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Forty years ago you hardly ever saw grass in a garden, apart from a clump of Pampas erupting from a manicured lawn, or maybe an invasive clump of 'Gardener's Garters'. I can't remember seeing any grasses of the ornamental kind in gardens of those days. I never grew any. Maybe a bamboo or two were to be seen in the large gardens attached to country houses. But in the ordinary garden of the terraced house grasses, it seems, were 'taboo'. They just did not have the bold colours to satisfy the gardeners of the sixties and seventies, when bold, bright, colourful blooms were the order of the day. Yet grasses are so dominant in our world. No matter where you go, you will see grasses of some sort or another. They fill our fields and gardens with a rich emerald sward. They provide a substantial part of our diet, either directly in the form of cereals - wheat for our bread, maize for our cornflakes, rice for our puddings and curries - or indirectly - in beef, pork, lamb, mutton, (but need I go on). No matter where we live, town or country, grass is a plant that we will come across every day of our lives. Maybe this is a case of 'familiarity breeds contempt'. Maybe this is why we resisted the temptation to plant grasses in our gardens as decorative plants. Over the past few years the story has been different. Grasses have come into their own. Their rise in popularity has been meteoric. People, it seems, have been going in for plants with 'architectural qualities', plants with a long season of interest. Quiet colours with manageable form to soften the outline of hard landscaping seem to be the order of the day, especially in the smaller garden. Grasses are ideal plants for softening the edges of patios and other concrete structures. Grasses are a large and diverse family of plants, and there must be a grass for just about every situation. And they are very adaptable. Elymus areniarius is very good for hot, dry situations. So is Glyceria maxima, but this is even better in wet areas, and will even exist as a pond plant. Few are grown purely for their flowers, though Cortaderia selloana, otherwise known as Pampas grass, is grown as much for its feathery plumes of flowers in late summer as for its foliage. It really needs a place where it can be left to spread at will. You can always try one of the dwarf varieties, such as 'Pumila', which only grows to about six feet. But if you are not too worried about the height, try the variety 'Sunningdale Silver', which has magnificent plumes and has been known to exceed ten feet. And if height is what you are really after you can always grow the bamboo Semiarundinaria fastuosa, which frequently reaches twenty feet, or the 'Zigzag bamboo', Phyllostachys flexuosa, which can manage another five feet. At the other extreme there are one or two dwarf grasses which seldom exceed six inches. And in between there are such things as 'Pearl grass', an annual which grows up to twenty inches, and 'Quaking grass', a perennial which can just about manage a foot and a half, about the same height as 'Hare's tail grass'. 'Old witch grass' (there's a name to conjure with), and the 'Fountain grasses', both 'Chinese' and 'African', all reach three feet, while 'Pheasant grass' will make five feet, and 'Golden oats' comes in at eight feet. But watch out for 'Golden-eye grass' and 'Cloud grass'. Neither are grasses. The former is a sisyrinchium which looks something like a grass except when it flowers, and the latter is actually a low growing, rosette forming perennial succulent which is variegated green and white, and which looks nothing like grass. Generally, grasses are easy to grow, and not at all fussy about soil. A few are inclined to ramp, and these should be planted with care so that they do not spread to places where they are not only not wanted but are difficult to remove. But generally they are easy to control with a spade. One to watch out for is Phalaris arundinacea picta, probably better known as the afore mentioned 'Gardener's garters'. Its leaves are prettily striped white and can reach three feet in height. But, unless its roots are restricted, it will spread like mad. 'Orchard grass', otherwise known as 'Cock's foot', looks very similar to 'Gardener's garters' but is much more docile. Some grasses need dividing regularly, and their performance declines if you don't lift and divide the clumps. Some of the Stipa varieties will become rootless, matted tussocks if they are not lifted and divided every two or three years in the autumn. This is something that they do naturally. It is their way of propagating themselves by dispersal. The roots of the plants die and there is nothing to hold the clump to the ground, so it blows away in the wind. As it rolls around, the clump breaks up, and when the pieces do eventually come to rest they put out roots and finish up as new, more vigorous plants. Of the perennial grasses, some are evergreen and some die back in the autumn, though they do retain the dead foliage during the winter months. This dry foliage can be as attractive and interesting in the winter as the leaves on the evergreen ones, though not always, I admit. And the annual grasses do tend to self-seed, so there is not much danger of losing them, only of being swamped by them. One of the advantages of grasses is that they are virtually disease and pest free. Some are susceptible to slug damage, but surrounding clumps with sharp grit not only keeps the slugs at bay but also shows off the foliage of the grass to advantage. Some people have found grasses addictive. They bought one or two, and finished up collecting them. Grasses are highly tactile. I can't help running my fingers up the leaves, though this can be a bit of a hazard with Pampas grass - the edges of the leaves can cause nasty cuts if you are not careful. But once you have started to grow them you will realise that there are quite a few places where they will fit, whether you garden in a contemporary or traditional way. And I shouldn't think they will ever become classed as 'last year's plants'. They have been around for a long time, adapting themselves to some of the most hostile areas of the planet. And now they are colonizing the final frontier - our gardens. Grasses are here to stay. And what is more - they are not just for mowing, they are for growing. Happy gardening, Bill Hutchings |
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page last updated 1 NOVEMBER 2000 |
