OMG, rouge, that cyperus papyrus is stunning! So unusual!

I tried some kind of papyrus grass (the exact one escapes me now) one year in a small water garden in an old galvanized tub on my patio. I didn't have much success with the whole thing but did love the papyrus.

I don't have any grasses really. A bit of carex Ice Dance in a small bed, and I'm trying (not very successfully) to get some hakone grass started in my daughter's garden, but other than those smaller kinds I'm not a super big grass fan. I have to admit my neighbor has one (although now that the old neighbor has moved, the new neighbor doesn't maintain it as well, so it has declined) but I used to LOVE looking out my window at it in the winter.

I will admit they scare me a bit - I'm always reading horror stories about their root systems and how impossible it is to move them!

:)

Dee

P.S. Actually, I just remembered - one year, when I was selling bouquets at the farmers market, I grew from seed an annual broom corn. O...m...g... did it get tall! My gosh it had to be 12 feet tall! I had a heck of time cutting it lol. But it was beautiful. Beautiful in the garden, beautiful in fall bouquets, and even beautiful dried.

O dear...am embarrassed to respond because I do grow quite a lot of grasses but am photoless as per usual (a long and tedious story but I no longer even have my old phone). Your fountain grass looks superb Rouge (again, as usual, I dunno how you do it). A couple of mine are looking a bit worse for wear - Stipa javanica Ichu and muhlenbergia capillaris come to mind - flailing about gracelessly. Little bluestem is beginning to colour up nicely, as is hordeum jubatum. I also grow a couple which need to be cut down before seeding out - panicum capillaire and oryzopsis milliaceae...and this year, have also planted a pampas grass - the elegantly arching New Zealand Toe-toe - cortaderia richardii. O yeah, have not yet planted a bunch of calamagrostis and chionochloa, along with bronze carex testaceum(currently growing in a pot with chocolate cosmos), but awaiting transplanting in the new allotment beds.

Love all your grass reference HU-'etc'. I am looking them up to see how they look.

(I have an idea....If you pay for half of my airfare AND let me room and board at your place I will do my best to sort out your photolessness ;))

Andropogon 'Blackhawks' and calamagrostis 'Eldorado', this bit of bed only set in about a month ago, 'Blackhawks' very richly dark, the sedum is 'Thunderhead'.

Panicum 'Prairie Fire' impresses, whereas 'Prairie Flame' had colored up poorly in comparison and was removed.

Yes, I have more grasses, most though requiring moving to better position, as well have many on my wish list, they sure do add color, texture and movement to the garden!

This Hakonechloa isn't in my garden but it is local, and one of the best I've seen. 3' across, wish I had something in the photo for scale.

Earlier in the summer I noticed these planters having only some variety of Japanese Forest grass.

And on the same outing, this border of grass.

Yup @FrozeBudd_z3/4, the movement associated with a taller grass I find mesmerizing.

Andropogon gerardii - Big Bluestem

Chasmanthium latifolium. I cut these back before they go to seed.

Miscanthus 'Morning Light'

M. 'Sarabande'

M. 'Purpurascens'

M. 'Strictus'

Those are gorgeous plants! "Peren" is it okay of I give you the moniker of "Grass Queen/King"? (I really will come visit).

Lol rouge that would be Queen if you so choose. A visit would be grand!

peren.all, very nice!! Can I ask how much property you have? Looks like you have some glorious space to garden in!

:)

Dee

Thank you Dee! It is a good thing that most of the 60 acres are forest. I have never measured but the garden would be somewhere between 1/4 -1/2 an acre.

I can't believe I forgot about Blue Oat Grass.

Briza media

Deschampsia cespitosa. I planted years ago after much research on if it would seed about. The wisdom was that it would seed very gently if at all. The next year I pulled hundreds of seedlings like a carpet. Live and learn. I have one now in much leaner soil and it is not an issue.

Festuca 'Beyond Blue' just planted, I will mulch very soon.

60 acres!! Holy moly! LOL!

It's funny. I grew up in a rather gritty urban setting, in a rowhouse with a front yard about 20 x 10 feet, and a back yard not much bigger. My whole life I've lived in 2-family houses, 3-family houses, rowhouses, duplexes, and a condo. When I bought my house here I would literally stand at my front door, survey my 9/10ths of an acre and think, "I own the world!!" Lol it's all what you're used to I guess.

Of course, later every night, when it was dark, and quiet, and I could barely see my neighbors' houses through the trees, I would think, "Geez if someone breaks in to murder me, no one will hear me scream...." Lol, it's all what you're used to!

Do you take care of your garden by yourself? That's a large garden!

:)

Dee

A few of the grasses I grow.

Nasella tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) is ond of my favorites to watch sway in the grass.

Purple Love Grass

??? this was supposed to be a panicum, but I think it was mislabeled and is more likely a Miscanthus

Pink Muhly grass

Big Bluestem, Blackhawks

rouge if I ever decide to grow annuals Cyperus p, would make the short list.

Dee I looked up annual broom corn and it is fabulous. Those must have been spectacular bouquets! For difficult to dig plants two garden forks back to back works well. I don't have one yet but I have heard great things about the Root slayer.

Camps my zone puts severe limitations on what I can grow. The closest I will ever get to the lovely bronze Carex testaceum is the Sporobolis. It turns a wonderful bronzy colour in fall.

FrozeBudd & Markay I really need Blackhawks. A great improvement to the species.

artinnature I am at the edge of hardiness for Hakonechloa but must try it. rouge unusual use of it in those planters. Quite attractive!

Markay love that Nassella, I try to not have zone envy lol! Does your Purple Love Grass seed around? I am holding some pots until I redo a bed. Definitely not a Panicum, yes Miscanthus.

Dee I grew up in a city too and home ownership is one of the biggest achievements in life. Such a feeling! "Geez if someone breaks in to murder me, no one will hear me scream...." Lol Dee! Yep, no one would hear me but I like the isolation. It really is what we are used to and I am so countrified now. When I need to go into the city I can't wait to get out. Yes the garden is my madness and refuge. I feel the size when I am cutting back in fall. The last couple of years my DD has helped a bit with fall clean up.

Sesleria autumnalis is another I forgot about.

LOL peren.all, it is indeed what we are used to - and of course, we CAN get used to other things. For example, 30 years ago I thought I owned the world. After not even ten years of living here, I would look out the window and think, boy my neighbor's house is kinda close! Lol. But if I'm being honest, I'm still a bit spooked at night sometimes - like last month when I was home alone and we lost power and I was sitting there alone with a candle lol, surrounded by a dark house and a dark - wooded, empty - neighborhood. Was wishing there was someone on the other side of the wall or above or below me that night!

Your sesleria is lovely, and reminded me of another grass I grew for bouquets - quite the opposite of the giant broom corn lol - and that was Bunny Tails (sorry don't remember the latin name). It was a cute little filler. Maybe I can start some growing some grasses again by starting with these smaller, less-scary ones lol.

I am trying to get some hakone grass started in my daughter's garden but it just doesn't seem to be taking off. I grew some at a customer's house (below)and it was easy-peasy. Took off and throve like a champ. In my yard it died, and in my daughter's it is struggling in its first year. I'm hoping it overwinters and establishes. I think it's beautiful.

Oh, I do have a bit of carex Ice Dance as well. I guess I DO have some grasses after all!

:)

Dee

Ho, Perenne, zonal envy is not really a limitation here...but chomping sheepdogs definitely are. Hakenochloas and milliums are treated as an 'all you can eat' salad bar. Gorgeous, gorgeous garden though. I really get the 'madness and refuge'...so much that I am prepared to get on my bike every day, to garden land I do not own, which is under pressure from slack neighbours, intense pests and disease and worst of all, greedy, circling property developers.

I am very conflicted about home ownership. I have always lived in social housing, which I fervently believed was the truly responsible way for the state to manage housing it's citizens...and whilst public housing was built and maintained, this was an ethically sound position to take. I truly didn't consider the massive sell-off in the 80s, followed by the insane property bubbles (a bribe to counter wage stagnation) which has put home ownership out of my reach...but also my childrens. The return of the slum lords and awful levels of homelessness...the current housing crisis is utterly desperate (and terrifying).

My purple love grass reseeds some, but not a lot… at least not that I’ve noticed. I might be weeding out seedlings without realizing.

I just saw this post so will add the three I have:

Hakonechloa macra Aureola

Calamagrostis acutiflora Karl Foerster

I can’t find the tag for this but it’st some type of fountain grass. One of you will recognize it I’m sure. Pretty sure it’s a sterile variety as I don’t have room for seeding.

debra

Not a "grass", but here is my Mexican Tree Grass -- Dasylirion quadrangulatum.

Peren, I love the Festuca Blue Grass and M Purpurascens. Do they spread?

debra

Peren.all, yes, 'Blackhawks' makes a statement in the landscape! Also, on my list is panicum 'Hot Rod', I did receive a very tiny mail order plant that though had perished.

Now, another newcomer is ...

Andropogon gerardii 'Karl's Cousin' (photos from the net) ... oh, the height, narrow stature and color of this beauty!

I must try miscanthus 'Morning Light', despite my cold zone, a few miscanthus have managed fine, don't necessarily flower, but it's about the foliage for me!

Dee every time the power goes out I always wonder if it will be days before it comes back on. Last April after an ice storm it was 8 days. It is no fun hauling out a generator to keep food from spoiling. I agree it is the one time I don't enjoy the isolation as much as I normally do! That is a wonderful garden you created! Bunny Tails are adorable and yes maybe dip your to in the water and add some more small grasses.

Thank you Camps! We all need a place to indulge our madness. Allotments (Community Gardens here) are very popular and much needed. The world is in such a terrible state. Ownership is out of reach for most these days and something has got to give. Gone are the days when kids left home in their late teens, now it is often into their thirties. The cost of food is insane along with everything else. It makes it all the more important to have our refuge from the world.

Debra your grasses are doing so well. You just added them last year if I recall correctly. M. 'Purpurascens' does spread in an easily controllable way. Just shovel prune the edges if it gets too large. The Festuca is perfect as it does not seed or expand beyond its allotted size.

Very nice FrozeBudd! Yes it is all about the foliage and I think 'Morning Light' is stunning.

Allotments (Community Gardens here) are very popular and much needed

'peren' are they really popular here ie Canada?

My partner and I watch a lot of Britbox ;) we see them incidentally in all sorts of shows; clearly allotments have been part of English society for a very long time. If I remember I will search out a book on their history.

As you know 'peren', I live in a much more urban setting than you and driving south into Toronto I noticed what looked like a very large "Community Garden" in Scarborough, as part of a hydro field. All around are high rises and so a CG would fill a large void in this setting.

Yes rouge they really are that popular. Most cities and small towns have them. Sorry for the delay I have been on a mission to plant before my season is over and the ground freezes.

Surely there must be more fans of grasses here.