Ornamental Grasses

  • By Ann-Marie Volz
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  • 22 Feb, 2022
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Know what you are getting into with ornamental grasses.

Ornamental grasses are often considered low maintenance plants.  While I love ornamental grasses, my garden sports two types,  they do require more care than the shrubs planted nearby.  While they are prized for their deer resistance, blossoms, and gracefulness, homeowners looking for "set them and forget them" plantings should carefully consider their grass selection before planting one or dozens.

The genus Miscanthus, which includes the many varieties of maiden grass, is very popular and probably the highest maintenance grass I have ever worked with in a landscape.  It is a majestic grass, and there are several species and cultivars available.  The most common are Miscanthus sinensis, which includes 'Morning Light' and porcupine grass.

These grasses need to be trimmed down, either in the fall or the very early spring.   They tend to grow rapidly, some are clump forming and some spread from rhizomes.   Therefore, the trimming down (and hauling away) job gets to be a bigger task every season.  From one landscape, I take an entire truckload of grass tops away after they blossom!

Eventually, these grasses expand so much at the base that they need to be transplanted.  Depending on soil, light and moisture, this can happen in only their second or third season in the ground. Compare that to most other landscape shrubs, which may not need transplanting for years, if ever, and may only need a quick seasonal trimming.  Failure to divide or thin these specimens results in grasses that spread awkwardly, are devoid of growth at their centers, and lose their graceful appearance.

Lifting an established maiden grass is no small task!  From my experience, this dreadful chore can be made easier by NOT lifting the grass out of the ground at all, but by digging out only the parts of the grass system that have grown out of bounds.  Still, It is a rough sport.  The blades are sharp, and the roots hold tight.

I recommend waiting until the fall.  Then, I cut them down and drive a very sharp shovel into the grass where I want to divide it.  I work at removing this area, and then I fill in the void space with fresh soil.  Often, this results in a chunk of grass that you can replant elsewhere.   The established grass won't know what happened, and though you may have injured a few small spots, the grass will resume growth just fine in the spring.

The genus Calamagrostis includes the feather reed grasses, which are some of my favorite to work with.  They tend to grow upright and then arch slightly, where the maiden grasses grow in a wide fountain.  This makes placing them in the landscape a little easier.  They grow in clumps, and I have many in landscapes that have needed no transplanting for many years.   I typically trim these grasses in the spring, though some homeowners prefer I do it in the fall.  

Molina is a genus of grasses commonly referred to as moor grass.  'Karl Forester' is a cultivar I love to employ in landscapes.  It grows slowly and dutifully retains it's shape and form for years.  Though it is often labeled as a tall moor grass, it typically reaches just three feet, with blooms shooting above the foliage in mid summer.  This is a better grass for homeowners who want an easy to grow and maintain ornamental grass.  For homeowners who prefer to chop their grasses down in late fall because they prefer a tidy winter landscape as opposed to an interesting winter landscape (not judging!), the advantage here is the early blossom.  It is not easy for a gardener like me to take down a grass still sporting gorgeous blooms, as the maiden grasses do in late fall. 

Several cultivars of switch grass, which were a large part of our prairie grass heritage, grow well here, but they range from bamboo like grass to stiff upright clumps, and in foliage from yellows to reds and silvery blues.  I do find these grasses to be somewhat invasive, and are more appropriately used in very naturalized settings.  In a formal landscape, they look messy.

The Pennisetum, or fountain grasses, that will tolerate our zone 5 conditions are beautiful when mixed with evergreen plantings or to accent stone walls.  The fuzzy light colored blossoms of the 'Hameln' grass are a wonderful contrast to Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) or the burgundy red foliage of Ninebark (Physocarpus).  Yes, they need to be trimmed back as other grasses do, and eventually require dividing to repair an empty center, but their compact size eases the pain a bit.The Pennisetum 'Rubrum' has gorgeous burgundy foliage and pink to reddish blooms, but it is an annual here. Use it in containers, but don't expect to see it in your garden next year.
 
No matter what grass you choose to buy and plant, and there are many more than those I mentioned here, please plant early in the season.  From my experience here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, ornamental grasses need to be well established to survive our winters, and that takes time.  And above all, LOOK CAREFULLY AT THE TAG.  Many ornamental grasses are labeled perennial because they are, but not here.  We are zone 5! On my particular hill, I have learned to do a bit more research into the hardiness of particular plants.  Even zone 5 plants may die above ground here. 

Happy planting!

Stay in Your Zone!

By Ann-Marie Volz • February 23, 2022
We are zone 5! We are zone 5! We are zone 5! I cannot stress this enough. I don't know how many times I wandered the aisles of a big box store to see rows and rows of flowers and shrubs placed under a huge banner that says Perennials . Yet, looking at the tags, the hydrangeas and grasses and flowering perennials were clearly only hardy in zones 7 to 9. I could not help but point this out to a very nice lady about to purchase several shrubs last season, who asked the associate at this particular big box store, if they would come back next year. The associate looked at the banner above them and said, yes, these are all perennials . True, but not here. The labels read Zone 7.

This is the very first reason you should buy your plants, shrubs and trees from a LOCAL garden center. Your local garden center would never do such a thing! They actually care about the plants they sell. They water them, often three times a day, not when an "associate" has a spare minute. And their employees typically share your passion for plants. They may not all be experts, but there is likely to be an expert nearby. They work long hours at a seasonal job for a reason, they love it!  

So why was I there in the first place? Hard goods. it is very difficult for a local garden center to compete price wise in the area of soil and bagged mulch. And while I do prefer bulk soil and mulches, these are just not a workable option for some gardens and landscapes. While it makes sense for these stores to sell plants alongside their hard goods, they have been at it for years now and still do a very poor job. Unless you really know what you are looking for, I rarely recommend a big box store as a plant source.

Online plant purchasing is becoming more and more popular. I've been dabbling in it a bit, mostly for varieties I cannot find locally, but more for liner plants that I can grow into landscape plants myself. But the zone warning is just as important for online ordering. Often this is done from a lovely catalog, where the enticing pictures and prices may eclipse the small print indicating hardiness zone.

So pay close attention to the tags, labels, and fine print! Read them before you purchase. Ignore the perennial sign, and focus on the zone! Better yet, drive to the nearest local garden center and buy a plant that was selected by a knowledgeable member of their staff to grow and thrive in your garden.

Happy planting!
 

Landscape Fabric

By Ann-Marie Volz • February 12, 2022
Landscape fabric is a real pet peeve of mine.  I have ripped out so many hundreds, maybe thousands, of feet of landscape fabric in my time that I would, if I had the money, take out full page adds in every major publication to tell people to STOP using it in gardens.  However, it does have its' uses, as you will see in a moment.

First of all, landscape fabric is often sold as a method of weed control.  So, let's discuss weeds for just a moment.  Weeds that grow in your garden arrived there by one or all of the following ways.  They grew from a  weed seed that was blown into your garden by the wind or transported there by an animal (i.e. bird droppings) or insect. Or, they grew underground from a nearby location.  Some weeds (which is any unwanted plant) can grow very long distances underground!  Members of the mint family travel quite well this way.  Finally, weeds also grow overground. Ground ivy, a bane to lawn lovers and gardeners alike, is this kind of traveler.

Now back to fabric.  Fabric will not stop any weeds from growing in your garden.  As for the weed seeds, they will sprout in mulch or even stone and the fabric you've painstakingly put down may slow their progress.  But most weeds have roots so fine that they can and will weave through the fabric.  If you get them before, or just as that process starts, well then, you can say the fabric worked.   And by get them , I mean WEED.  So, now you are busy pulling weeds so that they do not root into your fabric.  How is that different from weeding so that weeds do not root into your soil?  I wonder!  If you don't get that weed in time, then the roots will grow and when you try to pull out that weed, you will tear your fabric and, very likely, leave enough root matter behind for the weed to grow right back, and better, now that you've made a nice hole in the fabric. 

As for weeds that grow underground, now there is a real danger to gardens and landscapes.  Why?  Because those underground runners are looking for a place to surface and grow.  I have lifted fabric in established gardens to find massive networks of such roots and runners.   Sadly, they often surface at the crown or your plants, that is, where you have cut a hole in the fabric to plant your flower, or shrub or tree.  And, chances are , you will not notice it down there until it is far too enmeshed with your prized plant to ever get it out.  This is a terrible thing and I've seen it happen over and over again.  

Those underground roots and runners will also find a place to surface at the edge of your garden, where the fabric stops. And they will surface and grow there with reckless abandon.   At that point, the unsuspecting gardener will start pulling, and discover with dismay, that everything they are pulling is attached to long roots and runners.  And now, oh what a mess, the fabric is completely pulled up! 

Fabric may more successfully slow down the progress of weeds that spread by growing overground.  And, it may be easy to pull these  culprits out of the garden as they struggle to take hold through the fabric.  But of course, that amounts to diligent weeding, and I'm pretty sure most people buy and use fabric because they think they will not have to weed. 

Still, I am a professional gardener and I do buy landscape fabric.  Why?  For two reason and two reason only.  Number one, fabric, even if you have to use cheap fabric, should be applied under stone and gravel.   Notice that I have it employed in the picture above.  It provides a barrier that prevents your stone and gravel from sinking into the soil below over time.  Weeds sprout in stone and gravel eventually, but can be treated with a dash of boric acid, or some other natural herbicide.  After the weed dies, it can be removed without making a huge hole in the fabric.  Number two, high quality, non-woven fabric can be used by itself as a pathway in vegetable gardens.  It will get slippery, so care must be taken to keep it clean.  Non woven fabric has the look and feel of thick felt.  And it is the only fabric I will use in my two exceptions for using fabric. 

Here are two more reasons to avoid fabric in gardens and landscapes, which have nothing to do with weeds.  Gardens are a process.  The soil around your plants should be cultivated from time to time, and amended with organic matter.  If you use natural mulch, it is supposed to break down and be reapplied every so often.  You can't do any of that when fabric is present.  And the truth is, all fabric will eventually get ripped out and thrown into a landfill, and I think it is high time we all become more conscious of how much we send to the landfill! 

There are those who use fabric seasonally in vegetable gardens.  I used to do this myself.  But I have been converted to using straw or hay or cover crops.  Any or all of which look better, work better, save money, and return organic matter to the soil.

So, in conclusion,  if you are going to have to weed anyway, why spend your time and money on fabric?  But if you are doing anything with stone or gravel, make that anything last longer and cleaner with a layer of fabric beneath.     

Your comments are welcome!  Gardeners learn from gardeners.

The PH Scale

By Ann-Marie Volz • March 8, 2019
Baffled by PH? This post will help you understand the basics.
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