Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Best Small Ornamental Grasses - help!!!

2 replies

wickedfairy · 27/03/2010 14:22

Hi there,

I pretty much know nothing about gardening, so I really hope that you here could offer me some advice!! We have a raised area at the end of the garden that currently looks really bare (some bluebells starting to come up) but other than that, not much else. Therefore it looks totally bare, especially over the winter, although a few more seasonal type plants appear for summer.

A few years ago, I bought 3 small ornamental grasses and planted them together in one corner, near-ish to the base of a tree/shrub. They look lovely now and are there all year round, so that portion of the area looks really nice.

I have come to the decision that I need to get more of these grass type things to plant around the rest of the area, so that there are always plants there to see, so it doesn't look bare. Then all the seasonal stuff can pop up in between them for added colour.

What kind of grasses should I get, so that there is a bit of a mixture/various colours, so the area looks "fuller"? Any suggestions/pictures would be gratefully received ;-)

Sorry for such a random question, but it would look so much nicer with more of these grass things around - anything about 2 foot and under would be good. Thanks in advance!!!!

OP posts:
isthatporridgeinyourhair · 27/03/2010 14:31

Most grasses are happier in sunny and well drained conditions. If you have those, then I like;

Stipa splendens
Stipa arundicea. (This one will tolerate some shade) (is it Phalaris now - I can never remember?)
and stipa teniuissima

GrendelsMum · 28/03/2010 22:14

As well as the ones that porridge suggested, here are a couple of extra suggestions.

They aren't grasses per se, but how about adding in ophiopogon 'nigrescens' ( looks like a black grass) or liriope muscarii (looks like a flowering grass)?

www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/588.shtml

crocus.co.uk/ plants/_/perennials/classid.3173/

Festuca glauca is a grass with blue-grey leaves, which goes well with these too.

If it's all grasses, it might look a little bit samey - how about going for an evergreen heuchera with coloured foliage as well?

www.crocus.co.uk/search/_/search.heuchera/

New posts on this thread. Refresh page