Show your ornamental grass gardens!

Bump. Roberta have you planted any grasses yet?

Doug

Doug, yes, I have! I planted a few japanese blood grass, and also a red pennisetum (sp?). I will take some pics to post, they look awesome!

Lurking!

I have some ornametals, here is my ambrosia grass.

2 from this summer

Doug

The actual "Grass Garden"

Doug

NIce Doug!

Got this NOID from a mailorder. They told me the plumes would be curly.. well I gues the plant was not what they sold me, but I will live with it all the same.

Looks to be some type of Miscanthus.

Doug

Its a meduim tall one. Just wished the plumes were what they sold me.. it was pretty cool looking in the brochure and by the time it established itself, well, too late on moving it now!

This is fall panicur.. its not exactly an ornamental, just one that grows in our prairie.. actually its kind of a neat grass anyway.

I'm a little late seeing this thread, but here is my grass garden today. Its planted with Miscanthus "Huron Sunrise' and the tall one is Miscanthus 'floridus'. They will stay that way for most of the winter. The 'floridus' stalks are as tough as bamboo by spring. Not a fun clean up job, but the dogs has fun running around the yard with 12' stalks in his mouth. Cheap thrills.

This message was edited Nov 21, 2009 1:42 PM

Last fall: Miscanthus sinensis Bluttenwunder and Silberfeder, chasmanthium latifolium (northern sea oats) and calamagrostis acutifolia 'Karl Foerster'. Also a smokebush, crabapple and linden. I love what grasses do for a garden in the fall.

Donna

On a foggy morning last fall, they make everything look better. My miscanthus giganteus (aka) floridulus (they're fighting over the name) is great in the corner of my garden, backed by my neighbor's arbor. The bed in front has verbena bonariensis and nicotiana alata I allow to go nuts! I'm lucky that my neighbor has big bucks and great taste.

Donna

Very nice foggy pic Donna.

Doug

Thanks Doug. Great to get a thumbs up from someone with such terrific grasses.

Donna

Very beautiful pictures! Thank you for sharing them Donna.
I'm enjoying some neighbors grasses during the winter right now...none of mine are big enough to be holding their own. Cannot wait for warm weather and thriving grasses!

I have miscanthus gigantus....need to find a pix, it gets 12 feet tall...

Hi Blossom,

With the bloom, 14 feet. Here it is in early August.

In October.

Miscanthus sinensis Gracillimus is another beauty. It is one of the last to bloom - October. It is also one of the oldest, appearing in Japanese prints from around the year 1400 (which is where I first found them). Because it blooms so late, I don't think it can be relied upon to bloom in extremely cold climates, but mine has bloomed every year, and I've had it since 1998.

In July.

In July it's great mixer.

Then, in October it blooms.

And becomes an even better mixer.

I'm a major grasshead. My yard, when I started it, was based on ornamental grasses. I took a risk on a September sale, buying them in bloom, which is risky because they are at their weakest. But it was "buy 12, get 6 free, buy 6, get 3 free, buy 3, get 1 free" so I ended up paying about $2.50 each for quart grasses and only lost s couple, mostly because I put them too cloely together. But I've never regretted it. Except for spring cutdown, no plant could be easier.

Donna

Heres my one of my miscanthus gigantus colonies...7/29/09...ignor the garden.. it was at a nasty state! Those are asters in front. You can see how tall it is on that nasty ugly privy fence. That privy fence is why its there to hide that backwards thing.. I swear.... some people dont know the right way to put fencing up.. Not out doing thats for sure.
Gawd....what a mess that is.

I do not cut this grass back. Its in poor soil and it needs the support of its old staulks there. I have to actually tie it to my fence which is infront of the privy to keep it from blowing over.

In my other colonies it stands better as it is in better soil.

I have seriously thought of putting bamboo there... Its a disasterous looking garden trying to hide the uglies that I have no control over. Couple more years and that giant grass ought to do what I am hoping. Its almost there, but still a wee tad thin yet.

Oops, forgot the pic!

Wow, Blossom, what a grass! We actually cut our back because it is just inside the property line, next to very nice people. We also put some granite rocks on their side to stop the spread. And because our yard slopes a bit, and there's a rose nearby that I water, it gets enough moisture without being directly watered.

Don't laugh, but we put ours in for privacy reasons. One of our neighbors used to spend lots of time in his driveway staring though our kitchen windows. He would just hang out there for hours, despite having a huge front porch and a patio. Imagine washing dishes or cooking meals and looking up several times a day to find you're being watched. So we put the grass up. Matures really quickly. Does the job. Cost 8 bucks. Perfect!

Heres the same bloody privay fence.. just a wee tad different location..

I swear hiding the uglies is more than a full time job.

Beautiful pics!

Well, we are trying.. its hideous in the winter.

I think I have the best "worst" example of an UNNEIGHBOR fence there is! LOL.

TIANT MY FENCE.. I just gotta grin and bare it...as ugly as it is.

Gotta keep reminding myself of how I am such the happy camper! LOL!

Blossum,

How tall is the fence? I'm wondering if Bluttenwunder or Silberfeder might work for you. Here is Miscanthus Strictus, Buttenwunder (red plumes) and Silberfeder. There is a patio, six chairs and an umbrella behind these grasses. And it mixes up the effects. Strictus takes a long time to mature, but the other two are very quick. Also, each of these grasses is 60 inches at the base, and they don't thin out, although silberfeder (middle) has a slight tendency to flop - it is actually flopped here, if you can imagine. They age well, no thinning. I installed these in either 1998 or 1999.

A foggy day.

Ooooh them are nice!!!!

The oogly fence is a 6 foot privacy fence... it runs a good stretch.. over 300 feet long or better... aint I the luckeist! HA!

So so thats blunderwunder? er I mean bluttonwonder?

Aaaaah now I got a new name for that there ugly fence.. BLUNDERWONDER!!!

So, i take it this fabulous grassy of yours starts with rhizomes? Most tall grasses are sterile...? Is this one sterile or can we do it by seed?

It's miscanthus sinensis Bluttenwunder. I actually bought it in a small container. It bulked up really quickly. I think it's sterile, because it doesn't seed around around. There are grasses that do, and I find mini grasses in bad places and have to pull them out.

Another bonus is that it doesn't die out in the center. And whoa, the plumes!

I like it!

Miscanthus sinensis Bluttenwunder!

I think I might just have to think on adding those to my collection.

I was seri-osly thinking on bamboo. Saw one that goes to 80 foot, but I think that would be a bit EXTREME!!!! Then I would have to get a panda and well, yano, that might irritate the neighbs! We would not want to do that! On second thought... Jenny get me the ZOO...!! LOL! Some days we need a bear around here.

I hope I can dig up some of my gigantus.. but it takes a tractor to get that job done. And besides right now its now too wet.

Gosh I need more room in my garden!!!!!

You guys have gorgeous grasses. You also have a lot of guts letting them get that large. Amazing. Do you find that rats etc. nest in them? Do you cut any of them off in the winter? Spring??

Beautiful.

Doug, I remember when you started yours. Wasn't it just before you started growing in strawbales? You've come a long way in a short time.

Hi Jnette,

No, absolutely no vermin. Not in 12 years. The grasses are very dense at the bottom. The voles are more interested in my lilies and daffodils, but I solved that by growing miniature daffodils.

And yes, every March we cut them all to about 6 inches from the ground, so the light can get through.A hedge trimmer works well. It diplicates the effect of a forest fire. Then I give them a little compost, a very diluted fertilizer.

Donna

We get cats coming in ours....

Have not seen any vermine either, but the cats go everywhere. I swear I got a few neighbors that give a rats patoot about what a stray cant can do to wildlife. Its discusting how some are our here. No nuetering, then they are the first to it got hit by a car because they careless about where it strays.

We dont do anything with our grasses but let them grwo naturally. We wil burn the ones that are accessible to torch, but we have to cut the ones down line that are on fencerows or too close to other things we cannot burn. We just hedge trimmed the last of ours for this spring,

I pot all my daffs in nursery cans and bury the cans in the ground. It keeps the moles out and makles it easier to lift them when they need division.

We use Milkie spore to combat the moles and voels and other hill digger lawn killers.

BB, what is Milkie spore???

Everyone on other forums are trying everything. This is the first I have heard the term Milkie spore. Please???

Thanks,

go to www.milkiespore.com

should explain it there and you can order.

SOme stores carry it.

It is a powder that you put on your lawn and it kills the grubs that are in the lawn that the voles, gophers and moles eat.

It is natural and does not harm other critters.

Jeanette, yes I started strawbale gardening about the same time. As far as a long way in a short time that isn't even half of what I've done in the past two years!

Doug

LOL, sounds like you have been a busy man Doug. That's good.