Providing colour, structure and movement

 

I'VE grown to love grasses. Like many children of the 70s, I hate pampas grass stuck in the middle of a lawn.

 

With the influence of designer Piet Oudolf's prairie planting, grasses once again became THE plants to have during the last decade. Trouble was, you needed a prairie-sized garden to get the full impact!

 

Like all good things, there's a middle way. You can easily introduce the odd tall grass, like Stipa gigantea for vertical interest and movement.

 

I find the small evergreen grasses (40-60cm) most useful in winter. They give shape, structure and colour on the grimmest of days.

 

My two favourites are blue fescue grass (Festuca glauca) and a variegated sedge (Carex oshimensis Evergold).

 

There's a group of Carex Frosted Curls, which are silvery green and really catch the breeze.

 

An oddity is the corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus Spiralis), which produces medium green stems that curl in a spiral pattern. It grows best in full to partial sunlight and moist, nutrient-rich soils.

 

Another useful variety, taller at about 1m, is variegated ribbon grass (Phalaris arundinacea Picta) - however it spreads quickly and can be invasive. It will thrive in just about every garden situation.

 

Miscanthus sinensis Zebrinus, or the zebra grass, takes its name from the horizontal cream bands on the leaves. Striking, silky, finger-like flowers bloom in late summer, and stay on during winter. It grows to about 1.25m.

 

Tall at 2m, Miscanthus sinensis Kleine Fontäne has narrow, silvery leaves with a white stripe down the centre. It flowers right into autumn, when its new, reddish-brown, tassel-like flowers are a foil for the faded, silvery older ones. Excellent for winter presence.