Your guide to decorative grasses
Think beyond the bowling green style-turf and explore decorative grasses for your borders. As many gardeners look to more natural ways of planting, grasses are becoming very popular. Unpretentious and delicate, grasses bring an elegant and calming feel to your garden. They add a sensory element to your outdoor space with their different textures, shades, and even sounds as the breeze catches them – the perfect backdrop for the moment with your morning tea or evening drinks.
Find out all you need to know about some of our favourite decorative grasses...
Acorus
If you have any areas of water in your garden this wetland plant is a great way to add interesting foliage in the banks of moist soil. A fountain of bright yellow sword-shaped leaves striped with green, arch out from a central clump. Also known as calamus and sweet flag, acorus is a genus of the monocot flowering plants.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: clay, loam, sand
Size: 0.1 - 0.5m
Black bamboo
Also known as phyllostachys nigra, this bamboo is instantly recognisable by its long arching stems that turn black as it matures. The contrasting long green leaves stay all year round and look fantastic swaying on the tall canes. If you’re looking for a plant with instant impact, this is it. Black bamboo grows extremely fast, making it superb for creating contemporary hedging or screening to section off different areas of your garden. It can take a few years for the stems to turn black, but it’s worth the wait.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: loam
Size: 2.5 - 4m
Carex
This looks like a grass but in fact it’s in the cyperaceae family, also known as sedges. They fit perfectly when planted with other grasses and as it’s another moisture-loving plant, you can grow beside your garden water feature to create a beautifully natural landscape. The mostly evergreen leaves keep your garden looking great all year round. The colours of the foliage vary so you can match the variety to the other plants around it.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: sand, clay, loam
Size: 0.5 - 1m
Fargesia bamboo
You can add the exotic and serene vibe of bamboo to your garden whatever its size with the compact fargesia bamboo. Also known as fountain bamboo, it gets its name because of its clumps of thin canes that grow with a dense cascade of long, elegant leaves. It will only grow up to 4m high, so it looks incredible, elegantly arching out from large pots. Perfect as a talking point for your outdoor dining area.
Location: full sun
Soil: clay, loam and sand
Size: 1 - 1.5m
Festuca
The silvery blue mound of narrow leaves creates a stunning textured dome of ornamental grass in your garden. A striking evergreen feature that we think is particularly effective in pots. It will add a contemporary and characterful feature to your patio, made even more unusual when the feathery panicles of flowers appear.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: clay, sand
Size: 0.1 - 0.5m
Golden bamboo
Also known as Phyllostachys Aurea, tall and delicate, with thick evergreen foliage, this upright bamboo of yellow/green canes grows to impressive heights. Sometimes called fish-pole bamboo, or monk’s belly bamboo, it’s a magnificent architectural feature for larger gardens. It’s a great choice for creating screening that’s less rigid than a traditional hedge. The swaying canes result in a peaceful soundscape for relaxation in your garden.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: loam
Size: 2.5 - 4m
Mexican feather grass
This ornamental grass is a lovely way to soften your borders and bring them to life with the gentle swaying movement. The mass of upright slender leaves, fan out and bloom with soft feathery panicles in summer, just adding to their romantic feel. Also known as nassella tenuissima, it’s a popular choice with all types of gardeners.
Location: full sun
Soil: chalk, clay, loam and sand
Size: 0.1 - 0.5m
Miscanthus
A gorgeous cottage garden favourite and one of ours too. Miscanthus, or morning light, is a bright and airy grass to liven up your plot. Its leaves die back in autumn adding to the anticipation of new growth in spring. Compact and clump-forming, the upright stems are stunning when they arch over smaller plants in your border, or spill out into your garden path, especially in the summer when panicles of white flowers appear.
Location: full sun
Soil: chalk, clay, loam, sand
Size: 1 - 1.5m
Nandina
You can add an eye-catching feature with nandina, even if your border is on the small side. It looks like a bamboo, but it’s actually a compact evergreen or semi-evergreen plant native to eastern Asia. We think its exotic leaves and feathery structure make it a great choice alongside or instead of bamboo. Make sure it’s in a spot where you can see it changing throughout the seasons, with its star-shaped summer flowers and autumn berries.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: chalk, clay, loam, sand
Size: 0.5 - 1m
Ophiopogon
Looking for something dramatic rather than pretty for your garden? We love the dense leathery black bands of leaves of the grass-like ophiopogon. Compact and evergreen you get instant impact that lasts throughout the year. You will see small bell-shaped flowers on dark stems in summer, followed by dark berries, but it’s all still about those leaves. This is one to plant somewhere it will be noticed.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: sand, clay
Size: 0.1 - 0.5m
Pennisetum
The soft heads of brush-like flowers bobbing above long, slender foliage creates a sense of wild meadow charm. With around 80 species of pennisetum available, some upright, some elegantly arching over, finding the right shape and size is made easy for you. We think they are the perfect way to create an effortless and informal feel to that area of your garden for relaxing.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: sand, chalk, loam
Size: 0.5 - 1m
Uncinia
The striking strands of everflame tones look incredible clustered among other plants in a flowerbed or on the stones of a rockery. Uncinia means ‘hook’ in Latin and is why in its native New Zealand they’re known as hook grasses. It gets its name because of the unusual, hooked fruits that grow in autumn.
Location: full sun, partial shade
Soil: clay, chalk, loam, sand
Size: 0.1 - 0.5m
Zebra grass
This miscanthus grass is a great specimen plant, growing tall and proud, ready to catch the eye of your garden guests. It’s the plant’s bright green foliage with white horizontal stripes (just like a zebra), that gets people talking. We love that it looks both striking and elegant, so whether your plot is traditional or contemporary it will complement your garden design.
Location: full sun
Soil: chalk, clay, loam, sand
Size: 0.5 - 1m
