Ornamental grasses have become very popular due to the work of the great Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, who champions the ‘New Perennial’ movement – the planting of ornamental grasses with herbaceous perennials to create naturalistic drifts.
His ‘Prairie style’ designs can be seen across the UK, including Somerset. The Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Bruton features the ‘Oudolf Field’, a spectacular perennial meadow, and is well worth a visit.
The vast majority of us do not have large areas of open space to create such wonder and thus if we fancy ornamental grasses in our garden we need to find those that thrive in perhaps shadier conditions. Luckily for us it’s perfectly possible to grow some ornamental grasses in partial to full shade. Here are a few lovely examples.
The Japanese Hakon grass, Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ is a favourite, its low, gently arching yellow variegated leaves look amazing in between blue leaved Hostas.
Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’ (Cream leaf with green margins). Grown for its foliage, it likes dappled shade and moist but well-drained soil. Evergreen, easy to care for and looks good year round.
Often called a grass but related to Lily of the Valley, the Black Mondo Grass Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ forms a mat of deepest purple leaves by creeping rhizomes. It grows happily in a shady part of my garden.
The Snowy Wood rush, Luzula nivea, can take full shade as long as the soil doesn’t dry out too much. It reaches about 45cm high and its arching white flower clusters appear in early summer above hairy green leaves. Mound forming, it’s fairly slow growing. It’s an unassuming but rewarding grass to grow.
PRAIRIE PLANTING WITH PERENNIALS
Piet Oudolf, world renowned Dutch landscape designer, is accredited with ‘prairie style’ planting, Choosing plants for shape and structure, in a seemly haphazard way, this style of gardening can be used to create a four-season garden with masses of perennials providing layers of billowing flowers and grasses throughout the year.
As summer moves into autumn the seed heads of faded flowers start to predominate. Rather than cut them back Oudolf leaves the seed heads to stand as long into the winter as possible. September marks a shift in focus from colour to form. With the seed heads of Echinacea pallida silhouetted against the still frothy flowers of Deschampsia. The combination of shapes, textures and movement provide interest year round.
