hey all you cottage kids....do you use grasses in your cottage
garden? if so what do you put them with? i think i am going
to have to start concentrating on grasses and sturdier plants
in my containers cause the winds here are really trashing my
containers...; that being said will you show me your combinations
of grasses and other cottage stuff....
Do you use grasses in your cottage garden? if so show me:)
Apologies, Sticks, because I do not have any relevant pic's to share, but wanted to jump in to say that Milennium Park in Chicago has the most drop dead gorgeous design use of grasses that I have ever seen. If I find any pic's on the web that capture that park's beauty, I'll post them in here.
yay...thank you; i am thinking i am going to try to introduce them into my yard....; primarily due to wind and heat
Last year I moved some Miscanthus Sinensis "Morning Light" into my front borders. I have one photo (not a very good one) and you can't see the grass real well because it's not as tall as it will eventually be but maybe you can get a vague idea how it will look. I think I'm going to like it. I have had a hard time getting the front gardens to look satisfactory to me. The grass is my latest experiment.
There is a house in town here that had a beautiful mix of grasses, roses, perennials, and annuals in the front last year. I'll try to watch it this year and get a picture if it's still the same.
The grass is in the back right in the center.
This message was edited May 26, 2007 10:47 AM
There is a thread titled "Native Prairie Garden" posted by GoNative Mar12, 2007, pg3, in this forum that has lots of good suggestions.
I try to use native grasses because some of the exotics can be very invasive. For my area I like Switch Grass cultivar Heavy Metal with blue foliage, Little Bluestem cultivar "The Blues" (this one has a lovely pink tone to the stem in the fall) and Indian Grass "Sioux Blue".
At this time of year the grasses are under 2' and the Spring blooming plants hide them. In this group I've planted Baptisia "Prairie Smoke", columbine, stokesia Purple Parasol, red poppy, coneflower and amsonia, and penstemon Husker Red.
This message was edited May 26, 2007 2:35 PM
This message was edited May 26, 2007 2:53 PM
chris...i like that look...:)
semp...lovley photo...
i wanna be like yall when i grow up...:)
Ah shucks, (blushing) thanks for the compliment sticks.
The grasses are a little taller now.
Under the 'Heavy Metal' Switch grass( full size by fall is 5'-6' in flower) is moss phlox subulata. Also in the photo(not blooming yet) Sedum "Autumn Joy, daylily, aster, penstemon , black eyed susan.
Here is the same area viewed from the house instead of the street. The purple blooming flower near the grass is salvia.
This message was edited Jun 2, 2007 12:45 PM
semper...that is gorgeous...what time of the day did you photo those?
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/
you might have fun searching plants on the High Country Gardens site. Lots of good grass possibilities for your area and other plants too. Of course, you don't have to buy there, but they suggest nice combinations...
sempervirens--your gardens are really lovely. Beautiful combinations!
i have their catalog...its great!!
I don't use native grasses (yet -- heh), but a house just down from me does, and very well, too. I'll ask permission to photograph and post their xeriscaping; it syncs beautifully with their cottage and grasses are a major textural / sculptural feature.
very cool susannah...
sticks,
The photos were taken at about 8:30 - 9:00 AM. The sun is too bright after that and washes out the photos.
The only part of Texas I've visited was El Paso which has such a radically different landscape than the Northeast. The skies and rocks were beautiful.
I have a book from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden All- Region Guides titled "Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants" that has a few suggestions for Texas. You can also visit their website and get a lot of free information www.bbg.org/nativealternatives
Prairie Dropseed -Sporobolus heterolepis
Hairawn Muhly -Muhlenbergia capillaris - this is beautiful with rosy - red plumes
( I've seen it in display gardens)
Lindheimer's Muhly Grass -Muhlenbergia lindheimeri
For my own garden, even if it is native, I checked a few sources to make sure the grasses were not invasive. There are some very invasive grasses available that are very difficult to control. The Switch grass in my photo has gotten to the point, after many years, of needing to be lifted and replanted because the center has died out. This is not an easy task because of the extensive root system. In the meantime I'm fighting a Miscanthus that has taken root in the center.
Sticks and Tabasco,
Thanks for the compliments on my garden. After many years I finally feel some areas work well.
Indeed I do-most most most favorite purple fountain grass-you will love it
pmulcaire
i am so dying for purple fountain grass....wouldn't have thought that pic was in ariz either..pretty pretty
Sticks, you can usually pick up purple fountain grass at HD. I have several in my garden, along with toffee twist (a carex), and blood grass, and some ponytail grass that I grew from seed this spring. I have a second carex as well, but I can't remember it's name. I also have a dwarf hamlen fountain grass.
Unfortunately, I can't take pictures today because of the rain. Most of the grasses don't show alot of growth yet either. I am including a couple of pictures from last year. This one is the hamlen, surrounded by daylillies and dusty miller. The second one will be the purple fountain grass.
My 2007 garden is radically different from last years', and contains more grasses than before because they are low maintanace and provide a nice airy look.
This shot is of an island in the front of the yard. I drasticly expanded this island this year, and added a lot of other different plantings. This show the purple fountain grass 2006.
I actually replaced the fountain grass this year with Karl Foerster, but added more purple fountain grass in the rest of the yard. Apparently, this was one of my neighbor's favorite spots, because she complained that I wasn't using "the pretty purple grass this year". :)
I don't think that they are blooming in this picture, but it is surrounded with purple and white echineas, and small daylillies in front.
Edited to say, Sorry, I accidently hit send twice.
This message was edited Jun 3, 2007 8:55 PM
penne...i have to get purple grass...your beds look lovely!!! i am so jealous....; when it drys up there i wanna seeeeeeee....thanks so much:)
I don't have a lot of grasses in my cottage gardens but I do like this tall clump of zebra grass tucked behind the day lilys and delphiniums.
early_bloomer
early...i love it ...such a pretty jardin~~:)
So many inspirational pics, here, y'all. sempervirens, I really like all the blues in your street-side pic.
I have clumps of Karl Foerster Calamagrostis repeated along the fence surrounding my vegie garden. Once the roses and clematis along it finish blooming, those tall waving plumes add some vertical interest to the shorter plants that bloom the rest of the summer. I can't find good pics of it right now, though, and they're not too tall yet this year so don't show the effect.
I also added Muhlenbergia capillaris to the border at the top of my back hill and Prairie Fire switch grasses on the other side of the hill this spring. They're mostly meant to be backdrops so that I can see the daylilies and other perennials better from the house. The Prairie Fires are with Jacob Cline Monarda, which I'm hoping for a good color echo in red. The muhly grasses are in a blue/purple/pink area for more color echoes in the pink end. At least that's the plan.
I've used 'Heavy Metal' stichgrass along my back steps and it's finally gotten to a girth that is inspiring me to add some low growers around the clumps. I'm looking forward to getting some more inspiration here.
Sticks, I took some pictures of my grasses yesterday morning. Most still have alot of growing to do, but this will give you an idea of how they will look when they are larger.
This one is the toffee twist mixed in with red salvia (annual), some echinacea in the back which hasn't begun to bud, and black eyed susans. It only grows about 8 - 12 inches.
If you look to the front left of this picture, here is another carex (I don't know the name). This carex is also brown, but grows straight up instead of a fountain shape like the previous one. I think that it is about the same size.
It is mixed in with roses, stella d'oro's, oriental lillies that haven't begun to bud yet, black eye susans, irish eyes, geraniums, and red salvia in the back. There is some echinacea in the back as well.
Reverse shot of the first bed. You can see the toffee twist is right under the flag.
Purple fountain grass and black eye susans.
Kim's Knees and ponytail grass.
This picture has alot of perennials that aren't blooming yet. Falstaff (my 14 year old cat) is squashing my fountain grass. There is also ponytail grass in front, and Kim's Knees is to the left. There are some very small lavender plants in front (munstead I think), a couple of crazy daisies, and some petite monarda to the right, plus a couple stella d'oros.
penne my cats squash some of my lower grass...grrrrrrr; thanks for the lovely photos....i just got in 3 different kinds of grasses....started planting today....the other grass i HAVE to have is purple fountain grass.....too lovely...
does purple fountain grass come back for you?
Sticks, last year was my first time planting purple fountain grass, and it did not come back. I didn't expect it to since I understood that it was only a perennial in zone 9 and lower. When I purchased it this year, the tag said that it was a perennial to zone 7. I am going to try to mulch it well, and we will see what happens. Zone 7 is about 3 miles away from me.
I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't come back though.
my sutherlands store said it was a perennial here...so i am going to buy some....and keep my receipt and containers as they guarantee them for a yr....if they don't come back ...well i will get more to replace them with since sutherlands sez that they are a perennial....
3 miles away....hmmmm; did you try mulching the purple fountain grass?....
My purple foutntain grass croaked this winter, and I've given up. It's so beautiful, but it's slow. By the time it looks like anything it's time for it to freeze back. It's come back, but this year was just too hard on it (2 weeks in the low 20s every night) so even in Z 9 it's at risk!
I use some grasses.. Don't know which one this is planted with the guara.. I pulled them out of the trash and it didn't have a tag!
:)
Susan
Just behind the owl you can see a nice clump of vanilla grass. I LOVE the way it smells. It's gotten bigger since this was taken:
susan...when do you you have time for a life....much less dumpster diving , much less gardening?
Susan, I love that combination!!!!!
Suzy
well.. I just do the best I can to make it all happen.. and when I can't make it all happen i hire someone to help me make it all happen!! :)
Susan
I've never heard of vanilla grass before. How high does it grow?
Mine are mounds about 8 -10" high; I don't really know how big it will get. (This is my year for finding those things out!)