Ornamental Grass Plants

A landscaping epicure's delight, ornamental grass plants are decorative, evergreen plants, that can add tremendous amount of beauty to any boring or not so blooming garden. They come in a wide range of colors, shapes, textures and sizes, with each species having its own unique style and form. The plant foliage is usually of green, blue and red color and its variegated varieties have red, white or yellow foliage marked with ivory or yellow stripes. However, during the fall season, the foliage colors change to hues of red, beige or brown, giving a nice and cool winter garden accent.

Due to their durability and versatility, these plants are generally utilized as fillers or specimens, border plants or background plantings in any type of garden. Moreover, these plants are often combined with other plants to fill planting beds, hence, their adaptability and elusive beauty makes them perfect companions to flowering plants as well as other woody ornaments. There are mainly two types of ornamental grass plants: warm and cool season grass. Warm season grasses include fescues, blue oat grass, and autumn moor grass, which normally start growing in late spring and early summer, while the coll season grasses like northern sea oats, hardy pampas grass, fountain grass and switch grass, start springing up in early spring.

Growing and Caring for Ornamental Grass Plants

Growing ornamental grass is not much of a demanding task, as these are fast growers and can grow in areas where other plants usually don't survive. The plant grows well in average well drained garden soil, enriched with compost or other organic matter with a wide pH range of 5.5 - 7.5. The plant seldom needs watering once established, however, initial watering is essential in order to encourage deeper rooting habit, to make it more drought tolerant. Hence, while transplanting the plant from its container, prepare the soil by cultivating it to a depth, which is twice as deep as the plant's root ball. The plant requires full sunlight, but there are a few species that dwell well in light shade as well.

Ornamental grass plant can be pruned 2 - 3 inches from the ground in late fall or early spring, to remove dead or dry foliage or vegetation. Hence, prune the long clumps of grass about 6 inches above the ground and smaller grasses can be trimmed about 2 inches from the ground. Plant spacing is one important parameter to be considered while planting these plants, in order to keep the garden from getting overcrowded or stuffy. While planting, ensure that you keep enough space between the new plantings as like other perennial plants, these plants may not reach their full size potential during the initial one or two years, but later they become quite broad and huge. Hence, plant the new plantings far apart, so that they get enough space to grow tall and wide. When it comes to disease, pests or insects, the plant is not at all problematic and is pest free. However, avoid over fertilizing the plant, else the grass will become unmanageable and eventually fall off.

To sum up, we can say that the ornamental grass plants are easy to grow plants, which hardly require any special care and maintenance. Moreover, their beauty and diversity can add magnificent appreciable attribute to your garden. However, before deciding which ornamental grass plant you would like to grow in your garden, research properly that whether or not the plant will suit to your climatic conditions.