Ornamental Grasses Are Colorful and Require Minimal Care

With Rose of Sharon, zinnias, dahlias, and cosmos in bloom, the summer gardens are at their peak of summer color. However, when the ornamental grasses leaf out, the summer landscape is most definitely completed!

Ornamental grasses are a very popular category of landscape plants for both the residential and commerical landscapes. The grasses are popular because they

• are colorful
• are hardy
• provide different seasonal textures to the landscape other plants cannot
• can be somewhat drought tolerant

Much like the different lawn grasses, ornamental grasses are divided into two categories, warm and cool season grass.

Warm season grasses begin growing quickly in late spring and early summer whereas cool season grasses begin greening up in early spring. Popular cool season grasses include fescues, blue oat grass, and autumn moor grass. Popular warm season grasses include northern sea oats, hardy pampas grass, fountain grass and switch grass.

Care is very simple and may only require

• A very light fertilization if any at all
• Every two to three years a possible divisions of a grass clump
• A spring hair cut of cutting the previous grass leaves  back to 2-6 inches above the ground depending on the variety

Click on picture to enlarge view:

Samples of Ornamental Grasses