Three Ornamental grasses for the shade or woodland garden

This lovely little Carex holds its green foliage into the fall and through the winter in our back woodland garden where it grows among the birches in the birch grove.

Ornamental grasses have become an important element in most landscapes, but what do you do if your woodland garden is primarily a shade garden?

Finding grasses that do well in the shade is not easy. Most of today’s popular ornamental grasses – elegant Miscanthus, Pennisetums, Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium Scoparium) – all want and need full sun to look their best. Others want at least part sun to flourish in a landscape design. Bottlebrush Rye grass, Japanese Forest Grass and a variety of sedges are exceptions to this rule and actually prefer a shady landscape to perform their best.

Best shade-loving ornamental grasses

Let’s take a closer look at these three shade-loving grasses for the woodland garden.

The impressive inflorescenceof the Bottlebrush Rye grass is just one of its many attributes that make in a standout in the woodland or shade garden.

Bottlebrush Rye grass: A trusted woodland performer

Probably the best and most recommended native grass for the shade or woodland garden is Bottlebrush Rye (Elymus hystrix).

Although these large, native to parts of the Northeastern United States and Ontario, grasses can survive in full sun, they prefer to grow in shade or part shade where they can grow up to 3-feet-tall. The attractive grasses are hardy from zones 4-7.

Bottlebrush grass is easy to distinguish from other ornamental grasses because of its widely-spaced, open, spreading, long spikelets. As the seeds mature throughout the summer, the spikelets develop a lovely straw colour making it a strong fall performer.

Some of the stems can reach heights of more than 3-feet tall. The grass has a fibrous root system and spreads primarily by reseeding.

We are planning to use this grass in planters this summer to form a privacy-type hedge for native grass. I will report back on our success with this project over the summer months.

The arching –up to 12-inch leaves – are linear, smooth, with a grayish to dark green colouring.

Bottlebrush likes dry to medium soil and will grow in a variety of soil types from clay loam to a sandy loam.

This is one of the most shade-tolerant tall native grasses you’ll find that is a strong performer in most woodland situations whether it’s dry shade, or full sun with enough moisture. The long green inflorescences emerge on three feet all stems where they perform their best in part shade with moist, well drained soil.

The inflorescences that emerge in mid to late summer resemble bottle brushes, hence the common name “Bottlebrush.”

Bottlebrush Rye is classified as a cool season perennial, which means it will put on growth in spring rather than waiting until the hotter summer temperatures take root.

It is particularly suitable to a woodland garden and is perfect as a great low-maintenance accent or border plant.

You can find the grasses growing naturally in average to high quality woodlands and habitats adjacent to these woodlands. But they can also be found in many other less favourable woodland areas including rocky upland woodlands, woodland borders and along woodland paths as well as small meadows in wooded areas, and along shaded riverbanks.

Does Bottlebrush grass attract butterflies and pollinators?

Although grasses may not be the first plant that comes to mind when you think of butterflies and other pollinators, they can be important host plants and provide habitat for overwintering insects and other larvae.

Bottlebrush grass is actually the host plant for the caterpillars of a the attractive Northern Pearly Eye butterfly, Enodia anthedon. Don’t be surprised to see the caterpillars feeding on the plants foliage. It is also a host for the larvae of several leaf-mining and other moths as well as aphids and leafhoppers.

Several birds species are also attracted to the grasses seeds in the fall and early winter.

For more specific information on what fauna is attracted to the grasses, go to Illinois Wildflowers.

You might also like to read my post on Why we should leave our ornamental grasses standing all winter.

Another post of interest is Three of the best ornamental grasses for sun or shade.

Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa) in fall colour in our Japanese-inspired front farden

Japanese Forest Grass is a real show stopper in the shade garden

Although not a native grass to the United States or Canada, Hakonechloa (Japanese Forest Grass) is a highly ornamental, warm season grass and a standout in any woodland or shady garden landscape.

We have it growing in multiple areas within our woodland, including in the front yard where it provides structure for the Japanese-inspired garden as well as along the path leading to our porch and front door.

Hakonechloa is the perfect addition to a shady area when you want to adds a real hit of glorious chartreuse colour to a full-shade area of the garden, where its graceful arching form lends a softness and elegance to the landscape and its yellow and green leaves are given the opportunity to really shine. It can handle part shade but will struggle to show its best colours in full sun.

This grass, native to eastern Asia, is extremely well behaved and one of the few grasses that prefers full shade. It never gets too high so it also works well in the front or middle of a large border.

It’s available both as a form as well as the even more beautiful all-gold variety. The yellow and green leaves turn red and purple shades in the fall before turning to the familiar winter tan colour where they continue to provide interest throughout the winter.

For more on Japanese Forest Grass and other stalwart grasses for your woodland, be sure to check out my post featuring Three of the Best Ornamental Grasses for the garden.

These small sedge grasses grow beneath birch trees and alongside the native grass Northern Sea Oats.

Pennsylvania Sedge: There’s a Carex to suit every need

Although still not widely known and certainly not used in great abundances in most landscapes, sedges offer the shade or woodland gardener the perfect opportunity to add grass-like foliage to your garden design.

In our garden, I’ve planted a number of variegated sedges around our birch grove to add interest in the space between the trees.

The sedge family of plants is quite large and needs further exploration, if you are looking to solve a specific problem.

One Sedge that needs highlighting when it comes to woodland gardening is Pennsylvania Sedge.

Pennsylvania Sedge sports fine textured leaves, that reach about six inches in height. It’s creeping habit make this sedge the perfect lawn alternative for dry soils in a woodland garden.

Given the right conditions, this solid green sedge that requires a well-drained soil, in light to full shade, will fill in to form a dense low-growing, maintenance free groundcover.

Other shade loving sedges include:

Appalachian Sedge – Carex appalachica: Forms a nice clump with narrow leaves only getting 6-8 inches tall. It is an appealing, all-green, shade to part sun-loving sedge that is quite appealing.

Bristle-Leaf Sedge – Carex eburnea: A fine-leaved sedge ideal as both a ground cover or lawn replacement in a shady area. Dark green, fountain-like clumps that reach between 6-12 inches are lovely additions to any landscape and they are soft to the touch making them family friendly. The individual tufts eventually grow together forming a thick carpet that turns a lovely tan colour in fall.

One of the best sources for information on native sedges is The Native Plant Herald from Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin. You can check out their informative site here.

Three of the best grasses for fall and winter interest

Ornamental grasses are often overlooked in the heat of the summer, but as fall approaches grasses emerge as the centrepiece of many gardens.

Ornamental grasses provide movement in the slightest wind, they’re drought tolerant and provide needed texture and height in the garden throughout summer and winter. They’re easy to grow, even easier to maintain, provide habitat for insects (bird food), and add an elegance to gardens that is difficult to obtain through traditional plantings.

In fall, their seed heads rise above the tallest of plants and often become the stars of our garden.

What’s not to love?

If you’re fussy, there’s an ornamental grass made just for you.

Be sure to check out my post on three of the best grasses for a shade or woodland garden. You might also like to read my post on Why we should leave ornamental grasses standing all winter.

Ranging in size from the massive Pampas grasses to the small and compact Caraxes; from colourful varieties like Japanese Blood grass to shades of variegated green best most evident in the popular forms of porcupine grass. There are also popular annual grasses, like the purple fountain grass, to add to the array of impressive perennial grasses.

Grasses are so adept, that they work in almost any garden style from shady woodland gardens, to sunny meadow gardens.

Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus or Chinese Silver Grass stands out beautifully in the fall garden with its silvery plumes. In the rear, a drift of Chasmanthium Latifolium or (Northern Sea Oats), complete with its interesting seed heads, spreads around the birch clump.

Best ornamental grasses for fall and winter

But let’s take a close look at three of the best ornamental grasses for fall.

My favourite ornamental grasses for fall and winter in my garden are Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus or Chinese Silver Grass, Pennisetum or fountain grass including Karley Rose, and Chasmanthium Latifolium (Northern Sea Oats).

All three are strong performers in the fall and even better in the winter when a dusting of snow creates a lovely vignette in the landscape.

This garden vignette on the edge of the Japanese garden benefits from three large Miscanthus plantings that help create a sense of privacy.

Chinese Silver Grass is perfect for privacy

Miscanthus Sinensis is an outstading ornamental grass that comes into its own in late summer when the purplish flower plumes rise up above the strapping green foliage and grows to heights of 5-6 ft, tall (150-180 cm) and in well-behaved clumps of 3-4 ft. wide (90-120 cm).

Give them plenty of sun in good to average well-drained soil and this stalwart of the late summer garden will perform admirably for years with nothing but an annual clipping.

Miscanthus is perfect as a natural privacy screen

Not only does this plant look great through summer and fall, it can be used to create an elegant natural privacy hedge. Plant it in groupings of three or five in strategic spots around your patio or fround-level deck to create a graceful, soft screen that does the same job as a static wood or metal panel, but has the added benefit of adding movement with a gentle breeze.

I use it in three places in our garden. Three large plants grow on the edge of our Japanese-inspired garden creating a lovely backdrop (see photograph above) for one of our large boulders and weeping Japanese Maple. But it’s real purpose is to act as a living privacy screen that looks as good from my neighbour’s side as our side where it creates a lovely garden vignette.

I have two other large clumps on the edges of our dry river bed to help create a natural look, and another close to the house to help hide a downspout.

Miscanthus covered in fresh snow cover.

Miscanthus as a plant for winter interest

As fall and winter approaches, the purplish flower plumes so prominent in the summer landscape take on a creamy wheat colour followed by a silvery luminance that creates a dramatic presence when backlit.

These plumes rise high above the narrow, green leaves with white midribs and last well into winter.

The leaves of the grasses slowly take on a wheat-coloured look of their own for the winter.

An added bonus is that the plant is both pest and disease free and for woodland/wildlife gardeners deer and rabbit resistant. Birds are attracted to the spent grasses in winter where plenty of insects use it to overwinter. Smaller birds will also use the strong plume stems as perches in winter, especially in more open areas devoid of natural perches. They also provide excellent photographic opportunities when they are perched on the stems.

The plant is native to Asia and can be invasive in parts of the United States and other warmer climates, so check before you plant this potentially invasive grass.

Alternatives to Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus in areas where it is considered invasive include natives: Andropogon gerardii (Big Bluestem), Chasmanthium Latifolium (Northern Sea Oats), Panicum virgatum (Switch Grass), or Elymus hystrix (Bottlebrush Grass).

The foliage can be cut back in early spring (4-6 inches up from the base) before the new shoots begin to show themselves. Don’t worry if you leave it a little late, just cut the spent stems a little higher so you don’t cut off the tips of the new growth. It won’t be long before new growth covers last year’s dried stems.

I use a hedge trimmer with great success to cut down my ornamental grasses. A cordless model like this from Gardener’s Supply Company is is an excellent choice and will make the task much easier.

The spent stems can get quite thick and difficult to cut in the spring.

(Be sure to read my story on best way to cut back ornamental grass.)

One of our fountain grasses in full fall bloom (November) in morning sun.

Fountain grass: A compact ornamental grass

Pennisetum alopecuroides or Fountain grass has long been a favourite in the garden. These elegant grasses form the perfect, compact, mound making them a standout in both our front and back gardens.

The easy-care and natural look of Fountain grass (their are several hybrids including a dwarf variety which I use in our garden) makes it a must for any garden looking to add summer, fall and winter interest.

Like the name suggests, the growth habit creates a fountain-like appearance in late summer and fall when the pinkish seed heads emerge surrounding the entire densely clumped mound of fine grasses. Over time, the pinkish plumes turn a creamy tan colour where they remain into late winter providing delicate foliage displays well into the winter months.

The densely clumped growth provide ideal habitat for overwintering insects. Besides the insects and larvae that overwinter in the thick grass, I have seen goldfinches feeding on the seeds of the plumes late into winter when the grasses were the only vegetation still poking their heads out of the deep snow.

This perennial is easy to grow and maintain. Mine have self seeded in the garden, and I have also divided it in the spring after the plants’ centre died out.

Centre-die-out is common with many grasses after several years of growth. You will notice a circle of dead foliage forming in the centre of the plant. At this stage, simply dig out the clump of grass, divide it into several plants (usually 3 or four) compost the centre of dead grass and plant the three or four divisions. Within a short time, the divisions will recover and fit right in.

• If you are considering creating a meadow in your front or backyard, be sure to check out The Making of a Meadow post for a landscape designer’s take on making a meadow in her own front yard.

Fountain grass in full bloom with a smaller fountain grass to the left that doesn’t get the full sun and always struggle to bloom. Northern Sea Oats, with its coppery blooms, can be seen blooming in the top left corner.

Ideal container plants

These divisions are perfect to use in containers for a year or two where their compact growth makes them the perfect filler during the spring and summer months before graduating into thrillers during the fall. I have used it in our window boxes for a year, eventually transplanting it into a larger container for a couple of years before moving it back into the garden as a full-sized specimen.

There are several types of fountain grass you might want to explore including the popular annual – purple fountain grass – that can grow to 4 feet and put on quite the late-summer and show. Remember that it is an annual in all but the warmest growing zones and will have to be replanted in spring.

Another fountain grass to consider is the hybrid Karley Rose. Proven Winners has developed a beautiful specimen (PW Link here) that grows in zones 5-9 with upright clumps of graceful arching green foliage and impressive rose-purple plumes from early summer until frost. It grows up to 40 inches in height with a spread of between 24-36 inches.

In our garden, we have grown an earlier version of Karley Rose for about 10 years. While it performs admirably in both our front and back gardens, I find its growth habit is less compact than the less hybridized versions. Our dog, Holly, loves to role in it all summer keeping it untidy and not looking its best.

Northern Sea Oats takes centre stage in this window box planting. The grass has an almost bamboo look to it. Beside the Northern Sea Oats is a small clump of Little Blue Stem which also performed well in the window box before being moved to the back meadow garden.

Northern Sea Oats at home in the woodland garden

Chasmanthium Latifolium or (Northern Sea Oats) always reminds me of the seashore. I must have first seen the plant growing in the sand while I was at the beach. Now I get to relive that same experience almost daily in my own garden.

Northern Sea Oats is one of the most interesting of the fall grasses, with it’s hop-like seed heads that flutter in the breeze and turn a purple-bronze-brown in the fall. Leave the seed heads on for winter interest or cut them off to use in dried flower arrangements.

It’s a relatively low maintenance plant that likes full to part sun and grows down to zone 4a.

It works as an accent plant, in a mass planting, naturalized in a woodland garden or used as a border edging.

Northern Sea Oats will grow to about 4 feet with a spread of 30 inches. Its foliage, that stretches right to the ground, is elegant and grows in a loose clump.

Northern Sea Oats also work nicely in containers as a late-season thriller. In fact, I used them this year in our window box as the thriller and it worked well. (see photo above) The grasses are now in our back flower meadow spreading their seed heads around for next year.

Be careful with Sea Oats, the seed heads will sprout the following year where they fall. Last year, I cut some of the seed heads off to use as a backdrop for bird photography, and noticed that this year a number of new plants are growing up where the seed heads were left.

In conclusion

If you have not experimented with any ornamental grass yet, consider picking up the annual Purple Fountain Grass and use it in a garden location where you might want to plant some larger grasses. I’m almost certain you will be converted to the joy of ornamental grasses.

If you are trying to use only native grasses in the garden, you would do well to consider purchasing Little Bluestem or Big Bluestem as starting points. These clump-forming grasses are maintenance free, easy to grow and add a little blue to the garden scheme.

Another standout in the fall garden is Japanese Blood grass. It’s a stellar performer adding a pop or red to the late summer and fall garden. The green grass tips take on a pinkish red colour in late summer into fall adding a lovely pop of colour to the landscape. I use a little of it under a birch clump where it grows up through sedum and acts as the perfect backdrop to a school of Fish in the Garden. (You can see it in the attached video)