Growing Guide Ornamental Grass
Ornamental Grasses are as beautiful as they are easy to grow. In addition to year-round visual
appeal, they add a dimension of motion and sound to your garden. Plant them beside ponds, in
perennial gardens, in groups together or as groundcovers along walkways, paths or steep banks.
Be sure to soak the root systems in warm water for a few hours before planting and water them
well afterward. Plant the crown level with the soil surface. Never plant grasses too deeply.
Mulching is great to conserve moisture, especially during the first season, but keep mulch away
from the crown.
Unless noted, most grasses like soil on the lean side. If you want to fertilize, use an organic
fertilizer like worm castings, compost or manure. Excess nutrients can make grasses, especially
tall ones, weak and floppy. Water regularly the first year until established. Afterwards most
grasses are very drought tolerant.
All of the following varities are clump forming, and therefore are not invasive. Blue Oat Grass,
Blue Fescue & Feather Reed Grass are cool-season grasses that will start growing and bloom
earlier in the season. The rest,(except for Variegated Sedge, which is technically not a grass) are
warm-season grasses and start to grow later in the spring, and bloom late in the summer.
Leave the stems on your grasses for winter interest. Remove dead stems to almost ground level
in early spring. Grasses can also be divided at this time, if the clump is too large and/or you
would like new plants, or if the center becomes sparse and woody (you may need an axe!). Be
patient with some of these varieties!
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