Warm Season Grasses vs. Cool Season Grasses: Knowing the Difference Can Improve Your Designs

[Thomas Rainer]

 

Confessional moment: I am a grass freak.  Of the vast universe of plants I adore, ornamental grasses are among my favorite plants to design with.  No other plant expresses the ephemeral and sensory beauty of a garden like grasses.  They catch light like a stain glass window, rustle with the slightest breeze, and glisten with the morning dew.  Grasses are a wonderful and sustainable addition to any border, yard, or planting.  But there is one pitfall to designing with grasses that almost no one mentions: understanding the difference between warm season grasses and cool season grasses.

 

Before a garden book seduces with you photos of a grasses glowing in the sun, you really should understand how to use warm season and cool season grasses in a designed setting.  I’ve learned the hard way.  Some of my biggest planting fiascos resulted when I failed to pay attention to this distinction.  Here’s what you need to know. 

Read more,click here. . .

[Jordan Lockman]

Learned this one the hard way as well. The design looks great in august or if you leave the foliage stay from the previous year. Otherwise there are the giant gaps until the soil heats up.

 

This brings up the challenge of dealing with maintenance as part of your design. When I am designing a garden for myself I use lots of cool season grasses since I like the way they look, but I leave the foliage and prune it back when growth starts the next summer. While a client or maintenance company wants to go through and level the planting in the fall, losing all the attractive winter and spring interest from the previous years foliage. 

[Author]

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