The best ornamental grasses for gardens: your complete guide (2024)

Ever since the New Perennial planting style hit our shores, grasses have exploded in popularity. But you don’t need to fully embrace the ‘prairie’ planting style of New Perennial designers such as Piet Oudolf to benefit from the lovely effects grasses bring. Simply incorporating a few into mixed borders brings light, movement and textural contrast.

The range of grasses available seems to get ever wider, too. Gone are the days when the only grass you were likely to find at the garden centre were the spiky blue-green mounds of Festuca glauca. There’s a bewildering array to choose from now, all quite different. There are grasses that are small and manageably sized, slotting easily into a planting scheme, or giants like pampas grass and miscanthus.

Most grasses are at their best from late summer and into autumn, when they produce their eye-catching flowers and seed heads. These usually last well into winter giving continuous interest for months. In many cases, the flowers are accompanied in autumn by changing leaf colour.

Grasses are either deciduous or evergreen. The old, dead stems of deciduous grasses are usually left in place during winter – they’re an important habitat and shelter for hibernating wildlife – before being cut back around March to make room for new growth. Evergreen grasses can be left alone but benefit from having any dead leaves combed out of them every so often.

To help you choose, we’ve rounded up some of the key grass genera below.

Anemanthele

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Also known as pheasant’s tail grass, evergreen Anemanthele lessoniana forms lovely large clumps of arching foliage, wider than they are tall. The leaves are green in spring and summer but gradually turn bronze and orange for autumn, looking lovely with that season’s daisies: asters, rudbeckia, helenium and the like. Purplish flowers are produced from late summer. You might also find it for sale as Stipa arundinacea. Grow in sun or partial shade. Height: 80cm.

Briza

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Briza can be annual or perennials but the two briza species you’re most likely to encounter are the annuals Briza maxima and Briza media. Both are easily grown from seed and produce small plants, about 45-50cm tall, perfect for threading through borders in sunny spots. In summer they produce stems of flowers that dangle like tiny pale green lockets, larger on Briza maxima than they are on B. media. Shimmering in the slightest breeze, they add airy lightness wherever they’re planted and are also good cut and used as a dried flower. If they find conditions to their liking both will seed around – some gardeners find too enthusiastically!

Calamagrostis

These deciduous grasses are known for their upright habit and are much loved by designers for adding strong vertical form to planting schemes. They’re happy growing in sun or light shade, and on most soils except very dry positions.

Good varieties to grow

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Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ – the grass all designers reach for when they need an upright accent, it stays standing through the worst winter weather. Height: 1.5m.

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Calamagrostis brachytricha – mounds of green leaves topped by lots of soft feathery bottlebrush flowers that turn beige towards the end of summer. Height: 90cm.

Calamagrostis emodensis – charmingly floppy flower plumes that look a bit like a feather duster that’s seen better days, in a good way! Height: 90cm.

Carex

Technically not a grass, but a sedge. However, with its thin arching evergreen blade-like leaves, carex does the same job as grasses. Most are quite small: bronze Carex comans reaches 50cm for example, so it’s great for pots. Try teaming it with Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’ for a simple but striking container. Variegated Carex oshmensis ‘Evergold’ is also good, its green leaves striped with yellow in the centre.

Cortaderia

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Otherwise known as pampas grass, cortaderia are the giants among grasses. Even the ‘compact’ variety Cortaderia selloana ‘Pumila’ can tower above 1.5-2 metres. Couple their size with their razor-sharp leaf edges, and you need to make sure you’ve got the right spot for these impressive plants. These evergreen grasses like a sunny spot or light shade and are tolerant of most soils.

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If you have ample room, Cortaderia richardii is a refined species to choose. Although its arching flowers reach between 2.4-2.7m tall, they’re quite delicate for a pampas grass, and the overall impression is one of airiness rather than bulk.

Deschampsia

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Deschampsia can be evergreen or deciduous but the ones that are most widely grown in gardens are evergreen. Deschampsia cespitosa is a great grass: feathery pale gold flowerheads are produced from mid- to late-summer from a spiky mound of evergreen leaves. Look for varieties including ‘Goldtau’, with dense shimmering clouds of flowers and ‘Bronzeschleier’, which has silvery flowers turning bronze as they age. Both will reach around 75cm tall.

Festuca

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This genus is best known for Festuca glauca, which makes a spiky looking mound (10-50cm tall) of blue-grey leaves, occasionally topped with slender flowers in summer, but it’s the striking blue colour most people choose it for. It needs a sunny position and good drainage – a gravel garden would suit it well. ‘Elijah Blue’ is a good cultivar to choose.

Hakonechloa

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Another darling of garden designers, Hakonechloa macra, or Japanese forest grass frequently pops up in stylish planting schemes. Its mounds of cascading leaves look fantastic if it’s planted as a leafy ruff around tree trunks, along paths or at the front of borders. It’ll grow in sun or shade and copes well with drier soils.

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The species has leaves that are emerald-green, but you can also get variegated versions. ‘Samurai’ has leaves striped with white, while ‘Aureola’ is heavily variegated with yellow. ‘All Gold’ is a zesty yellow-green. They all reach about 50cm tall and they’re deciduous. In autumn, as the leaves die, they turn a fetching biscuity brown to give you interest all through winter until you cut them back in spring.

Hordeum

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Hordeum is the group of plants that gives us barley, but the best-known ornamental member of the genus is Hordeum jubatum. This grass produces beautiful silky flowers, often tinged pink that shimmer in the breeze and fill gaps in sunny borders with the lightest and softest of touches. It’s usually grown as an annual, although you might find it lasts for another year or two. Sow the seed in spring, harden off and plant out when the risk of frost has passed. Height: 50cm.

Melica

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Wood melick, Melica uniflora f. albida is a very dainty deciduous grass reaching 60cm tall at most, and suitable for sun or light shade. Its flowers are tiny, looking like little grains of rice along the stems. Melica altissima ‘Alba’ is very similar in looks. We’ve noticed melica popping up in Chelsea Flower Show gardens, like Tom Stuart-Smith’s for the National Garden Scheme in 2024 – a sign of a desirable plant!

Miscanthus

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Another big grass, miscanthus make for an imposing back-of-border plant, excellent teamed with muscly perennials like Vernonia ‘Mammuth’, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ or eupatorium. They produce plentiful silky-soft flowers in high summer – some bronzy, others with pinker tones – that turn fluffier as they age. In this state, they last well into winter, and look particularly beautiful after a frost. They’re deciduous, so need cutting back in spring, and they like a sunny spot.

Good varieties to grow

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’ – dark pink flowers appear in August above the clumps of narrow green leaves, which also have good autumn colour. Height: 1.5m.

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Kleine Silberspinne’ – a good choice if you want a miscanthus that’s slightly smaller, since it reaches about 1.2m. Flowers are silvery red fading to beige.

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Miscanthus transmorrisonensis ‘Sunset’ – a new release from renowned Dorset grass specialist Knoll Gardens, ‘Sunset’ has drooping satin pink flowers above silver-ribbed leaves, which turn orange and red in autumn to create a doubly impressive display. Height: 1.8-2.1m

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’ – a large cultivar at 1.8m tall, its leaves are strappier with a central vein of silver. They also have good autumn colour, developing orange shades. The large feathery flowers are reddish when they open and fade to pink as they age and dry.

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Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’ – since it doesn’t always flower, this cultivar is grown mostly for its distinctive leaves. They’re incredibly fine and form graceful, textural mounds before turning pale gold in autumn as they fade. Height: 1.8m.

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Micanthus sinensis ‘Strictus’ – if you’re a fan of bold variegation, you’ll love this cultivar with leaves horizontally striped with creamy yellow. It reaches 1.8m. ‘Zebrinus’ is very similar – a bit smaller at 1.5m tall and with a more arching habit.

Molinia

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Moor grasses have exploded in popularity in the last decade or so, as planting with grasses has become more widely practised. Their leaves and flowers are delicate in appearance so molinia are easy to insert into borders to mingle with perennials without ever looking large and clumpy, in the way something like a miscanthus might. Deciduous Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea is the one mostly grown in gardens, with varieties like ‘Edith Dudszuz’ (height: 80cm) and ‘Transparent’ (height: 1.8m) often finding favour with garden designers. They’ll produce a veil of fine flowers from late summer through to autumn.

Panicum

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Airy, breezy and swishy, panicum is one of the lightest and gauziest of all the grasses, its feathery, transparent flowers appearing almost weightless. There’s an increasingly wide range of this desirable deciduous grass, most varieties of Panicum virgatum.

Look for ‘Shenandoah’, which is one of the best for autumn colour at 90cm-1.2m tall. ‘Hänse Herms’ is glowing gold with reddish-purple tints in autumn and reaches the same size. ‘Heavy Metal’ has steely blue leaves and is bigger, at 1.5m, ‘Rehbraun’ is 1.2m tall and has a good, upright habit – if it gets weighed down by rain it’ll spring back up to stand tall again.

If you like growing flowers for cutting, you might also like to try the annual, Panicum elegans ‘Frosted Explosion’, whose flowers look like fibre optic lights and make a great frothy filler in arrangements. It may well seed around, but the seedlings are easy to hoe out where they’re not wanted.

Pennisetum

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Very desirable grasses, pennisetum come with a caveat: some aren’t 100% guaranteed to come through a very cold winter in the UK. But don’t let that put you off, because plenty will come back year after year, to decorate your garden with their soft and fluffy ‘bunny tail’ flowers.

One of the pennisetum that may not survive is unfortunately one that many gardeners covet: purple fountain grass or Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’. With gorgeous dark burgundy leaves and long, pink-tinged flowers, it’s easy to see why, but it’s only hardy in mild parts of the country and probably won’t survive sustained frost. Pennisetum villosum is similarly desirable but won’t withstand many frosts – you may have success if you’re in a mild area, or have a very sheltered spot.

If you don’t want the winter worry, stick to Pennisetum orientale (fluffy white flowers in July and August, height: 50cm), Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ (fuzzy green then pinkish flowers that fade to brown over winter, height: 60cm) and Pennisetum macrourum, which is quite different, with slender, longer, less fluffy flowerheads. It can reach 1.5m.

All need a sunny spot and well-drained soil. Cut deciduous pennisetum back as late as possible in spring – April is best.

Sesleria

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Another grass that’s fast growing in popularity. Try semi-evergreen Sesleria autumnalis in a sunny or lightly shaded spot. Its spiky leaves are a vivid chartreuse-green colour making it a real eye-catcher in a border. In the summer months it produces upright flowers in creamy-white. Height: 50cm.

Sporobolus

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Another designer favourite, Sporobolus heterolepis is often described as ‘refined’ or ‘elegant’, which are always good qualities to bring to your garden. Mounds of green leaves bear light and breezy flowers from July to September, followed by good autumn colour when the leaves turn golden bronze. Height: 90cm.

Stipa

There’s lots of variety to be found within the stipa genus. Most of the ones we grow in our gardens are evergreen, but they vary in size and appearance, so there’ll likely be one that appeals. They all like open sunny spots and well-drained soil.

Good varieties to grow

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Stipa gigantea – also known as golden oats, this gorgeous grass produces a low-ish clump of leaves, from which rise tall (up to 1.8m) flowerheads. As the common name suggests these have an oat-like appearance and glow gold in the late summer and autumn sun. Cut them off as they start to look tatty during winter.

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Stipa tenuissima – recognisable for its soft plumes of hair-like leaves that wave and waft in the breeze and turn a shortbread colour in autumn. Avoid growing this on soil that’s too rich, because it has a tendency to flop – poor soil brings out its best qualities. Give it a comb to tidy up clumps. Height: 50cm.

Stipa calamagrostis – a good choice for dry soil, this 90cm tall grass has an arching habit and feathery beige flowers. ‘Lemperg’ is a particularly handsome cultivar of it.

Stipa ichu – another refined choice, with wispy silvery flowers and fine arching leaves. Height: 1m.

The best ornamental grasses for gardens: your complete guide (2024)

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