Why Ornamental Grasses?

Uncle. Yeah, you heard me. I have finally come around to ornamental grasses. It has been a long road to acceptance, now turned to honest admiration, while the rest of the gardening world almost passed me by.

Growing up in southern California, festuca grasses were as common as sunburn. They were planted in mass everywhere, the “beds” resembling a bumpy chenille bedspread.

My grandmother had such a bed, punctuated with dagger-like yuccas. I realize now it was a buffer protecting her roses from the neighborhood kids. I resented that hostile no-go zone. And there you go, forty years of grass grudge.

Recently I was assigned a story on ornamental grasses. So I decided to revisit my position. Maybe their time had come. Suddenly I started noticing all the varieties. And they were cool!

First off, who could resist sweet names like “Toffee Twist”, “Red Bunny Tails”, majestic ones like “Shenandoah” and “Prairie Sky”? For those who like their gardening a little edgy, how about “Heavy Metal”?

Forgive the pun but ornamental grasses are a broad field. For the most part being tough and trouble free are their most endearing qualities.

Grasses range in size from the aforementioned festuca to the huge pampas grass. They come in tufted, mounded and upright shapes, with blooms that fan, spray, spike and arch.

Grasses could be described as architectural; they provide strong shapes where other plants might fail. Maiden grass lends strong vertical mass. Fountain grasses mound to hide leggy shrubs. Liriope is unsurpassed for edging.

It is in the autumn garden that grasses really shine, literally. When placing them in the landscape, think of how the lower slant of sunshine might backlight or sidelight the blooms. I love how the seed heads of tan, rose and almost-black glow at sunset.

You can’t list all the attributes of ornamental grasses without mentioning sound and movement. Not many plants whisper and sway or rustle around all day.

Enough. You can tell I’m sold on grasses, even festucas. Next I’m going to work on my juniper issues.