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| Photo Credit: Wayne Handlos |
| Miscanthus sinensis ‘Yuku Jima’ forms a nice clump. |
We all think of grasses as plants having long, thin, green leaves. This is the basic theme upon which a number of variations are played.
When I started my “grass garden room” in my garden, I bought any grass that I found in a nursery. Not everything I bought was necessarily “grass,” but they were all “grasslike,” with long, linear leaves and generally growing in tufts or clumps. I reckoned – incorrectly of course – that any plant for sale in California would be adapted for life here. Although not everything thrived in my grass garden room, some of my random plant purchases did turn out to be quite nice for my yard. Two plant genera that do particularly well as late summer and fall grass plantings are Miscanthus (silver grasses) and Panicum (panic grasses). As ornamental grasses in the landscape, these plants form very dense clumps of green leaves, and some selections produce reddish leaves in fall, adding to the color palette. These grasses also feature stems that are ultimately topped by inflorescences – clusters of flowers usually borne in some orderly structure. If you’re planning on planting grass in the fall, give these two genera a try.
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