<p>Your favorites? Soil preparation? Care? How they look in winter? How much they spread?</p>
<p>If you google “growing ornamental grasses” you should be able to find a lot of info, especially info specific to your zone.</p>
<p>That said, I love growing grasses, however they (especially the taller varieties) tend to spread quite a bit, so you need to plan accordingly. If you grow varieties that are native to your region, very little soil prep should be necessary, and after the first year (while they get established) they should require very little water as well.</p>
<p>I cut back the varieties that die back over the winter when they start looking badly, usually about a month from now. I cut them to just a few inches above the soil. Some people leave them alone and don’t cut back until very early spring. Evergreen varieties can be cleaned up in the early spring. Many varieties will need to be divided every few years, otherwise the inside of the clump doesn’t get enough nutrients and dies and you end up with a clump of new growth on the outside and nothing on the inside of the clump.</p>
<p>As to favorites, I have a lot. I love that there are short and tall varieties. Some look very architectural in the garden, some look very loose and wild, and I love all the different colors they come in.</p>
<p>Have fun!</p>
<p>If you grow native grasses, the local critters will be happy. </p>
<p>In northern California, I grow purple needlegrass (Nassella pulchra - our state grass!), nodding needlegrass (Nassella cernua), leafy reed grass (Calamagrostis foliosa), California fescue (Festuca californica), and tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa). The Nassella pulchra is my favorite. The stalks grow to about 4 feet; they look great and the birds love to scratch around and pick up bits of grass and seed. Since I planted natives, my backyard is like a big bird feeder at dusk.</p>
<p>Care is easy. All the grasses I have are bunch grasses, and only the fescue wants to spread to new bunches (which is fine with me); the rest stay put. I like the look of the grasses when they turn golden in the dry summer and fall, so I leave them alone until about February. Then I give them their annual haircut so they’ll send out new green leaves and stalks in the spring.</p>
<p>Edited: Forgot, I also have Idaho fescue, which is a bluish-green color, very pretty and works in partial shade. Also Berkeley sedge, Carex tumulicola, which is a broad, low, good-looking bunch grass with brownish seeds that kind of shimmer. The Berkeley sedge is evergreen but I still cut it back in late winter.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. I’ll take a look at the varieties you mentioned to see if they’ll grow in my zone.</p>
<p>Grasses are generally identified as either clumping/bunch or spreading types. I only grow clumping varieties in my small garden since I don’t want the hassle of trying to keep them confined to their spot and I also don’t want them competing with adjacent perennials and shrubs. I also like the fountain-like look of clumping grasses. Be sure to select types that will fit your need for clumping vs spreading habit. </p>
<p>Miscanthus varieties are nice for a spot that needs height. My favorite grass is golden hakone grass (the striped variety), which stays fairly low and is lovely planted alongside a path or steps or in groups along the outer edge of a bed. I even have a couple of large pots planted with just golden hakone grass – the vivid color and graceful habit are striking, and as plants in my other pots stop blooming or dry out or flop over during the summer, the golden hakone grass looks great and lush through the summer and fall (not winter, though – it dies back in winter but comes back strong in the spring.) Another gorgeous grass is purple fountain grass, which must be treated as an annual in the Pacific Northwest where I live. The seed heads are so pretty. Finally, I have one 3 x 5 foot bed alongside the house under an overhang where it gets hardly any water. I’ve installed a small water feature (aka low fake stone-looking architectural type fountain) and surrounded it entirely with clumps of carex “frosted curls”. This clumping grass is easily divided, and planted in groups it has a soft undulating look that I like. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Dave’s garden website has photos of grasses (and other plants) in real people’s gardens.</p>
<p>not a big grass fan ( just ripped out all my sod- but it took a while)
but I like
[Helictotrichon</a> sempervirens - Blue Oat Grass](<a href=“Bluestem Gardening”>Bluestem Gardening)
and
[Variegated</a> Japanese Sedge Grass | Carex morrowii Variegata - Ferns and Grasses - Denver Plants](<a href=“http://www.denverplants.com/frnsgras/html/grs_carex_vg.htm]Variegated”>http://www.denverplants.com/frnsgras/html/grs_carex_vg.htm)</p>
<p>Wow, who knew there are so many varieties? Can’t wait to print out this thread and investigate them all. I presume at this point I should wait until spring to plant?</p>
<p>Timing depends on where you are. In my area, it’s very dry in the summer and early fall. Mid to late fall is considered the best time to plant because the winter rains will help the plants get established.</p>
<p>I just came home from the bi-annual plant sale that’s organized by the local native plant society. I had never been to one of these sales before, and it was intense and crazy with people grabbing everything in sight. It is definitely planting time around here :-).</p>
<p>I live in the NY metro area and like to leave them uncut for the winter months. They are close to a window in a room I use as an office, and I love the sound the dried fronds make in the winter winds. They do start to look kind of ratty towards the end of the winter though. They get cut back usually the first time the gardener shows up in the spring to do the cleanup, and grow back rather quickly. Mine are 9 years old now and I would say have at least tripled in size.</p>
<p>Good reference book-</p>
<p>by Rick Darke- Encyclopedia of Grasses</p>