SG576: Ornamental Grasses for Every Garden

I am really excited about today’s show: I’m going to review a variety of ornamental grasses and provide tips on how to incorporate them into your landscape. Ornamental grasses add so much to your landscape.  They offer a diverse number of benefits to any garden: amazing structure throughout all four seasons, a romantic & hazy relaxed quality to the garden (I call it the hazy-lazy let’s-hangout-here vibe), the colors range from blues and purples to reds, greens, yellows, oranges, browns and even blacks. 

Imagine the following scenarios:

● Walking into your garden early in the morning and seeing dew on the seed-heads of your grasses.

● Or, the majestic quality of grasses in the fall - when their colors are as vibrant as the leaves on the trees.

● Or, looking out your window in the winter time to see the feathery plumes loaded with birds.  Grasses are absolutely beautiful.

As far as I’m concerned, grasses possess a magical quality.  Perhaps this has something to do with their marvelous relationship with one earth’s four basic element: wind. Wind is powerful, invisible, playful, soothing and life-giving. It can also be incredibly destructive. Like many things in this world that we cannot see - the wind is made visible by the movement of grasses.  In the same way that their inflorescences play with the wind, they also invite us to reach out and touch them - they are quite irresistible as you walk along a path. The sound of the wind through ornamental grasses is alluring - the rustling of the grasses adding another sensory experience for the gardener. 

For this show on ornamental grasses, I’ll share some thoughts on why you should consider adding grasses to your garden. Then, I’ll review some of the most-loved cultivars from popular genera of grasses. Finally, I’ll share some thoughts on the care and maintenance of grasses, as well as help you with some tips on planting & division.