Choosing perennial grasses: tall and mid-size

Essential components of contemporary landscape design, perennial grasses have become very popular, and for good reason. Here are some tips for choosing the right perennial grass for your yard:

Perennial grasses are the ultimate care-free plants, enriching the landscape year-round and usually requiring only to be cut back each spring to allow for lush new growth.

• Eulalia grass (Miscanthus sinensis) is the most widely grown ornamental grass.
• With graceful leaves and showy flowers that often feature curling tendrils, it is the definition of elegance.
• It is well adapted from Zone 5, and a few varieties, such as 'Purpurascens', are hardy to Zone 4.
• All flourish in average garden soil and grow to about 1.8 metres (six feet) tall.
• Foliage and flower colours vary.
• The green leaves of 'Purpurascens' turn rosy red with the onset of fall.
• 'Silver Feather' has green leaves topped by shimmering, nearly white, fan-shaped flower plumes.
• Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis × acutiflora 'Karl Foerster') produces soldier-straight flowers above clean green foliage in late spring.
• Best grown in moist, heavy soils, this grass makes a fine 1.5 metre (five foot) background screen for annuals and perennials from Zone 4.
• Another tall and upright grass is switch grass (Panicum virgatum), a North American native.
• The cultivar 'Heavy Metal' is popular for its striking blue leaf colouration, while the blades of 'Haense Herms' have a reddish cast.
• Easily grown in Zone 4, switch grass tolerates lean soil and salt spray and reaches a height of 1.2 metres (four feet).
• Of the midsized grasses, fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) is especially popular.
• It forms a neat mound, one metre (three feet) tall and wide, and produces dense, tawny, bottlebrush-shaped flowers.
• Fountain grass takes on an attractive blond colour for fall and winter.
• Some selections, such as the compact 'Hameln', are hardy from Zone 5.
• The purple-leaved 'Rubrum' is often treated as an annual or grown in pots and wintered indoors because it is not reliably hardy, even in British Columbia.

When choosing companions for grasses, select plants of similar stature and compatible needs.

• Tall, summer-flowering perennials, such as Joe Pye weed and black-eyed Susan, make good partners for grasses that grow to 1.2 metres (four feet) or more in height.
• Mid-size grasses can be paired with garden phlox, daylilies, stonecrop, or purple coneflower, while smaller grasses can be grown with flowering annuals, blanket flower, and yarrow.
• There are also shade-tolerant grasses that look great flanked by hostas, astilbes, hellebores, and asarum.

Perennial grasses are a must-have for any serious gardener trying to improve their lawn. Their consistency and low-maintenance are sure to make any lawn look manicured and amazing. Check with your local nursery to see what kinds of grasses will grow in your area.