Kiss My Grass!

Monday, 02 November 2015

As winter approaches we are always thinking of ways of ensuring our garden to continues to look fabulous, even if the show stopping herbaceous flowers may have lost their bloom. One of our favourite plants to include in our garden designs are grasses which look wonderful all year round but look almost magical in winter when gloved in frost. If you want to include some new grasses in your garden read on to find out some of our favourites…

1. Carex buchananii

One of our favourite grasses, we have lots of it in our garden as it looks great all year round and provides graceful clumps of warm, bronzed leaves. It likes to self seed to keep on top of the seedlings if you don’t want it to spread (although they are easy to pot on and pass to friends.)

2. Stipa tenuissima

We just love the wispy, fluffiness of stipa tenuissima. We have it planted in our troughs mixed with lavenders, hostas and heucheras adding a wonderful softness to the planting. They look amazing mass planted too.

3. Pennisetum alopecuroides

You can’t beat Pennisetum for their fluffly flower heads which you can’t resist touching as you wander past. A real tactile addition to the garden. Be careful what variety you choose, especially if you are up in Scotland like us as some are not fully hardy. ‘Hameln’ is a good one which will suit most gardens.

4. Molinia ‘Edith Dudszus’

Another great grass, we have mounds of this in our own front garden. It provides a wonder graceful, green mounds for large parts of the year but we love the bronzed colour as it goes into winter. A quick haircut after winter and she is ready for another year ahead.

5. Hakenochloa macra ‘Aurea’

This grass creates wonderful dense mounds of golden leaves which turn buff in autumn and is great mass planted as an edge to a border for full effect. Although this is a deciduous grass it looks fabulous 10 months of the year so it is a worthy addition.

6. Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’

A wonderful grass that doesn’t get too big and works well in containers too. It’s wispy flowers are a wonderful addition to the border.  The textured leaf blades are edged in white and creates a feel of inner light.

7. Deschampsia despitosa ‘Goldtau’

Another great compact grass for the border which has blonde flower heads which erupt over a compact base of evergreen foliage. The seed heads turn bronze and are a great addition to the winter border, especially covered in frost.

8. Briza media

We love the tiny hanging flowers which look a bit like tiny bugs or lockets hanging from the leaves. Very delicate. The evergreen leaves are dark green and tinged with purple. Be warned though, this grass does self seed like crazy so you need to be sure you like it before you add it to your garden!

For advice on introducing more grasses to your garden that suit your climate and garden style please get in touch.

Best wishes

All at Vialii