Grasses take spotlight as blooms fade

By: 
Rob Zimmer
Columnist

As November arrives, one of the most beautiful of garden plants take center stage. Many of our ornamental grasses look incredible now in fall as the colorful blooms begin to fade.

Ornamental grasses provide wonderful texture in the garden, as well as vertical interest and, in many cases, rich coloring of their own.

Throughout the summer, ornamental grasses have been growing and growing, reaching their peak in August and September, when they begin to produce wonderfully elegant seed blooms and feathery seed heads.

Now, in November, the silvery plumes are at their finest. While many people are tempted to chop back their ornamental grasses along with their fall garden cleanup, I always recommend to leave them standing throughout the entire winter season for the beauty they provide when tufted in fresh falling snow. The elegance of winter grasses is stunning.

In addition to their beauty, ornamental grasses provide a benefit to birds and other wildlife throughout the winter season. Grasses produce a ton of seed on their beautiful, feathery plumes. In addition, the thick clumps of grass provide shelter for overwintering birds, as well as small mammals. Insects, as well, winter in the standing clumps. This includes butterflies, native bees, bumblebees and more.

There are many varieties of ornamental grasses available to gardeners. Some are green in color, some are variegated green and white, some are green and yellow, while still others are a beautiful powdery blue. Many of the grasses retain some of their color all through the winter season, especially some of the blues, such as blue old grass and blue fescue. Others transform from summer green to fiery shades of red, orange and gold.

There are also ornamental grasses in every size. Some may be giants, reaching 6 to 7 feet tall and wide. Others are nice and compact for borders and the front of the garden, reaching smaller sizes of 1 to 3 or 4 feet tall and wide.

Combining different types of ornamental grasses together is a great way to create a spectacular landscape throughout the year. In summer, the grasses are lush and green. In fall, the colors and seed plumes begin to form. During winter, the grasses put on a spectacular show in the snowy garden. In spring, the fresh green is welcome.

There are different types of ornamental grasses available. For those who enjoy and are passionate about growing native plants, there are many fine native grasses to choose from.

Little bluestem is one of my favorites, with gorgeous texture, wonderful coloration and compact size. Big bluestem is one of the largest, perfect for wide open spaces and as a centerpiece specimen plant. Prairie dropseed is wonderful in texture with fine blades that cascade downward and form a spectacular, medium-sized clump. This grass turns bright lemon yellow in fall and retains this color throughout much of winter.

For shade, there are native grasses such as northern bottlebrush and northern sea oats, as well as several sedges to choose from.

There are also excellent non-native grasses that form nice compact clumps rather than spreading by runners. Many of the miscanthus grasses, or maiden grasses, often lumped together as “pampas grass,” are great examples. While there are grasses that will spread, especially the ribbon grasses, choose the nice clumping specimens for an excellent showpiece in the garden.

There are also excellent annual grasses that do wonderfully throughout summer and, even though they won’t survive the winter season, they still look amazing in the winter garden. This includes the purple fountain grasses, toffee twist sedge, vertigo grass and others.

Enjoy the beauty of ornamental grasses throughout the rest of fall and winter.


Rob Zimmer is a nature and garden author, public speaker and radio show host on WHBY. Readers can find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RobZimmerOutdoors.