(Giant Feather Grass, Golden Oats)

One of the largest growing species of feather grass worldwide, Stipa gigantea becomes an impressive accent in gardens from midsummer through winter. This clumping perennial grass is native to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. It received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The deep green - perhaps with a hint of blue-green - leaves are thread-like and long. They create a large basal tuft on the giant feather grass. In midsummer, towering stems jut up from the mound of...

(Peruvian Feather Grass)

Frothy, silvery white seed plumes bedeck the Peruvian feather grass from summer to winter. Don't let the common name fool you: this clumping perennial grass is native from Mexico to Argentina. It inhabits the high plateaus along the Central American mountain spine and Andes Mountains. In fact, this grass is a natural food source for alpacas and llamas as well as traditionally being used as house roof thatch.

The long, deep green leaf blades form a mounded tuft or clump. Flopping and arching at...

(Feather Grass, Hair Grass)

Healthy clumps of this feather grass look like tufts of green threads. The appropriate common name of "hair grass" fits once you see this perennial. Hair grass is native to the piedmonts and steppes from eastern Europe, across central Asia to western China. It is used as fodder for livestock, and could very well have provided the nourishment for any camels and horses used on Marco Polo's journeys.

The leaves are long, flexible blades of glossy light green to faintly blue-green. A tufted clump...

(Capriccio Feather Grass, Capriccio Hair Grass, Feather Grass)

Clumps of this feather grass look like tufts of green threads. The appropriate common name of "hair grass" fits once you see this perennial. Hair grass is native to the piedmonts and steppes from eastern Europe, across central Asia to western China. Selection 'Capriccio' is slightly shorter-maturing and wider in formation of its clump.

The leaves are long, flexible blades of glossy light green to faintly blue-green. A tufted clump of grass glistens in light and haphazardly (but attractively)...

(European Feather Grass)

The glistening white seed heads on the European feather grass are delightful and smile-inducing. They look like curled ribbons but then unfurl like streamers in the breeze! This perennial, upright clumping grass is native to a huge area: northern Africa and Europe eastward to central Asia and western Siberia. It was once more common before modern development and population expansion, but untouched remnants remain in valley slopes across western Siberia.

The glossy green leaves are thread-like...

(Finestem Needlegrass, Mexican Feather Grass, Texas Needle Grass)

Fountain-shaped clumps of fine-textured leaves and puffy seed plumes makes the Mexican feather grass one of the most beautiful ornamental grasses for low-maintenance landscapes. This semi-evergreen perennial is native to the southwestern United States (Texas and New Mexico) to central Mexico, with an adjunct population in Argentina and Chile. Mexican feather grass grows in the open woods on slopes and rocky flats in well-drained soils.

This grass is semi-evergreen and grows in the cooler months...

(Eastern Gamagrass)

Robust and imposing, this clump-forming perennial grass from eastern and central North America displays tall flower spikes and broad handsome leaves. Appearing through summer on head-high stems, the flowers have either rusty red stigmas or orange anthers. The flowers occur in a spike that is often branched and sometimes resembles a bird's foot. The seeds that follow the flowers mature to an attractive bronze-tan. The very long and drooping blades of this grass are olive green and often have white...

(Mt. Hiba Bamboo, Running Bamboo)

Sporadic light and dark green variegation gives this vigorous hybrid bamboo an ornamental foliage value in gardens, but beware of its tendency to spread. X Hibanobambusa tranquillans is a rare, naturally-occurring intergeneric hybrid resulting from crossing two bamboos from the genera Sasa and Phyllostachys. Around 1900, botanists discovered this new species growing on Mt. Hiba, Japan. The young, emerging foliage can display up to five colors at once, blending the cream...

(Running Bamboo, Shiroshima Bamboo)

Graphic white and green variegation gives the vigorous Shiroshima bamboo a high value in gardens, but beware of its tendency to travel. X Hibanobambusa tranquillans is a rare, naturally-occurring intergeneric hybrid resulting from crossing two bamboos from the genera Sasa and Phyllostachys. Around 1900, botanists discovered this new species growing on Mt. Hiba, Japan. The foliage can display up to five colors at once, blending the cream and green with streaks of red, purple...

(Zoysia)

Zoysia comprises about 8 species of perennial, creeping, warm-season grasses from Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and New Zealand. Zoysias are popular fine-textured turf grasses in regions that are too warm for Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and other cool-season grasses.

Two zoysias are commonly used: the relatively cold-hardy and vigorous Zoysia japonica (Korean lawn grass), and the finer-textured and somewhat less hardy Zoysia tenuifolia ( Korean velvet...