Successful cultivation of ornamental grasses

There is at least one grass to beautify every corner of the garden and every corner of the garden is suitable for growing grasses. Adopt these plants with multiple attractions to give life and structure to your environment.

Technical sheet

Their pollination is carried out by the wind. You will meet annual or perennial decorative species, not to mention bamboos which produce woody stems (hard as wood) and are intermediate with shrubs. However, all grasses regrow from their stump, at least the perennial species.

Dimensions: variable: from a few centimeters, for grassy forms, to more than two meters for miscanthus, Provence cane, pampas grasses.

Flowering: grasses do not, strictly speaking, form flowers, but spikelets that are not very colorful, greenish, which last for a long time, taking on pretty beige to golden colors. The first blooms appear from March-April and the last, autumnal, often last until the heart of winter.

Hardiness: most varieties are hardy. However, splendid exotic species and varieties deserve to be cultivated as annual plants for summer settings or acclimatized in mild regions. This is the case with Pennisetum setaceum such as ‘Rubrum’ or ‘Fireworks’ with leaves variegated with purple or highlighted with pink, canes from Provence (Arundo donax), the large Erianthus ravennaeor sugar cane ( Saccharum officinarum ) including the superb purple variety.

Invasive or not : 
There are three categories of grasses.

• The creeping grasses , that is to say extending through rhizomes and rapidly invade a space. Their culture should only be thought of by considering a culture surrounding them with an insurmountable barrier.
• The  bunch grasses , that is to say, that grow in clumps. This is the case with the majority of grasses encountered in our gardens. They gradually enlarge over time, like any perennial, but without ever producing a sucker other than at the foot of the mother plant. Like many perennials, their multiplication is done by division of tufts.
• The grasses short rhizomes . They widen a little, but do not go very far, forming less dense clumps than the bunchgrass grasses. A simple spade at their foot is enough to limit their modest invasion. It is the second largest group of ornamental grasses in number

When to sow

• To be practiced in spring for pure species, whether annual or perennial.
• For varieties obtained by crossing, sowing is not recommended.

When to plant

• The planting grasses is done preferably in the spring, ideally from natural regrowth of plants.
• September is also recommended, the plants then having plenty of time to take root before winter (a period not recommended for less hardy species).
• In the South, it is preferable to install them in autumn, because the risk of rot by stagnant humidity is less.

Maintenance and other care

• Organic mulches will be spread at the foot of shade grasses such as luzules, hakonechloas or deschampsias or damp earth.
• On the other hand, a mineral mulch (gravel) will be more appropriate for steppe species such as stipas , fescues, calamagrostis.

Fertilizers and fertilization

No need to add fertilizers for the good health of the grasses. They are generally satisfied with the reserves of the soil to thrive. Shade or damp earth species will however appreciate a contribution of organic matter when planting: potting soil, compost, dehydrated manure.

Diseases and pests

Grown in healthy soil and a well-ventilated atmosphere, grasses are rarely diseased. With excess humidity, rust can settle on blue oats or fescues. Drain the land to compensate for it.

Cut

For evergreen grasses such as Stipa tenuifolia, the Deschampsia, or blue oat, content yourself, in late winter, combing tufts of manually using a glove to remove dead leaves. The tufts of deciduous grasses will be cut back as late as possible (in winter) in order to benefit from their decorative culms for a long time in winter. Clean the clumps as soon as the stems weaken. Wait March-April to cut back the semi-hardy and acclimatized grasses.

Harvest

Many grasses have inflorescences which keep wonderfully in dry clumps. Do not hesitate to experiment with compositions taking advantage of the great diversity of their golden or silver inflorescences.

Multiplication

Strain division is widely used to propagate interesting species and varieties. It is best practiced in spring, when the plants start to grow again, failing which in September. So they are able to form new roots quickly and in abundance in hot soil. Grass species are innumerable and difficult to differentiate in nature. In the garden, we recognize them because they are monocots (recognizable by their parallel veins) and their flowers are primary and not very colorful.

Grasses (of the Poaceae family) are ubiquitous on all continents. These plants are popular in contemporary gardens where they instill a natural, wild and lively note. They are appreciated there for their silhouette, their sometimes colored foliage, their flowering, and their fall colors.
Thus, their graceful vegetation marks the rhythm of the seasons.
The flexibility of their culms (stems), their foliage, and their inflorescences is magnified by the wind, then by the frost. They also lighten the massifs by finding their place, according to the species and varieties, either in the shade or in the sun, in dry as in damp earth, in the South or the North of the country.

Grasses for light in dry ground

• Anemanthele lessoniana . Hardiness: – 6 ° C. H 80 cm. Reddish orange color for its fine leaves and soft tufted habit.
• Bouteloua gracilis or “mosquito grass”. H 50 cm. Compact tufts, swarm of horizontal spikelets.
• Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’. H 1.80 m. With an upright, narrow habit, like an exclamation point in the flower beds. Spikes erected in June, beige then golden until winter.
• Calamagrostis brachytricha or “diamond grass”. 1.20 m in all directions. With supple habit and feathery ears, catching dew.
• Cortaderia selloana or pampas grass . H up to 3 m. Foliage in dense sheaf and large silvery or golden beige feathers until winter. 

• Elymus magellanicus. H 45 cm. It is azure wheat with steel-blue erect leaves and grainy blond ears.
• Blue or green fescues in compact tufts for original mottling. H 25 to 40 cm. Thin, erect ears of golden spikelets. ‘Elijah Blue’ a bright silvery blue; Festuca gautieri, emerald green in flattened cushions or F. valesiaca var. glaucantha with fine leaves, silvery bluish gray and purplish spikes.
• Melica ciliata or “ciliated melica”. H 60 cm. with whitish cylindrical ears to be planted against the light.

• Pennisetum alopecuroides . Port in broad sheaf and ears in swabs. Fall splendor! H 90 cm for‘Cassian’s Choice’with orange autumnal foliage, H 45 cm for‘Little Bunny’, dwarf.
• Oriental pennisetum ‘Karley Rose’   and ‘Tall Tails’ with a more erect silhouette and supple, pink spikes, carried over a meter.
• Sporolobus heterolepis . H 70 cm. Fine foliage, in a compact and supple tuft. Broad, thin, blond spikes with a scent of popcorn in autumn.
• Stipa tenuifolia or “angel hair”. H 50 cm. Thin and golden ears, feathery, attracting caresses and supple in the wind.
• Stipa gigantea rises to 2.50 m with its ethereal allure of irresistible golden wild oats.

Grasses for light in cool soil

• Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’ or Japanese Blood Grass. H 35 cm. In sucking tufts of erect leaves, tinged with red from the end of summer.
• Miscanthus sinensis or eulalie offers a plethora of varieties. Robust, erect plants with broad, supple leaves and digitate, feathery, silvery or golden inflorescences. Choose‘Malepartus’, with burgundy then silver panicles, H 2 m; ‘Morning Light’, with very fine foliage, highlighted with silver, H 1.40 m; ‘Cosmopolitan’with broad leaves highlighted in white, H 2.40 m or‘Graziella’with leaves streaked with yellow; ‘Floridulus’is the giant of the genus with almost 3 m. Superb in privacy screen.

• Panicum virgatum ‘Praire Sky’ . H 1.20 m. Combines upright, metallic blue foliage and thin pink spikes.
• Phalaris arundinacea ‘Picta’ or Shepherdess’s Ribbon. H 60 cm. Sucker roots, cream variegated leaves and erect spikes, pink in summer.

Grasses for dry shade

Among plants assimilated to grasses.

• Luzula nivea . H 60 cm. Spiky, green, evergreen foliage and flowers in spring white umbels.
• Luzula sylvatica ‘Marginata’. H 40 cm. Large leaves in tight rosettes, persistent, green edged with cream.
• Carex morowii ‘Evergold’. H 35 cm. Compact rosette of fine, supple, persistent leaves highlighted with golden yellow.

Grasses for cool shade

• Chasmanthium latifolium . H 1.20 m. American grass, deciduous emerald green foliage and supple panicles with large, flat spikelets. ‘River Mist’ is a superb novelty with cream variegated leaves.
• Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldschleier’ or “canche cespiteuse”. Dense tufts of thin, green leaves, surmounted in summer-autumn by a cloud of slender and golden spikelets. H 1.20 m.
• Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola ‘. H 35 x 45 cm. Japanese grass with broad leaves, variegated with golden yellow. Spectacular cascading harbor. Slow growth.