As you start digging in the garden this spring, you may want to consider planting ornamental grasses.

Hundreds of different kinds of ornamental grasses can grow from a few inches to 12 feet tall. They give rise to seed heads that can look like feathers and they come in a variety of colors, from deep purple, red, copper, black and blue to lighter and darker shades of green.

Ornamental grass is not the same thing as turf grass — this is definitely not the place for a friendly football game.

“It’s grown for its appearance but not as a surface for walking or playing. It’s not usually mowed,” said John Karlik, an adviser at the UC Cooperative Extension in Kern County.

“Aesthetically, they can look interesting. The taller ones have a softening affect. They move a little bit with the wind,” said Karlik.

“Ornamental grasses offer visual diversity and also architectural structure” to a yard, said Marilyn Raff, the Littleton, Colo., author of “Ornamental Grasses for Western Gardens.” “They add beauty to a garden.”

Many ornamental grasses are native to California. The California Living Museum grows several varieties including deer grass, rye grass, eleocharis, blue-eyed grass and a type of rush called Juncus balticus.

“Some of them are just beautiful,” said Debby Kroeger, who oversees education and volunteering at CALM. Kroeger is active in the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society.

The rush plants at CALM look like reeds. They grow a few feet tall. Kroeger said they stay green year-round.

Raff said some plants are not true grasses but have the appearance of grass and are considered ornamentals. Mondo grass, which has deep purple blades, falls in this category.

Most ornamental grasses do go dormant in the winter. But Raff doesn’t automatically trim her grasses when they turn brown. “You do want to keep them up to show their beauty over the winter months,” she said, adding “they’re most attractive when the wind gets hold of them.”

Unlike rush, eleocharis is low to the ground. It grows up to about 5 inches tall. It’s not rigid like rush. “It’s very delicate,” Kroeger said.

Blue flowers blossom from blue-eyed grass. The flower is “just cute as it could be,” Kroeger said.

Aside from aesthetics, ornamental grasses can serve practical purposes in a home garden.

“It’s a good filler,” Kroeger said.

Ornamental grasses are also good for camouflaging unattractive parts of a yard, like a cement block wall.

Ornamental grasses are relatively inexpensive. Home Depot was recently selling mondo grass in one-gallon containers for $5.97. A quart of blue fescue was just $3.67.

Another bonus to gardening with ornamental grasses is that they’re “easy to take care of,” Kroeger said.

Ornamental grasses generally are well-suited to Bakersfield, according to Karlik.

But homeowners should be advised that some ornamental grasses are thought to be invasive.

“A few ornamental grasses spread quickly via underground runners, causing mischief as their roots creep into areas where they are not welcome,” Raff writes in her book. “These running grasses can quickly take over in a flower bed.”

Raff said 99 percent of the grasses she included in her book form clumps — they don’t spread laterally by underground roots — and are nonproblematic. She said the only grass she avoids growing is ribbon grass. Raff said it spreads underground and “becomes weedy.”

Karlik cautioned against planting bamboo and pampas grass.

But by and large, ornamental grasses can safely be grown at home. The newly updated “Sunset Western Garden Book” says only a few ornamental grasses are invasive; most “have a clumping growth habit and there is no danger of their invading lawns or flower beds.”

Karlik concurred that most ornamental grasses have a bunch-type growth habit and therefore do not spread much by rhizomes or stolon (stems that grow along the ground). He also said most ornamentals do not spread much, if at all, by seed.

Karlik said fountain grass, mondo grass, blue fescue and deer grass are suitable for residential use. And Kroeger said all of the California native ornamental grasses grown at CALM — deer grass, rye grass, eleocharis, blue-eyed grass and Juncus balticus — can be grown at home.

Spring and fall are good times to plant ornamental grasses.

source : www.bakersfield.com

BY ERIN WALDNER, Californian staff writer
e-mail: ewaldner@bakersfield.com