gardeners.
Gorgeous Grasses for Garden Texture
Providing
garden
solutions.
in this issue
PIEDMONT
NEWS
Siting Your Rain
Garden
Big Garden
Cleanup!
Daniel Stowe
Botanical Garden
Turning Over a
New Leaf
STATE
NEWS
Gorgeous Grasses
for Garden Texture
Pink Muhly Grass
Preventing Garden
Diseases
Fruit Trees
Ornamental grasses are perfect additions
to any planting. Their graceful, airy form
and linear texture contrast with shrubs
and perennials. In addition to being beautiful,
most grasses are tough, drought-tolerant and
deer-resistant, and have few insect or disease
problems. Ornamental grasses are becoming more
common in NC landscapes. Easy-to-grow variet¬
ies are available from most garden centers.
Like turf grasses, ornamental grasses can be
divided into warm- and cool-season varieties,
based on the season in which they actively grow.
Gardeners in eastern North Carolina should stick
with warm-season varieties, while those in the
piedmont and mountains can grow both types.
Two of the most garden-worthy warm-
season growers are native to the Southeast. The
drought-tolerant pink muhly grass ( M uhlen bergia
capillaris ) has masses of delicate, airy, vibrant
pink flower panicles in fall. (See back page.) This
clump-forming grass is hardy to Zone 6, grows
to 3 feet tall and prefers well-drained sunny sites.
For a different twist, seek out the variety ‘White
Cloud’, which produces ivory-white flower
panicles instead of the more common pink.
Another great native warm-season grower is
switchgrass, aka panic grass ( Panicum virgatum).
It grows in most soils, including sand and clay,
but needs full sun to perform best. Several variet¬
ies are available, all of which produce airy sprays
of buff-colored flowers and seedpods in late sum¬
mer and fall. ‘Cloud Nine’ is a colossal, sturdy,
upright variety that easily reaches 8 feet tall. ‘Prai¬
rie Fire’ is an excellent smaller selection, growing
3 to 4 feet tall, with lovely burgundy-splashed
foliage. A personal favorite is ‘Northwind’, an
extremely vertical, 5-foot-tall olive-green selec¬
tion. Switchgrass varieties form slowly spreading
clumps that can be divided every 3 to 4 years.
Other popular warm-season growers include
fountain grass, Pennisetum alopecuroides. There
are many varieties of this sun-loving summer¬
blooming grass, most of which grow to 3 feet
or less. Maiden grass, Miscanthus sinensis , has
long been a staple in the ornamental grass trade,
but should be used with care as it has become
invasive in western North Carolina.
Popular cool-season growers include blue
fescue (Fcstuca glauca) , a small clumping grass
with intense blue foliage, and Calamagrostis ‘Kark
Foerster’, which produces strongly upright spikes
of pink blooms in summer that fade to tan in
fall. Gardeners with wet soils should seek out
the many varieties of ornamental sedges ( Carex
species) to add a grassy texture to pond edges and
low areas. To find out more about these and many
other ornamental grasses, visit the plant profiles
on the NC Cooperative Extension Urban Horti¬
culture website: www.ncstate-plants.net
— Charlotte Glen