So the count of the top ten and half grasses for your landscape, according to the dirty, old gardener, continues from last week.
#6: Arrhenatherum elatius subsp. bulbosum ‘Variegatum’ (Bulbous oat-grass) – I never even try to pronounce this grass, even with three years of Latin. It’s a lovable little grass though, with thin white variegated leaves that form a mound 6-8 inches above the ground. A great edger or filler, but it tends to disappear in the heat. A cool summer like this past one is more to its liking. So give it a little bit of shade, and if it does get ratty looking in the summer, cut it back. It will reappear in the fall. Also it’s a bit fussy about soil. Try it, you’ll like it.
#7: Phalaris arundinacea var. picta (Ribbon Grass) – This grass and the previous one look like kissing cousins, but the relation is very distant. Ribbon Grass has the same white variegated leaves but they’re much wider. It’s a runner, so it doesn’t form a nice neat mound of foliage. It’s more a chaotic mass of “ribbons” that get 18-24” tall. It doesn’t care for hot, humid summers either, but it tends to hang in there. Still it’s best to cut it back in the summer, and let it refresh itself. For a running grass, it is not hard to control. Great edging plant, and it will tolerate a little shade.
#8: Carex elata ‘Aurea’ (Bowles Golden Sedge) – Love this plant. It glows in the garden. It’s gold striped cascading leaves are addictive. Height is about 30-36 inches, and it grows slowly outward. Best for shady beds that don’t dry out, meaning: don’t plant it beneath a maple tree. It likes water, and can even grow partially submerged. Given enough moisture, it can stand full sun. The variegation is actually brighter in full sun. Technically, this is not a grass but a sedge, which is a very large group of grass-like plants with many great ones for the shade garden. If you’re not familiar with them yet, check them out.
#9: Saccharum ravennae (Ravenna Grass) – This is another giant of a grass with huge flowering plumes on six to eight foot long stems. It is as close as we can get to growing the magnificent Pampas Grass of Argentina. The green foliage only grows 3-4 feet tall, and for most of the summer you’re saying “so what’s the big deal?” Come late August though, you’re looking at this tower of a grass and saying “Wow, I see.” Like Miscanthus, it’s not fussy about it’s location, except for wanting full sun.
#10: Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ (Foerster Feather-reed grass) – Cool season ornamental grasses (grasses that begin their growth early in the spring) are normally no more than three feet tall, if that. This hybrid grass clears that and then some. It’s narrow green blades grow straight up, and are topped off by svelte feathery plumes reaching six feet easily. For a vertical accent in the garden, it can’t be beat. It’s attractive through the summer, fall, and well into the winter. Prefers full sun and is adaptable to most soils long as it’s not wet.
Now, if I could have a drum roll:
#10.5: Chasmanthium latifolium (Wild oat) – Really, really love this grass. My wife hates it, and because her reasons are sound, I made it #10.5 to serve as a warning. First, what’s great about it are the flowers, or the spikelets as they are called. They’re like jeweled pendants, coming out in late summer a light green and then progressing through a array of colors as they mature. And therein lies the rub. They are prolific re-seeders, like rabbits. Not only that, the seedlings are the most tenacious buggers you’ll ever try to weed out, thus Barb’s extreme dislike.
So if you’re brave enough to try it, and I hope you are, enjoy the colors but cut them back before winter hits. They look great in arrangements.
So there you have it, ten and a half grasses, and there’s so many more. Grasses are a great addition to the garden, and when you include the sedges, the choices are plenty. They’re relatively pest free and require very little maintenance. To borrow Tod Tuttle’s description of Knockout roses a few weeks ago in this column, grasses are “set it and forget it plants”. Most of them anyways.
