Gorgeous grasses

Ornamental grasses will bring your garden to life with summer flowers, autumn tints and winter outlines, says Anne Swithinbank, as she reveals her top choices

- Anne Swithinbank

AS summer fades and the days shorten, ornamental grasses dance in the breeze, their silvery flower spikelets glimmering in lowering rays of sun. These plants look good for most of the year, producing clumps and tussocks of new spring growth, structural flower panicles and finally autumn leaf tints before fading to a pale blonde for winter. Most hold their outlines well despite cold, wet weather until growth is cut back in late winter or early spring before new leaves rise. Grasses bring fullness and movement to borders and act as calm foils to bright flower colours.

Open sunny position

Now is the time to look around and think about how grasses could improve your garden, bearing in mind that most like an open sunny position and well-drained soil. In one of my old catalogues from Knoll Gardens in Dorset, ornamental grass specialist Neil Lucas sums up how well these plants associate with perennials such as echinacea, helenium, rudbeckia and sedum. He says “When I first got interested in grasses I began by adding a few selected grasses to existing perennial plants. Now I find an increasing amount of satisfaction from adding selected perennials to more predominantly grass borders!” Do take pictures and make lists, but wait for spring to plant grasses because they take better when increasing light and warmer temperatures are encouraging them to make active growth.

Tall grasses