Guides / Grasses
Grasses
Ornamental and meadow grasses.
B
Big Bluestem
Andropogon gerardii
Practical guidance for growing big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii, including its deep prairie roots, turkeyfoot seed heads, warm-season growth, drought tolerance, and non-toxic status.
Black Bamboo
Phyllostachys nigra
How to grow black bamboo. Why a running bamboo needs a barrier before it needs anything else, how to install one properly, the legal risk of letting it spread, and how the canes turn black.
Blue Fescue
Festuca glauca
How to grow blue fescue, Festuca glauca, a compact needle-leaved grass grown for its intense blue-grey colour, sharp drainage needs and short lifespan.
Blue Grama
Bouteloua gracilis
How to grow blue grama, Bouteloua gracilis, as a low-water lawn alternative or border grass. Its curled, eyelash-shaped seed heads and prairie toughness.
C
Chinese Silver Grass
Miscanthus sinensis
How to grow Chinese silver grass, Miscanthus sinensis, as an ornamental border grass. Its tall autumn plumes, and why some cultivars self-seed more than others.
Cocksfoot
Dactylis glomerata
How to grow cocksfoot as a pasture or wildlife grass. Its coarse tussocky habit, hay fever significance, and role as a butterfly larval food plant.
Common Bamboo
Bambusa vulgaris
How to grow Bambusa vulgaris. The tropical clumping bamboo behind most of the world's bamboo construction, why it will not survive a temperate winter outdoors, and what to grow instead.
Common Bent
Agrostis capillaris
How to grow common bent as a fine lawn grass. Its spreading stolons, tolerance of very close mowing, and why it is a mainstay of golf and bowling greens.
Crested Dog's-Tail
Cynosurus cristatus
How to grow crested dog's-tail in a wildflower lawn or meadow. Its wiry, one-sided flower spike, and why it thrives on poor soil that defeats richer lawn grasses.
Crimson Fountain Grass
Cenchrus setaceus
How to grow crimson fountain grass in a container or border. Its arching purple-red foliage and foxtail plumes, and why it is banned as invasive in some regions.
F
Feather Reed Grass
Calamagrostis x acutiflora
Practical guidance for growing feather reed grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora, including its sterile clumping habit, early flower spikes, staying upright without staking, and cutting back in late winter.
Fountain Grass
Cenchrus alopecuroides
How to grow fountain grass, Cenchrus alopecuroides. Why it needs real summer heat rather than a mild winter to flower well, leaving the straw-coloured seed heads standing through winter, and the bristly plumes that can lodge in a dog's coat or ears.
G
Giant Bamboo
Dendrocalamus giganteus
How to grow giant bamboo, Dendrocalamus giganteus. Shoots that push up thirty centimetres in a day, why raw shoots must be boiled to break down their cyanide compounds, and the clumping habit that keeps it from running like other bamboos.
Giant Reed
Arundo donax
Practical guidance for growing giant reed, Arundo donax, including its rapid rhizome spread, screening and biomass use, invasive status in some regions, containment, and low toxicity.
Great Wood-Rush
Luzula sylvatica
How to grow great wood-rush, Luzula sylvatica, a true rush instead of a grass and one of the best evergreen groundcovers for dry shade under trees.
Greater Quaking Grass
Briza maxima
How to grow greater quaking grass from seed. Its papery, rattling seed heads, cottage garden and dried flower uses, and its self-seeding habit.
J
Japanese Blood Grass
Imperata cylindrica
How to grow Japanese blood grass safely. Only the sterile red-leaved cultivar Red Baron, since the wild green species Imperata cylindrica is a banned invasive weed.
Japanese Forest Grass
Hakonechloa macra
How to grow Japanese forest grass, Hakonechloa macra, one of the few ornamental grasses that grows well in shade rather than merely tolerating it.
Japanese Sedge
Carex morrowii
How to grow Japanese sedge, Carex morrowii, in shade. Its evergreen variegated foliage, and why it suits a dark corner better than almost any true grass.
M
Marram Grass
Ammophila arenaria
How to grow marram grass to stabilise a sand dune or coastal garden. Its deep spreading rhizomes, salt tolerance, and why it should be half-buried to thrive.
Mexican Feather Grass
Stipa tenuissima
How to grow Mexican feather grass, Stipa tenuissima. It self-seeds freely and is a restricted invasive weed in California and parts of Australia.
P
Pampas grass
Cortaderia selloana
How to grow pampas grass, Cortaderia selloana. Cutting it back without shredding your hands, why male plants have no plumes, and its invasive record abroad.
Pendulous Sedge
Carex pendula
How to grow pendulous sedge, Carex pendula. Why one clump can seed itself into a colony within a couple of seasons, telling a sedge from a grass by its triangular stems, and the boggy shade it thrives in where little else grows.
Perennial ryegrass
Lolium perenne
How to grow perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne. The grass in almost every cool-climate lawn, choosing a hard-wearing cultivar, and overseeding worn patches.
Prairie Dropseed
Sporobolus heterolepis
How to grow prairie dropseed, Sporobolus heterolepis, a fine, fountain-like North American prairie grass whose flowers smell of coriander and popcorn.
Purple Moor Grass
Molinia caerulea
How to grow purple moor grass, Molinia caerulea, a see-through, airy grass from European bogs that needs damp, acidic soil instead of a dry border.
Nothing here matches.
Clear a filter, or search every guide from the hub. The plant you are after may be filed under another category.
Search all plant guides