As I write this, the rain is pouring down and the sky is the darkest of greys. As much as we love Scotland, the weather isn’t always it’s best feature! However, there are many beautiful plants, that thrive in our Scottish gardens.
One such group of plants are ornamental grasses. They provide a garden with texture, structure and movement and we think they are essential to a garden!
Ornamental grasses are very versatile, easy to grow and require minimal ongoing maintenance.Generally, they prefer sunny, open spaces with well-drained soil, but there are grasses that can grow in a wide range of conditions including shade and moist conditions.
It’s important to understand your garden and the conditions in it before you choose which grass to plant. Here are 6 ornamental grasses, in several different types of sites, all of which are relevant to Scotland:
Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’
- Full sun (more than 6 hours sunlight during the summer)
- Well drained soil/drier location
- Particularly good for a gravel garden
This beautiful blue grass, which becomes greener over winter is a stunning addition to a garden. In the summer, it forms green/blue flowers which turn a golden brown as they age. The more sun this plant gets, the better the foliage colour will be!
Cortaderia selloana (Pampas Grass)
- Full Sun
- Exposed/windy site
- Good for coastal gardens
The classic pampas grass will do well in coastal gardens as they are both sunny and windy, which this plant can tolerate much better than other grasses. It is a large plant which makes a great feature or focal point in a garden and can add height to your planting.
Tip: Once the flower heads dry out in autumn, cut them down and bring into the house in a vase.
Hakonechloa macra
- Full sun to part shade (3 or more hours of sunlight in the summer)
- Tolerant of most soils
- Good for planting under trees or in city gardens
This Japanese grass looks great planted underneath single trees. A woodland location under many dense trees will not work as it won’t get enough sunlight but these look fabulous under single or multi-stem feature trees, such as a crab apple tree (Malus) or a beech tree (Betula).
If you live in a city, they look great in modern urban gardens in a minimalist scheme, with their texture and mid green colouring which goes more auburn tones in autumn.
Miscanthus sinensis
- Full sun
- Fertile soil
- Good for adding height to sunny boarders
Great for added structure and movement to a boarder. This is another taller grass and large plant that would make a great feature and provides year-round interest if not cut back in autumn.
You can get many different cultivars of this plant with different foliage and flower colours. Including one with stripy leaves.. type into Google, ‘Miscanthus sinensis Gold Bar’. Who says you can’t create an exotic looking garden in Scotland?
Carex ‘Ice Dance’
- Full shade to part shade
- Moist soil
- Good for damp shady areas
This is a great option for those tricky places in a garden, brightening up dark corners with its white variegated leaves. It is also evergreen, so won’t die back in winter, giving you year-round groundcover.
Luzula nivea
- Dappled shade to part shade
- Moist soil
- Good for a woodland garden
Technically, this isn’t an ornamental grass, it’s an ‘evergreen perennial’. But forgetting the technicalities, it very much looks like a grass and is a great plant! It’s tolerant of dappled shade, making it great for a woodland garden. In summer it develops beautiful white flowers, which help to brighten up shady areas under trees and look stunning blowing around in the breeze.
