Grasses are great plants for anyone new to gardening because they are tough, hardy, drought tolerant, require little maintenance and look great for most of the year.

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For example, planted with tall spike flowers like Verbascum , lupins, salvias, Cimicifuga and astible they all look stunning, each form accentuating those others around. Alternatively, plant upright grasses with round and flat flowerheads for really effective contrasts. Achillea, allium and sedum with their complex flowerheads are all brilliantly highlighted by simple grass neighbours.

  Grasses aren't competitive so using them in a garden creates space and a sense of calm. Added to this they are so diverse that what ever your situation and plan there is bound to be one that's suitable and they look wonderful with the orange of afternoon sun filtering through the leaves.
Even with the onset of winter, lots of grasses still remain architectural, their strong, straight stems becoming coated with sparkling frost and snow. Flower heads trapped by ice, frozen and coldly beautiful.

Cottage garden scheme with grasses

Create a soft jumble of colours and textures with this beautiful sunny border measuring 2x4m. You can either reproduce it as it stands or adapt it to suit the existing design of your garden.

Growing Guide

As a rule grasses are very easy to grow and maintain. They suffer little from pest and disease problems, don't require complicated pruning or training and are usually tough and hardy. There are many varieties of ornamental grasses so there types to suit a wide range of different growing conditions(see individual entries for details). However, there are a few general rules that apply to all ornamental grasses. Plant in spring as you would any other hardy perennial. Make sure you get rid of any grass weeds, because these will be difficult to control if they get entangled with the ornamental forms. After planting water well and mulch with a loose organic mulch such as J.A. Bowers Mulch & Mix or decorative stone chipping or pebbles . Plant vigorous grasses in a bottomless bucket plunged almost rim-deep into the soil to prevent them spreading and swamping nearby plants.

Use your fingers to comb out dead stems from dwarf forms each spring. All straggly foliage from more vigorous evergreen grasses should be tidied up and cut back in late winter before the new shoots start to emerge. Clump-forming grasses will produce a lot of dead stems in the centre of the plant after several year's growth. Lift and divide affected clumps (see propagation, below).

Propagation

The easiest way to increase your number of plants is by division. Dig up existing plants in spring or early summer with as much of the root ball as possible. Split the existing plant into two or three sections (depending on size), but bear in mind the larger the piece the quicker it will establish. Discard any old or dead-looking sections. Dividing in late summer will give the new plants time to establish before the winter sets in. The new plants should be flowering within two or three years.