Are you ready to venture into the fascinating world of ornamental grasses, rushes, and sedges? These plants are an exciting way to bring texture, movement, and bold colors to your landscape. From billowing fountain grass waves caressing a garden path to stately evergreen sedge clumps lining a rock wall – ornamental grasses will give your outdoor space unparalleled beauty for months or even years on end! Read our guides down below to find tips from our experts on how best to grow these versatile plants.
Ornamental fountain grass is hardy in Zones 4-10. A low-maintenance option with year-round appeal in some areas, Pennisetum plants have finely textured blades and an elegant, mounding form. Their tapering foliage and flower plumes add all-season interest, the perfect easy-care addition to your home landscape. Read more.
Growing showy grasses in pots and planters is an easy way to add unique color, motion, and texture to balconies, decks, patios, and small space gardens. Plus, they’re easy to grow and are wonderfully low maintenance. Learn all about how to grow and care for ornamental grass in containers in this guide. Read more now.
Prized for lush mounds of dark, blade-like foliage, black mondo grass is an easy choice for beds, containers, and ground covers for sunny or shady gardens. Primarily a foliage plant, summer brings delicate mauve flowers followed by blackish berries in fall. Learn how to grow and care for black mondo grass in this guide.
Zebra grass is a clump-forming ornamental with green leaves marked by bold, horizontal gold bands, giving it a striped appearance. It thrives in full sun, tolerates a variety of well-draining soils, and sends up tall plumes in late summer. Learn how to grow Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’ in this guide. Read more now.
Black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) is a striking ornamental grass prized for its tall, slender culms that transition from green to black over time. It grows quickly and is often used for hedging or screening, but requires containment to curb its aggressive roots. Learn how to grow black bamboo in this guide. Read more.
If you love lush, elegant bamboo but don’t want to risk it taking over the garden, why not grow your plants in pots and planters instead? Perfect as a patio accent or clustered into privacy screens, growing in pots is a smart way to manage their size and spread. Learn more about growing bamboo in containers in this guide.
A vibrant, green carpet of grass undoubtedly enhances your landscape. But how do you properly cultivate a healthy and visually aesthetic lawn? Our guide provides simple tips for growing a luscious lawn, from seeding and watering to fertilizing and mowing, so your grass will look its best. Read more now.
Is something missing from your landscape design but you’re not exactly sure what it is? Ornamental maiden grass, aka Japanese silver grass, may be the answer. Tall, dense clumps of long, elegant leaves topped with attractive feathery plumes awaken all the senses and add depth, structure, and scale to the garden.
You’ve filled your yard with fescue, miscanthus, and fakahatchee for multi-season interest that’s beloved by the residents of your home as well as the wildlife. Wondering how to prune your ornamental grasses? Get tips on the how, the when, and the why of cutting back these artistic and pretty landscape plants now.
The feather-like seed plumes of pampas grass are an ethereal addition to the garden and home. Rugged, maintenance-free, and immune to most pests and diseases, it’s an easy plant to grow and enjoy while making a big statement, and it looks far more delicate than it is. Learn about planting and growing pampas grass now.
For dramatic beauty in the landscape, consider purple fountain grass, a showy ornamental that dazzles with colorful leaves and long, droopy, and fluffy plume heads. It’s grown as an annual in most of the US, but overwinters in zones 9-11. Now on Gardener’s Path, learn more about this hybrid plant with African origins.
Tall, dense, and fast growing, bamboo is the ideal plant to quickly create a hedge or living privacy screen. But left unchecked, it can spread into unwanted areas or become overgrown, and lags in vitality. If it’s time to rejuvenate your bamboo stand, here are all the steps to divide, move, and transplant bamboo.
Sap-sucking spider mites damage foliage with their voracious feeding. Some species are attracted to bamboo and cause unsightly leaf damage as multiple generations hatch in one growing season. Read on and discover what causes vulnerability to bamboo spider mites, telltale signs of an infestation, and treatment methods.
Clumping bamboo and running bamboo behave very differently from each other, and both have their pros and cons for use in the landscape. In our guide, you’ll learn about these unique characteristics. For necessary background info and fun facts, you’ll even get a primer on the entire Bambusoideae subfamily! Read more now.
Bamboo plants are incredibly fast-growing, gorgeous, and multifaceted perennials that can be used in many different ways throughout the landscape. In this guide, you’ll not only learn how to grow bamboo, you’ll also find out how to maintain, care for, and protect your plants from pests and disease. Read more now.
Darkly distinctive, mondo grass is a handsomely unique, sod-forming perennial with graceful, arching foliage. Commonly used in borders and containers, as ground cover, and for underplanting. Highly versatile and low maintenance, it’s useful in both sunny and shade gardens. Learn how to grow mondo grass in this guide.
Sedges are the workhorses of the plant world, offering up color and shape without asking for much in return. They add graceful interest to shady areas, wet soil, containers, and borders, and require little more than a haircut now and then. We’ve helped narrow down the dozens of excellent options to 15 of the best.
Sedges are carefree, versatile plants that turn difficult-to-cultivate spots in the garden into something beautiful. Various species are tolerant of drought, boggy areas, hard freezes, and shade, and can even be used in rain gardens and drainage beds. Learn how to pick the right one and how to grow it in your garden.
Hardy, long lasting, and carefree to grow, ornamental grasses are a mainstay in professionally designed landscapes. With a superb diversity of textures, color, shapes, and sizes they can add drama and flair, or subtle softness. Their applications in the garden are many, and they’re one of the best plants to bring out your inner designer. Discover for yourself how readily these plants will work in your garden with our best tips and tricks.