Landscape Blog

Winter Reading Series: Getting to know ornamental grasses

I‘ve been trying to sort through the confusion of names when it comes to ornamental grasses. It took me a year of being surrounded by them to finally start recognizing these sought-after landscape plants by the many different names people have for them. I figure other people would like the naming of grasses cleared up too, so here’s a brief rundown. I’ll begin with the one group that seems to have the most common names in the grass category:

1. I present to you… Flame Grass
   …or is it Maiden grass?
   …maybe Japanese Silver Grass?
   …wait, is it porcupine grass or perhaps Zebra?
   …elephant?
   It’s the tall grass with the plumes that people can see in the low lying areas along roadway ditches. All of the above names are referring to different varieties of Miscanthus. It is marginally hardy in the Twin Cities, so if you have a protected area in your yard you may be able to grow it – some varieties of this genus seem to be hardier than others. It does spread pretty well, so you want to avoid putting it anywhere near a body of water. If you don’t have protected areas in your landscape, try the next grass on my list.
   
2. Feather Reed Grass or Calamagrostis is “The one that looks like wheat”. There are a few different cultivars of Calamagrostis. There’s Overdam, Eldarado, Avalanche, and the most sought after, ‘Karl Foerster’. This one is becoming as common as the daylily ‘Stella De Oro’, Potentilla or Sprirea in our neighborhoods. It’s easy to see why; it doesn’t take over, it gives us winter interest, it’s zone 4 hardy and it has a beautiful upright appearance.
   
3. How about a grass that grows in shade? Typically grasses don’t like shade but there are a few that do. I’ll start with the perennial of the year for 2009: Japanese Forest Grass (not to be confused with the Japanese Silver Grass mentioned above or Japanese Blood Grass, which is hardy to zone 6). Japanese forest grass has the botanical name of Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’….yeah, try pronouncing that one. Some people just call it “hak grass”. It has yellow blades so it brightens up shady areas well. It does need a rich, moist soil and a protected location. Other grasses that will tolerate shade are the sedges. They are shorter grasses with a wide variety of textures and shapes. A couple other shade-tolerant grasses you might want to try are Indian grass or Frost grass.
   

I’ve barely touched on the grasses that are available on the market today, but this brief list is a good start with some of the basic, more common grasses.

For more information on ornamental grasses for our Minnesota growing area try this source: ‘Ornamental Grasses for Cold Climates’ by Mary Hockenberry Meyer, found on the University of Minnesota’s Extension website.

by Amy Levander