Once more my apologies for what you are about to receive. I will try to minimize the scientific names as much as possible. The grass family which is called the Graminae is one of the largest families of flowering plants, only being superseded by the orchid, legume and daisy families. The grass family is well known as a most important provider of essential foods for the human race such as rice, sugar, wheat, rye, barley, oats and so on, and an essential part of the games of cricket and golf.
This week I am concerned with the ornamental application of a few members of the grass family, and their use to beautify what we may term as the average garden. The list I am going to give you is quite short. If you are able to get one, some, or all of the plants I suggest your pleasure will be increased enormously, for they are not only very good when planted out in sunny positions but are also great for flower arranging. Most of these plants are coming onto the market and will add a great deal to the look of your garden.
Grown throughout the West Indies, one of the best grasses for use in sunny mixed borders are the Pennisetum, all of them growing several feet high, none of them particularly invasive and all of them graceful and extremely useful for putting in the house.
Pennisetum purpureum (Napier grass) with its long graceful plumes and Pennisetum alopecuroides (Chinese fountain grass) which produces cigar-shaped flower heads, both grow to about four or five feet tall.
Another very fine graceful blue grey ornamental grass from China which will grow here to a height of about five or six feet is called Miscanthus sinensis, and in my view no garden is really complete without Pampas grass, an export of Argentina but now grown throughout the world and which like Miscanthus grass grows graceful blue-grey leaves to a height of say five or six feet and produces lots of long white or silver plumes each year. These plumes will last over a year in a dried arrangement and rarely become an eyesore.
Another member of the grass family is the dwarf bamboo. This is a little gem which doesn’t grow much higher than a couple of feet. It is not at all invasive but forms a gorgeous little clump with a graceful, slightly arching spread of as much as three feet. If you can get it then don’t hesitate for a moment. All of these members of the grass family are usually propagated by division of the roots, and can be divided into quite small pieces if a lot of the ground is to be covered.
However, the full beauty of these particular grasses is seen when they are grown as single specimens, or in a mixed shrub and herbaceous border, or when the smaller ones like Pennisetum or dwarf bamboo are mass planted for effect. Pampas grass can be used very effectively as a single specimen in the lawn.
And now until next time take all care and may your God go with you wherever you may be.
