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My profession in decorative horticulture has led to the event of a working idea: Decorative grasses are an acquired style for many gardeners. This idea grew from private expertise (my tastes have modified considerably since rising up gardening on the Entrance Vary) and from comparable opinions expressed by a number of people I’ve coached. I believe this delayed appreciation stems from a realization that grasses can excel the place perennials fail. Decorative grasses could lack flash, however they provide four-season attraction, eye-catching varieties and textures, and superior tolerance to harsh climate; as well as, they offer gardens an immersive really feel due to their penchant for mild motion.
Two grass classes
To successfully use decorative grasses, the gardener wants to grasp a bit about their biology. Broadly talking, decorative grasses are damaged into two classes in horticulture: cool-season grasses, which develop most vigorously when temperatures vary from 60° to 75°F, and warm-season grasses, which develop most vigorously when temperatures vary from 75° to 90°F. On account of their temperature preferences, cool-season grasses are likely to do effectively in mountain communities, whereas each cool- and warm-season grasses do effectively in hotter environs. That being stated, it’s typical for cool-season grasses to undergo a quite scraggly summer time dormancy in heat areas.
Since warm-season grasses transplant finest in late spring and early summer time, this text goals to introduce you to a couple that shine in our area in time for them to be transplanted this 12 months. For those who’re searching for cool-season grasses, make sure to hold an eye fixed out for a follow-up article in time for his or her transplanting in late summer time to fall.
Blue grama
Bouteloua gracilis, Zones 3–10
One of many grasses that dominated the shortgrass prairie earlier than European colonization of the continent, blue grama can nonetheless be discovered all through our area. You’ll see it incessantly on dry roadsides on the plains, on slopes within the foothills, in sagebrush communities and piñon-juniper woodlands, and infrequently into the montane. With such a broad distribution and vary of appropriate environments, it’s no shock that this grass tolerates a spread of cultural situations and challenges. You’ll discover this grass is unperturbed by baking sizzling websites, chilly temperatures, poor soils, and animal looking. Blue grama produces clumping sprays of fine-textured leaves from late spring on, and are available summer time it follows with upright sprays of immediately recognizable, eyebrow-like flowers above.
This species is likely one of the higher warm-season grasses for larger elevation gardens, as it’s hardy to USDA Zone 3 and blooms early sufficient for the gardener to get pleasure from its flowers earlier than frost halts its progress. For those who keep away from siting crops the place they’ll sit moist for prolonged intervals or be shaded, you’ll discover this xeric species is a straightforward win.
Seep muhly
Muhlenbergia reverchonii, Zones 5–10
Decrease elevation parts of our area have a diffusion of choices. For areas requiring an open line of sight, akin to parkway strips and mattress edges, contemplate seep muhly. Launched to our area below the identify Undaunted® Ruby Muhly by Lauren Springer and Scott Ogden, the plant reveals wonderful hardiness regardless of its Southern Plains origins; it’s a real Zone 5. Vegetation mature slowly, taking about three years to achieve 2 toes excessive and three toes huge, however they draw backyard guests like moths to a flame once they envelop themselves in mulberry clouds of flowing seed heads in autumn. Earlier than bloom, seep muhly makes a pretty, low-fuss background participant just like blue grama, producing tufts of richly inexperienced, fine-textured foliage. Whereas adaptable to a spread of soil moisture ranges, this species requires a interval of heat nights in late summer time or early fall to provoke a robust bloom. So whereas the species could excel in Denver, it isn’t as appropriate for mountain gardens.
Little bluestem
Schizachyrium scoparium, Zones 3–10
Little bluestem is a extensively adaptable, native warm-season grass that’s extra tolerant of cool nights than seep muhly, although most likely not as a lot as blue grama. Hardy to Zone 3, this grass prefers some soil moisture to provoke its bloom. It may be noticed in combined meadows and shrub communities from the plains to average elevations (by the foothills and piñon-juniper communities). Like each the above species, little bluestem retains a low profile as a inexperienced tuft in early summer time, nevertheless it springs skyward in late summer time and early fall, producing a strongly vertical inflorescence composed of many slender, cylindrical stems that wave collectively in a lightweight breeze. I notably recognize utilizing this species in bands as a backing or visible break for a dominant coloration scheme the place its upright, late-season presence helps to divide or tame busy designs.
These of us in hotter stretches of the Rocky Mountain area can take our choose on the subject of warm-season grasses; in spite of everything, they had been among the many species that after dominated our prairies, making them effectively tailored to our gardens. Regardless of their adaptability, some crops could require irrigation to maintain them trying spry throughout dry and sizzling intervals within the rising season. That is notably true on the western slope of the Rockies, the place sizzling and dry intervals are extra widespread. At larger elevations, contemplate siting grasses tolerant of cooler nights in hotter microclimates, akin to in medians or on the southern facet of buildings (the place they profit from radiant warmth).
Maintain your eyes peeled for my cool-season grass suggestions later within the 2024 rising season.
Extra on decorative grasses:
And for extra Mountain West regional studies, click on right here.
Bryan Fischer lives and gardens on the intersection of the Nice Plains and the Rockies. He’s a horticulturist and the curator of plant collections for a neighborhood botanic backyard.
Photographs: Bryan Fischer
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