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Large Feather Grass, Stipa gigantea
Shimmering, statuesque Stipa gigantea (or Celtica gigantea, though few use this official identify) is amongst probably the most spectacular decorative grasses to develop. Generally often called big feather grass or golden oats, it’s one one of many few grasses that offers year-round curiosity, with a basal clump of evergreen slender leaves adopted by a halo of flower spikes that emerge in early summer season earlier than the metallic inflorescences seem just a few weeks later. Over the next months these tall flower heads turn into more and more golden, swaying fantastically within the breeze to show-stopping impact as they catch the solar. And on most websites these stems will stay standing by winter, trying magical when frost covers the backyard, too.
Right here’s every part you’ll want to learn about rising this standout plant.
Pictures by Clare Coulson.
Given the fitting situations, Stipa gigantea requires nearly no upkeep. It prefers a sunny open place in free-draining soil, so give it loads of house. The basal foliage alone can typically cowl just a few sq. toes so don’t crowd it intently to different perennials or shrubs, and take into account the peak of the spikes in addition to the general top of the plant which might attain as much as seven toes tall and as a lot throughout. Stipa ‘Goldilocks’ is a barely extra compact cultivar rising to 5 to 6 toes tall.
Stipa gigantea makes an ideal function plant both as a single specimen or dotted by a border. It’s particularly suited to gravel gardens on open floor the place it could possibly indulge in sizzling situations. If selecting companions, take into account the flower stems which might simply tangle with tall perennials. It’s finest underplanted with shorter perennials or grasses, clipped varieties, or swathes of bulbs. Or euphorbias which will be deadheaded into neat mounds simply because the Stipa begins to flower. In excessive summer season it makes a improbable backdrop to richly coloured perennials, together with shorter dahlias or summer season bulbs.
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