Seeing Out The Year With Grasses

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With meadow and prairie planting in fashion just now, I thought it might be useful to look at how some grasses are performing at the end of December in my garden here in Berkshire.

The weather has been dry for a few weeks now, and not too windy. Although we had a long mild spell, the last few days have been cold and frosty, often with overnight fog.

Stipa tenuissima has performed well, although some of the seedheads on the long stems are beginning to be shed now

Stipa ichu (also sold as jarava ichu) is larger and looks better as a specimen plant. Allow for a spread of a couple of feet. This does well in hot, dry conditions, and is useful for filling gaps left by early perennials such as poppies after they have flowered

Molinia caerulea ‘Moorhexe’ forms a stiffly upright column of foliage two to three feet tall

Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ has a similar habit, but is taller at around four to five feet. This needs a more sheltered position as the tall stems are more likely to be damaged by strong winds. It also needs regular dividing to keep the clumps small as large masses of low foliage form a fountain at ground level, spoiling the effect. I am using a row of them to form a semi transparent screen at the back of a border

Panicum virgatum ‘Rehbraun’ starts upright, but tends to flop around by mid autumn. But the basal foliage takes on tints of red so it has a bit of autumn colour to add

I get more seedlings of uncinia unciniata in my garden than any other grass, although not enough to be a nuisance. I find this useful for fillings small gaps along the front of borders, especially among hot colour flowers. Probably best to replace it with a new plant after about three years as the colour is better in youngesters

Chasmanthium latifolium, the North American Wild Oats or Spangle Grass, is another upright grower, typically to four feet. The leaf blades are broader, the stems pretty resilient to wind, and the seedheads quite large and distinct; one website describes them as “diamond shaped flattened spikes.” This forms a neat clump, but the older it gets, the more difficult it is to divide as the roots make a wiry mass.

Another grass with distinctive seedheads is pennisetum alpecuroides ‘Hameln.’ This needs to be a decent sized clump to make a reasonable impression; the one in my photo was a division this spring, so still a youngster

Finally, another form of pannicum virgatum, this is ‘Heavy Metal.’ It has a definite blue tinge to the foliade as the season progresses, before bleaching to brown in later autumn. About three feet tall, but the seedheads look effective against the sky if you can manage to see them like that

I grow one or two other grasses as well, but they look a mess by now so I haven’t included them, but I hope this has given you some ideas if you want to include grasses in your borders.

• 30 Dec, 2016
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