(Ornamental grass) Ornamental grasses are grasses grown as ornamental plants. They have become increasingly popular in gardens in recent years.
These are grass-family plants that add aesthetics to the garden. Choose them carefully, and try to determine, if possible before planting, the growth habits of each one. Some can be quite invasive. There are some wonderful native grasses, like switchgrass, muhly grass and prairie dropseed.
Cover, moderate, or exclude the light of
relative darkness caused by light rays being intercepted by an opaque body; "it is much cooler in the shade"; "there's too much shadiness to take good photographs"
Screen from direct light
represent the effect of shade or shadow on
Darken or color (an illustration or diagram) with parallel pencil lines or a block of color
shadow: cast a shadow over
Blue Fescue Ornamental Grass - 50 Seeds, 400 mg
ORNAMENTAL GRASSES: Grasses provide structure and texture to your garden, offering many shapes, heights and colors. Most will "bloom' with attractive seed fronds that move with the breeze. Proper Name: Festuca flauca (Blue Fescue Grass) Fescue develops deeper foliage color when grown in full sun, but it can tolerate partial shade, and should be grown in part shade in areas with hot summers It is drought tolerant, and grows best in poor, sandy, well drained soils. It cannot tolerate heavy, wet soils or constant high humidity.Blue fescue usually is grown as a border or edging plant. Its fine texture and neat, compact shape make it well suited to line a path or mark the front of a perennial border. Use groups of blue fescue in the flower bed, and let the silvery blue-gray foliage intensify white and pastel colors, and cool down the reds and oranges. Planted close together in masses, clump-forming blue fescue makes a striking ground cover, although the tussocks have a tendency to die out in the center if not divided often enough. Tolerant of salty soil and coastal conditions, blue fescue is a good choice for seaside gardens. Blue fescue thrives in dry, sandy soils. Use it in rock or cactus gardens to provide textural diversity. Blue fescue is a pretty little blue-gray cushion in mixed borders or in rock gardens, but it really shines in groups. When other grasses have turned straw-brown in winter, blue fescue remains steely blue.
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Winter Paints December on Lake Erie
Winter Paints December on Lake Erie
By Don Iannone
If you look closely, you will see
The masterpiece Winter painted
Along mighty Erie's shore
In the darkness, well into the early morning light
You will see his fondness for ever so subtle shades of gray
How one by one he bends, sheaths the tall ornamental grass
In rounded silvery whiteness
And how he paints ripply footprints at the water's edge
If you look closely, you will see
The fluttering gulls in the distance
Seemingly small, yet not insignificant
Every detail a pixel of life
There's more, if you look closer
If you're willing to brazen the biting wind
Like the pile of jagged sticks, and mossy green rocks from summer
Now a single creamy white ice sculpture
And if you hold your eyes and heart wide open
You can read the painter's signature
Written in the battleship gray sky—
December
Dedicated to Helen Moss and Richard Fleischman
December 14, 2010
Tomorrow is the first day of winter...and rain is expected. Weather reports call for over an inch of rain, which is big news in this desert climate.
shade ornamental grasses
Miscanthus sinensis is the premier ornamental grass--a garden favorite for centuries. There are literally hundreds of cultivars differing in blade size, shape, and color pattern; plant height and texture; summer, autumn and winter foliage colors; flower timing and color; and cold hardiness. What they have in common are a clump forming habit (never forming turf), in which the leaves grow up and then cascade out and down like a fountain; foliage that turns various shades of gold or bronze in autumn and holds up well throughout the winter; erect flowers that shine in the summer sun, then turn soft and fluffy in winter, and persist beautifully in dried arrangements; and a preference for sunny positions in the landscape. The wild form is a large bunch grass, growing up to 12 feet tall and 5 feet wide, with leaf blades almost 1 inch across. The leaves are medium green with a prominent white midrib and dry to straw yellow in winter. The dense inflorescence, produced in late summer, is reddish purple, aging to silvery. Chinese Silver Grass has large feathery plumes of silver flowers that are held way above the 5 foot (1.5 m) mound of cascading green foliage. Even the flower stalks, which can get 7 feet (2.1 m) tall, will fall over, but they still look good. This is one of the most cold-hardy cultivars, and it will flower even in zone 4.The original Miscanthus sinensis, from which the many horticultural selections have been made, still grows wild in eastern China, Korea, Japan, the Ryukus, and Taiwan. Old foliage should be cut back to the ground at the end of winter before new growth starts. Most of the Miscanthus sinensis cultivars do best in full sun. They can survive partial shade, but they tend to get thin and lanky, and then flop over. Most of the cultivars are actually quite drought tolerant, but all perform best with regular watering. Some can grow at poolside with their feet in the water. Hardy Zones 4-9.