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Japanese Blood Grass
Imperata cylindrica 'Red Baron'
A lovely short (18-24" tall), creeping grass that prefers full sun in moist, warm soil.
This grass is marginally hardy in this area. It has survived 3 winters in our gravelly rock garden location but never survives in clay based soils. It wants well-drained soil for over-wintering. Winter wetness leads to rapid loss. We grow it in pots so that we can bring it inside for overwintering. (The cats love our thoughfullness!)
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Bulbous Oat Grass
Arrhenatherum bulbosum 'Variegatum'
This hardy cool season grower is great for edging a grass bed or providing spot colour in a lightly shaded border. It goes dormant in midsummer, but comes back to life in the cooler fall days.
Forms neat mounds about 12 inches tall. Does well in sun to half shade in moist soils.
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Golden Brome Grass
Bromus inermis 'Bowles Golden'
A vigorous running grass whose strong point is its yellow variegation. Grown in a container it is a colourful addition to a sunny garden.
Grows to 18 inches tall. Does well in any soil.
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Korean Feather Reed Grass
Calamagrostis brachytricha
One of Phil's favourites. This grass is showiest in mid to late summer. It has full, upright, rose-purple flower plumes.
Grows to 3 feet (one meter) tall and spreads slowly by rhizomes. It has not been invasive in our bed. I is extremely hardy -survived this past winter.
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Karl Foerster's Feather Reed Grass
Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'
'Karl Foerster' has dark green leaves, the flowers (golden coloured) are in early summer after which they shatter (fall off) leaving a pleasing clump of foliage.
Grows to about 42 inches tall in easily managed clumps.
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Golden Variegated Hakonechloa
Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'
The golden hakonechloa, the least hardy of the hakonechloas, is also the showiest. It needs a well protected site from north winds (the role of the cobblestone wall at the Montreal Botanical Gardens). We've had it survive a few winters in our most protected garden. It did not survive last winter's extremes.
It can be grown in containers for ease of bringing indoors for over-wintering. It will grow to 15 inches tall under ideal conditions.
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Blue Oat Grass
Helictotrichon sempervirens
Blue Oat Grass is structurally useful in any garden - the steel blue colour is a bonus. It is a neat clump-former that needs a couple of years to get established. They grow to about 2 feet tall with tall seed stalks in early summer. They can be planted in poor, gravelly soil in full sun. They thrive in our clay soil too.
H.s.'Saphiresprudel', a cultivar of the species, has a more intense colour.
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Variegated Purple Moor Grass
Molinia caerulea 'Variegata'
Moor grasses, as their name suggests, thrive in moist, humusy soils. They are at home around pond areas and in naturalized moist meadows. They are great in part shade too. We have them in full sun in clay where they are thriving and survived this past winter.
The variegated form, the least hardy cultivar, has slender cream-white striped dark green leaves. It grows to about two feet tall in an arching form.
Other cultivars can grow to six feet tall ('Skyracer').
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'Warrior' Red Switch Grass
Panicum virgatum 'Warrior'
Switch grasses have a haze of reddish tinged flowers in late summer. They grow to about 4 feet tall in loose clumps. Plant them in full sun. They are moisture tolerant and thrive in our clay. Switch grasses are native to the tall grass prairie.
Because of the airy nature of the inflorescences, it is best to plant them massed (we find five 1-gallon pots at 18" centres give a one-season pleasing lump).
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'Heavy Metal' Switch Grass
Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal'
Another switch grass, but this variety is more upright and doesn't get beaten down by heavy rains. 'Heavy Metal' is characterized by steel blue foliage with pinkish inflorescences in mid summer.
This photo, from North Carolina, has an interesting combination of foliage plants at the base of 'Heavy Metal'. Imagination in choosing companion plants is a gardeners challenge!
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'Cloud Nine' Switch Grass
Panicum virgatum 'Cloud Nine'
This photo, from North Carolina, shows the impact of a mass planting of panicum.
'Prairie Sky', another panicum cultivar, grows to about 6 feet tall.
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One of my favorite grass gardens!
This garden, a front yard garden, belongs to a Niagara Parks School of Horticulture instructor living in the Niagara Falls area.
Massed plantings of grasses chosen for pulses of bloom throught summer and fall illustrate why massing plants give a bold impact.
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Also one of my favorite grass gardens!
This is the back yard garden at the same residence as seen to the left.
The photo was taken November 1 with early evening sun low in the sky and providing backlight for the tall miscanthus clumps in the background.
The composition of coloured foliage plants (coral bells and otherbroad-leaved plants intersprsed with shorter clumping grasses) is first-rate.
If you can, design grass gardens with early morning or late evening backlighting from sun. The effects are dramatic.
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| Hope you enjoyed the grasses.
Have fun designing your own creation.
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