Ornamental grasses are incredibly versatile. Grasses come in a wide range of sizes and forms and are well suited to almost any garden style, from formal and natural to contemporary and cottage.
They contrast well with other foliage. To accentuate this, team grasses with upright, sword-like leaves or a graceful, weeping form with compact, rounded shrubs. To highlight a grass with long linear lines, group it with tall, spired plants like hollyhocks, penstemon and red-hot pokers; or be more dramatic and pair it with flat-topped yarrow, large-leaved wild rhubarb or artichokes.
Ornamental grasses add colour. Grasses needn’t be plain green. Stripey options include zebra grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrenis’), variegated carex, ophiopogon and white-striped oat grass (Arrhenatherum elatius bulbosum). For red leaves, opt for Japanese blood grass, the warm-season grass Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’ or our Natal red top (Melinis repens).
