Even though many gardens are starting to look a little ragged (mine is downright appalling), I love this time of year. Because while everything else is slowly collapsing, the grasses are coming into their own. It’s like they’ve been waiting in the wings all this time, and now they’re getting ready to step onstage just when you think the show’s almost over.
“Grasses are wonderful because they bloom late in the season and remain very attractive in winter,” landscape architect, Wolfgang Oehme, partner in Oehme, Van Sweden and Associates in Washington, DC, told me years ago.
“A lot of them are going into their blooming phase so they’re starting to send up their blooming stalks, and it makes them more ornamental,” notes Theresa Mycek, Grower at Unity Church Hill Nursery.
Grasses are fabulous for fall and winter interest. Plus, they beautifully fill some spaces that would otherwise be a bit bereft with only stems remaining. (Stems of native perennials that you, of course, purposely leave up for the birds and for the overwintering native bees like those cute little Mason bees (Osmia)).
Over the past 30 years especially, people have come to recognize both the beauty and the wonderful adaptability of grasses. Oehme, who was a student of German nurseryman, plant breeder, and writer, Karl Foerster (1874-1970), (who called grasses ‘the hair of the earth’), had a big hand in introducing ornamental grasses to the American gardening public in the 1960’s. Feather Reed Grass ‘Karl Foerster’ (Calamagrostis x. acutiflora ‘Karl Foertser’), which Oehme brought to America from his native Germany, was the 2001 Perennial of The Year. It’s a wonderfully upright, sturdy 3-foot grass with entryway, pot, or perennial bed potential. And so far, it’s proven to be a good botanical citizen. Unlike some other ornamental grasses.
For example, 35 years ago, I planted a Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) in the veg/herb/pollinator garden. It grew to the size of Falstaff and looked like a bulky sentinel in the otherwise barren winter. Each fall, it would send up 6-foot stems topped with magnificent inflorescences that glowed bronze and gold in the sun. On cold mornings, it glittered with hoarfrost. I loved it. Until I learned that it had been added to the invasive list in our region.
“Most of the invasive plants are really pretty,” acknowledges Lisa Kuder, Native Plants & Landscapes Specialist at UMD Extension, “but they become problematic sometimes.”
So, I yanked it and shoved in False Indigo (Baptisia) – nice but not a replacement for fall and winter interest. What I didn’t know then was that there are bunches of native grasses to choose from that would have offered not only beauty but ecological benefits – all without taking over. Live and learn (and learn and learn).
“I love graminoids,” says Kuder. (Graminoids includes grasses, sedges, and rushes). “They’re really under-utilized, especially sedges and rushes. We have so many species, there is one that will fit almost any conditions in your landscape.”
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), which waves airy fall seed heads about 7 feet tall, Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), with equally tall seed heads, and Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) among them.
“Big Bluestem ‘Blackhawk’ is a popular one” Mycek says. “It has a reddish and purple tinge to its leaves, and the blooms are purple.” (It would have been a terrific replacement for my invasive Miscanthus).
“We have so. many good alternatives,” says Kuder.
Grasses are wonderfully versatile and can be anything from bold or funky to iconoclastic or elegant. Short, tufty red fescue (Festuca rubra), which reminds me of Dr. Seuss characters, can add long-lived color to a dry, shady spot or poke out of pots.
“Carex pensylvanica [Pennsylvania Sedge] is a mainstay for shade,” says Karen Bussolini, Senior horticultural consultant for White Flower Farms in CT. “Such a beautiful texture.”
Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica), which grows only about 8 inches tall, was a Top Performer in Mt Cuba’s trial gardens. It can become a year-round carpet beneath shrubs or in a woodland garden and feeds larval butterflies and moths (who in turn become food for birds). Plus, it’s drought tolerant, and the deer tend to avoid it.
“That’s something you can do for lawn replacement if there’s not a lot of foot traffic,” Bussolini says. She suggests interplanting with ‘minor bulbs’ like Early Snow Glories (Chionodoxa), Snow Drops (Gallanthus), and Crocus. “They’re early so you get a whole season of bloom and they ago away without making a fuss like the dead leaves of dafs.”
“The sedges and rushes are smaller, of course,” Kuder notes, “and are a great way to create communities in our gardens. And they can tolerate shade.”
Native grasses beautifully enhance the landscape while providing much-needed wildlife and pollinator support, especially post-gardening season.
“Even though [most] grasses don’t have a colorful, showy flower, they have an inflorescence,” says Kuder. “And their leaves are larval host plants, and their seed provides food for the birds in the wintertime.”
Because the gardening public has learned about the benefits – horticultural, ecological, and ease of maintenance – plantsmen (and women) have been growing more native grasses plus producing cultivars.
“A lot of switch grasses (Panicum) are tall,” says Mycek, “but there are also dwarf varieties. A really popular one is ‘Shenandoah’ which has a reddish tinge in the fall and grows three to four feet.”
Right now, when your garden is starting to fade and you are beginning to see where you might want to fill some gaps, or even transform an area, it’s a great time to shop for grasses.
“Now, you can see their fall beauty and how they could fit into your garden,” Mycek says.
One thing to bear in mind with low-maintenance native grasses is they don’t need much – if any – fertilizer,
“Grasses don’t need a lot of fertility, and they can flop if they get too much,” adds Mycek.
To help others avoid the kind of Miscanthus mistakes I made, I’ve often suggested the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Chesapeake Bay Region. And Kuder says that resource is about to be joined by three updated Maryland Native Plant Guides that are focused on Maryland’s three ecoregions: Piedmont; Coastal Plain; and Mountain.
“Piedmont region is out now,” she says. “And you can download a PDF or buy a hard copy from the Maryland Native Plant Society‘s online store.” The one for the Coastal Plain (Eastern Shore) is due out this year, and the mountain region guide is expected in 2027.
Lead photo is Panicum Shenandoah Courtesy White Flower Farm.
Longtime journalist, essayist. and garden writer, Nancy Taylor Robson is also the author of four books: the memoir Woman in The Wheelhouse; award-winning Course of the Waterman; A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, a Modern Love Story; and OK Now What? A Caregiver’s Guide to What Matters, which she wrote with Sue Collins, RN.
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