Ornamental Grasses for the Win

Send your landscaping and gardening questions to Jimmie Gibson Jr. at http://www.absolutelybushedlandscaping.com or jimmie@ absolutelybushed.com

Jimmie is a Prosper resident and the owner of Absolutely Bushed Landscaping Company, an award winning, family and veteran owned and operated business created in 1980 to provide

the highest quality custom Outdoor Renovation available to homeowners in the Dallas Ft. Worth area.

Sometimes, even the most beautiful shrubs can look rather plain, simply plunked down in a flower bed, particularly if placed in front of a stark wall or an unappealing fence. It would be like buying a really attractive piece of furniture and positioning it in a bare room with a nasty, stained wall behind it! Somehow, its beauty is lost in that environment. But just like those shows on HGTV and others demonstrate, a complimentary backdrop and some well-placed accessories can make all the difference, creating a stage upon which your special piece stands out as a star.

To take this idea to your flower beds, consider adding ornamental grasses. The right grasses can provide an eye-pleasing backdrop and a buffer between your shrubs and a fence or wall. They can compliment and enhance the shape and color of your plantings, and many can provide attractive greenery long into the winter when there’s little else to attract the eye. I happen to think that shimmering, frost-covered spikes on a crisp winter morning are a truly beautiful sight!

So, what should you choose? As always, I’m happy to offer specific, personal advice via e-mail if you send me some details at jimmie@ absolutelybushed.com but let’s start with a few basic ideas...tall grasses can provide the ideal backdrop for flowers and shrubs. Try these:

Maiden Grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’) This is quite a “large” grass and is a favorite of ours due to its fine, narrow foliage and gracefully round form. Maiden Grass blooms from mid to late fall and grows 4 – 6 feet tall and 4 feet around. I recommend about 48 inches spacing between plants. It grows quite fast and is dense enough to obscure any unattractive fencing behind it. It is also fairly deer-resistant when mature and is quite drought resistant. A very nice addition to berrying plants and evergreens.

flowering in September. The gold bands on the foliage create a really interesting streak of color. Like its Maiden cousin, Porcupine is a fast grower and can tolerate sun, partial sun and shade.

Looking for smaller ornamental grasses to integrate with your other plants? Try these:

Blue Fescue (Festuca ovina glauca Elija-blue) Elija Blue is the bluest of all the blue fescues, and really creates a stunning effect when planted with flowers and small shrubs that produce pink or red blooms. Try planting Elija Blues with dianthus (pinks). Around June, you’ll see tall, flowering spikes rising from the fine-textured clumps that spread approximately 18” – 24”.

Pennisetum Little Bunny A cute name for a really cute ornamental grass that grows less than one foot tall! It is ideal to plant in front of perennials, and works well as a ground cover or with dwarf conifers and rock gardens. At our house, Roxanne and I planted Little Bunny in French drains in front of our home. It is rabbit-resistant, sun tolerant, and gives us these beautiful tufted plumes in late summer. The blooms persist into winter but we often harvest and dry them for flower arrangements. If you’d prefer a variegated version, look for its cousin, “Little Honey.”

Dwarf Grass (Pennistum Hamelin) This is just about our favorite! Its finely-textured foliage and compact growth made it ideal to plant in front of our own house. We love the flower clusters that appear in summer and fall, earlier than most other varieties. They top out at about 2 – 3 feet at maturity and look great year-round.

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Question: Jimmie, I have a young dogwood tree that I believe got overspray of Weed Killer on its last spring when I treated my lawn. It got some dark spots on the lower leaves and a few of them eventually fell off. I thought that would be the end of it, but it seemed to be getting worse as the summer progressed. The dark spots are appearing on higher leaves and my entire tree seems to be doing badly. I know it did not get reinfected, because I did not treat my lawn again. Could it be something else and just coincidentally happened shortly after I treated my lawn? If so, what can I do? If not, will my tree be OK after the winter passes and into spring? Do you know of anything I can do to reverse the effects of this on my tree? Jeff J. in Celina

Answer: Hi Jeff! If the damage was caused by the lawn spray there is little you can do except wait it out. One thing comes to mind is to feed it a root stimulator in order to give it some help and maybe a plant food (not fertilizer) that will give it a boost. Whatever damage was done is done and cannot be reversed. However, you can increase it chances by TLC and food. Until next time…Happy Gardening!!

-Jimmie

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