Ornamental Grasses For Winter Appeal

Ornamental grasses look great in any garden, particularly when used in and around lawns.  In lawns, they provide an eye catching vertical where the surrounding area is very horizontal.  The varieties of colors and texture also help to add interest to your lawn. More importantly, especially when it comes to natives, they are very low maintenance.

Some of the winter ornamental grasses that you could consider in your garden or lawn this winter include:

Sweet Flag – although not a true grass, this native has grass-like foliage that can be quite fragrant. You can find varieties that grow in height from a couple of inches to six feet.

Big Bluestem – also known as ‘Turkey Foot’, this is another native and the official prairie grass of Illinois. If you like height, this one will grow to 8 feet and more.

Feather Reed Grass – one of the most ornamental of the ‘ornamental’ group of grasses. This was the first grass to win a plant-of-the-year award. Can be frost tender but looks brilliant in clumps throughout a large lawn.

Blue Oat Grass – as the name suggests, this is a dark green to blue grass that is drought tolerant and grows well as either a clump or a tall edging grass. Grows to around three feet and is perfect for hiding fences.

Silver Feather Maiden Grass – this is one of the ‘prettiest’ grasses available and while it may look delicate it can also be quite hardy. These are best placed where they can be viewed in the early morning sunlight – the combination of early morning dew and the sun really does highlight the ‘silver’ effect. Grows best when clumped.

Ornamental grasses are multi-functional. They look great and add interest to a garden and at the same time, because of their height, can be used to screen off areas of your garden. They are certainly easier to maintain than a fence, for example.

Come the end of winter, they can be cut back hard to ground level. In most cases, you can also mow straight over the top of them once you have reduced their height. Ornamental grasses can be grown from seed or transplanted from tubes. For best effect, grow them from seed. If you intend using them as a feature in your lawn, leave the lawn in place and use a grass seeding tool to perforate the thatch and soil below. Sow your seed and water well.

Although the ornamental grass will compete with the lawn, it will soon take over as it grows in height and robs the grass of sunlight. Lawn grasses growing in and around ornamental grasses add to their effect rather than detracting – the end result is that, rather than a boring flat lawn, a lawn that has varying vertical as well as horizontal appeal.