Care-free perennials: Ornamental grasses for any location

Essential components of contemporary landscape design, perennial grasses have become very popular, and for good reason. They are the ultimate care-free plants, enriching the landscape year-round and usually requiring only to be cut back each spring to allow for lush, new growth.

There are numerous species of ornamental grasses, with a variety of sizes, colours and textures appropriate for many garden situations. These plants are as comfortable in gardens, standing alone, or rubbing shoulders with shrubs or other perennials.

Basic requirements

Because grasses are among the most numerous and widespread plants on earth, they have a wide range of needs. However, the majority of ornamental perennial grasses require six hours or more of sun per day and fertile and moist but well-drained soil.

Quick tips for grasses

1. Early spring is the best time to plant new grasses.
2. Get them situated early in the season, so that they can develop reliable roots before their vigorous growth begins in summer.
3. Most grasses appreciate a loose, crumbly soil, so amend the site with organic matter before planting and then mulch.
4. Fertilization is rarely necessary.
5. When established, most grasses are quite drought tolerant.

Annual cutback for easy maintenance 

Both the leaves and flowers dry in winter to soft shades of russet, tan or tawny blond. To enjoy the plants' winter glory, let the foliage remain in place until early in spring. Shear off the tattered tops before new green growth appears, leaving only 10 to 20 centimetre (four to eight inch) stubs visible.

This is easily done with hedge clippers or a gas- or electric-powered weed trimmer. If you accidentally wait too long, no problem; cut the grass back to a point just above the top of the new growth, and the old foliage will be shed or overgrown quickly.

Dealing with occasional fungus

• Rarely visited by insect pests, grasses are usually trouble free. However, they can occasionally be plagued with rust, a fungal disease that causes raised reddish spots to appear on the leaves in damp weather.
• To discourage fungal infections, allow room for air to circulate between plants when you set them out, and treat rust with a commercial sulphur fungicide according to package directions.
• Most ornamental grasses will live for many years, with the clumps gradually increasing in size. To contain their size or to propagate, simply dig the clumps up in the spring and divide them into smaller, manageable clumps and replant them where you want them, setting them at the same depth as the parent plant.

When choosing companions for grasses, select plants of similar stature and compatible needs. Tall, summer-flowering perennials, such as Joe Pye weed and black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia), make good partners for grasses that grow to 1.2 metres (four feet) or more in height.

Mid-sized grasses can be paired with garden phlox, daylilies, stonecrop or purple coneflower, while smaller grasses can be grown with flowering annuals, blanket flower and yarrow.

There are also shade-tolerant grasses that look great flanked by hostas, astilbes, hellebores and asarum.

Whatever you decide, given the flexibility with the number of options you have, grasses are a great way to go and look great with a variety of accents.