Little Blue Stem (Schizachyrium): Much like above, but on a smaller scale. My single favorite grass may be these at present, one called ‘Standing Ovation’ in particular, as I have a few now. It has a sweet blue-green color all spring and summer, turning a brilliant purply-red for fall, and I never have to fuss with this one.
Maiden Grass (Miscanthus): The world of this grass is most varied, and options for heights, foliage color, variegation, and habit should all be considered. Another one that I have a few of in my own yard, all with lovely color throughout the season, turning bronzy-orange each fall. Also, these have some of the more impressive plumes for October and November garden interest.
Switch Grass (Panicum): A super drought tolerant prairie native that loves hot and dry. These are more compact than some, and modern cultivars have stunning foliage color. Most now start to color by mid-summer, adding red and purple tones to their blue-green blades, finally sending up seed stalks in September.
I encourage you to visit your local garden center this fall and consider adding ornamental grasses to your plant palette. Speak with a Certified Professional Horticulturist about your needs and allow them to help you select the perfect specimens for your landscape. Grasses of all kinds add wonderful design elements to the garden and aid many of our pollinators and birds as a bonus. Once you try one, you will try another, and before you know it grasses of all kinds will be tucked in here and there throughout your gardens, adding seasonal interest as they dance in the wind and rustle in the autumn breezes.
