4 Great Grasses

Ornamental grasses can bring height, texture, and color to your garden. They also provide food, shelter, and nesting material for birds and other wildlife. When you stop by your local plant seller, consider trying one of these.

Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostic x acutiflora)—This is a cool season grass, so it’s already up and growing. It forms seed heads early—look for them sometime in June. Feather reed grass remains upright all year, and is a slow grower, staying in relatively small clumps. Here are some of the cultivars at Minnetrista: ‘El Dorado’ (leaf blades that are gold in the center), ‘Overdam’ (leaf blades with white edges), and ‘Karl Foerster’ (all green leaves).

Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis)—Although this is a warm season grass, it starts growing earlier than others in that category, like maiden grass. Prairie dropseed adds a soft, airy texture to the garden when it flowers and goes to seed.

Maiden Grass (Miscanthus sinensis)—This warm season grass gets huge! We’ve got some clumps at Minnetrista that are 3 feet across. Certain varieties can reach 5 to 6 feet tall. Dividing or moving this grass isn’t for the faint of heart. We use all-metal spades that won’t break when you use them to pry the grass out of the ground. In the fall, as the inflorescences form seeds, they develop a lovely plume-like appearance. Cultivars at Minnetrista include ‘Adagio,’ ‘Morning Light,’ and ‘Variegatus.’

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)— This warm season grass has attractive blue-green foliage. In the fall, foliage turns shades of orange and red. Seeds with attractive tufts of white fluff dot the upper portions of the plants. At Minnetrista, you can find ‘Standing Ovation’ in the Moon Garden and ‘The Blues’ and ‘Blaze’ in the Bird and Butterfly Garden. ‘Standing Ovation’ is known for not flopping later in the season like the other varieties.