Ornamental grasses have never been so popular…and for good reason.They have attractive summer foliage that dances in the wind and often persists, after changing color, through the autumn and even the winter.
Plus many have feathery flowerheads that are just as long-lasting. They can create islands, hedges or screens in the garden or simply fit here and there in a flower bed. And there are varieties that are suitable for sun or shade, dry or wet soil, clay, loamy or sandy soils, cold climates and hot climates, etc. In fact, whatever your requirements, there is always a choice of ornamental grasses that will meet your needs!
Landscape architects and city planners have been at the forefront of the popularity of ornamental grasses. Many in fact include them in all their projects. Still, many home gardeners hesitate to try ornamental grasses. After all, aren’t they invasive?
Ornamental grasses are popular additions to gardens and landscapes, providing unique texture, movement, and visual interest. While large ornamental grasses make a dramatic statement, small ornamental grasses offer charm and detail on a more intimate scale. With their delicate textures and colors, small ornamental grasses weave beautifully into beds and borders.
If you have a small garden space, small ornamental grasses are ideal. Their petite size – ranging from just a few inches to around two or three feet tall – allows them to fit nicely into tight spots. Mass several together for a fuller effect or tuck them in as accents alongside other plants. Even containers and window boxes benefit from a grass or two for added flair.
With so many varieties boasting different shapes, sizes, and colors, small ornamental grasses offer seemingly endless options to complement your garden style. Let’s explore some top choices for adding artful elegance with these petite plants.
Popular Types of Small Ornamental Grasses
Blue Fescue
Blue fescue (Festuca glauca) is one of the most popular small ornamental grasses, growing just 9-12 inches tall. Its icy blue foliage forms tidy mounds or clumps with slim leaves. Yellow flowers on thin stems appear in summer but are less showy than the striking silver-blue foliage that persists all season. Blue fescue thrives in full sun and well-drained soil. Use it in rock gardens, along walkways, or in containers.
Japanese Sedge
Japanese sedge (Carex morrowii) features arching green and cream variegated leaves. It forms neat mounds or clumps around 1 foot tall and wide. Japanese sedge does best in partial shade with consistently moist soil. It works nicely planted under trees and shrubs.
Dwarf Fountain Grass
As its name implies, dwarf fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) is a miniature version of the popular, large fountain grass. This low-growing grass has arching green leaves and foxtail-like blooms that emerge pinkish-purple before fading to tan. It reaches 1-3 feet tall and wide. Dwarf fountain grass thrives in full sun and well-drained soil. Use it in borders, rock gardens, or containers.
Maiden Grass
While maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis) can grow quite large, many compact cultivars max out around 2-4 feet tall. ‘Little Kitten’ and ‘Adagio’ are two excellent dwarf maiden grass choices. This graceful grass has arching stems with delicate flowers that bloom in late summer. The flower plumes turn lovely shades of bronze, red, and burgundy in fall. Maiden grass does best in full sun and moist, well-drained soil.
Japanese Forest Grass
As one of the few grasses that thrives in shade, Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra) brings graceful texture to shady gardens. Its cascading mounds of slender green leaves resemble bamboo. Variegated types like ‘Aureola’ and ‘All Gold’ add pops of gold color. Japanese forest grass grows 1-2 feet tall and wide, spreading slowly. Give it humus-rich soil and consistent moisture.
Dwarf Mondo Grass
If you’re seeking an easy-care grass for groundcover, dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) is a top pick Also known as monkey grass, this grass forms a lush, soft carpet of grassy foliage around 4-6 inches tall Tiny lilac flowers appear in summer followed by dark berry-like fruit. Dwarf mondo grass tolerates sun or shade, heat, drought, and poor soil once established.
Sweet Flag Grass
Sweet flag (Acorus gramineus) offers straplike, fragrant foliage and makes a lovely low-growing grass around 1 foot tall ‘Ogon’ is a popular golden variegated cultivar Sweet flag thrives in consistently moist soil and partial sun to shade. Use it along ponds, streams, or water gardens. Plant it singly or in groups as an elegant groundcover.
Designing With Small Ornamental Grasses
The modest size of small ornamental grasses makes them quite versatile in garden designs. Here are some tips for using these petite plants to their best advantage:
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Mass several of one variety together for fullness and impact. This allows the grasses’ textures and colors to shine.
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Use small grasses as specimen plants surrounded by mulch or pavers. Let them stand alone as focal points.
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Edge walkways, patios, and flower beds with a border of low grasses for visual interest and tidy separation.
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Mix grasses in containers with annuals and perennials for added color, shape, and height.
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Underplant small grasses beneath shrubs and trees. Their fine textures contrast nicely with broader leaves.
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Scatter clumps of grass throughout cottage gardens and rock gardens for casual charm.
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Grow spreading grasses like mondo grass as living groundcovers to suppress weeds.
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Site grasses beside ponds, streams, or water features. Their graceful shapes complement water beautifully.
Caring for Small Ornamental Grasses
While adaptable and low-maintenance compared to many garden plants, small ornamental grasses do have some care requirements:
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Most prefer full sun for at least 6 hours per day, with some tolerating partial shade.
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Well-drained soil is essential. Add organic matter like compost to improve drainage if needed.
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Water grasses regularly until established, then taper off. Most are quite drought tolerant once their root systems develop.
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Apply a 2-4 inch layer of mulch around each grass to conserve moisture and insulate roots. Leave some space between mulch and the crown.
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Cut back ornamental grass foliage to a few inches above ground in late winter before new growth emerges. Remove dead growth improves appearance.
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Divide grasses when they outgrow their space, usually every 2-4 years. Spring is best for division.
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Fertilize grasses lightly in early spring and midsummer if needed. Too much fertilizer leads to floppy, excess growth.
With minimal upkeep needed, small ornamental grasses reward gardeners with graceful elegance. Their fine textures and colors intermingle beautifully with other plants while adding unique style. For gardens short on space but longing for charm, petite ornamental grasses fit the bill perfectly.
How to Recognize an Invasive Grass Just by looking at how this plant grows in its pot, you can see that it is a clumping grass: the leaves form a dense clump. Photo:
It is easy to distinguish between a potentially invasive grass and a clumping grass at the time of purchase. Just look in the pot. If the stems already form a dense clump, you’ll know it’s a clumping grass; if the stems are relatively close together, but without forming a real tuft, it’s a grass with short rhizomes; and if there are well separated individual stems that emerge here and there from the pot, it’s a creeping grass, likely to be at least a little invasive. Simple, isn’t it?
Here are three lists of popular ornamental grasses, categorized by their rooting type.
Note that the “zone” (hardiness zone). It tells which climatic zones the plants is likely to thrive in. For more informaton on hardiness zones, read Understanding Hardiness Zones
These grasses grow in clumps and are not invasive.
- Autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis) zones 4 to 8
- Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) zones 3 to 9
- Blue fescue (Festuca glauca) zones 3 to 8
- Blue grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis) zones 3 to 10
Blue oat grass (Helictorichon sempervirens). Photo:
- Blue oat grass (Helictorichon sempervirens) zones 4 to 8
- Bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix, syn. Hystrix patula) zones 4 to 9
- Bowles’ golden sedge (Carex elata ‘Aureus’, syn. ‘Bowles Golden’) zones 5 to 9
- Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) zones variable, 4, 5 or 6 to 9
- Clumping hardy bamboo (Fargesia spp.) zones 4 to 9
- Common rush or soft rush (Juncus effusus) zones 4 to 9
- Corkscrew rush (Juncus effusus ‘Spiralis’) zones 5 to 9
- Drooping sedge (Carex pendula) zones 5 to 9
- Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) zones 8 to 10
- Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis × acutiflora) zones 4 to 9
- Flame grass (Miscanthus sinensis purpurascens) zones 4 to 9
- Fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) zones 5b to 9
Foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum). Photo:
- Foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum) zones 3 to 10
- Frost grass (Spodiopogon sibiricus) zones 4 to 9
- Golden foxtail grass (Alopecurus pratensis ‘Aureovariegatus’) zones 2 to 9
- Gray sedge (Carex grayi) zones 2 to 9
- Great Basin Wild Rye (Elymus cinereus) zones 3 to 9
- Great woodrush (Luzula sylvatica) zones 3 to 9
- Hare’s tail grass (Lagurus ovatus) annual
- Japanese grass sedge (Carex morrowii) zones 5 to 9
- Large blue hairgrass (Koeleria glauca) zones 4 to 9
- Leatherleaf sedge (Carex buchananii) zones 6 to 9
- Lesser quaking grass (Briza minor) annual
- Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) zones 3 to 9
- Mexican feathergrass (Nasella tenuissima, Stipa tenuissima) zones 7 to 10
- Moor grass (Molinia caerulea) zones 4 to 8
- Oriental fountain grass (Pennisetum orientalis) zones 5b to 8
- Oshima sedge (Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’) zones 5 to 9
- Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) zones 8 to 10
- Plantainleaf sedge (Carex plantaginea) zones 3 to 8
- Purple fountain grass (Cenchrus × cupreus ‘Rubrum’, syn. Pennisetum × advena ‘Rubrum’ and P. setaceum ‘Rubrum’) zones 8 to 10
- Purple moor grass (Molinia arundinacea, syn. Molinia caerulea arundinacea) zones 4 to 8
- Quaking grass (Briza media) zones 4 to 8
- Ravena grass (Saccharum ravennae, syn. Erianthus ravennae) zones 5 to 9
Reed grass (Calamagrostis arundinacea, syn. C. brachytricha). Photo:
- Reed grass (Calamagrostis arundinacea, syn. C. brachytricha) zones 4 to 9
- Rubytop (Melinus nerviglume, syn. Rhynchelytrum nerviglume) zones 9 to 11
- Sheep fescue (Festuca ovina) zones 4 to 8
- Snowy woodrush (Luzula nivea) zones 4 to 9
- Tall cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium) zones 1 to 8
- Tufted fescue (Festuca amethystina) zones 4 to 8
- Tufted hair grass (Deschampsia caespitosa) zones 3 to 9
- Vernal sedge (Carex caryophyllea) zones 5 to 9
Yes, these grasses are creepers, but they only spread very slowly. They’re sometimes referred to as sod-forming grasses to distinguish them from the more invasive creeping grasses. They can easily they can be planted in a flowerbed without fear of them trying to take over. Japanese forest grass ‘All Gold’ (Hakonechloa macra). Photo:
- Bitter switchgrass (Panicum amarum) zones 2 to 9
- Blue-green sedge (Carex flacca) zones 4 to 9
- Broadleaf sedge (Carex siderosticha) zones 5 to 8
- Giant miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus, syn. M. floridulus) zones 4 to 9
- Golden wood millet (Milium effusum ‘Aureum’) zones 5 to 9
- Grassy-leaved sweet flag (Acorus gramineus) zones 5 to 9
- Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) zones 3 to 9
- Japanese forest grass or Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) zones 5 to 9
- Northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) zones 5b to 8
- Palm sedge (Carex muskingumensis) zones 2 to 9
- Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica) zones 3 to 8
- Prairie cord grass (Spartina pectinata ‘Aureomarginata’) zones 4 to 9
- Prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) zones 3 to 9
- Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) zones 3 to 9
- Striped tuber oat grass (Arrhenatherum bulbosum ‘Variegatus’) zones 4 to 9
- Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) zones 3 to 9
All creeping grasses are considered at least somewhat invasive and some are so dominant that you shouldn’t even think of releasing them into a cultivated zone without surrounding them with an impenetrable barrier of some sort. (Try sinking a large pot or bucket with the bottom removed into the ground and planting the invader inside: that will keep it in check). Common reed (Phragmites australis) is the best known invasive grass. It produces rhizomes up to 42 ft (13 m) long! Photo
- Blue joint or Canadian reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis) zones 3 to 7
- Bullrush (Typha spp.) zones 2 to 11
- Bushgrass (Calamagrostis epigejos) zones 3 to 9
- Canary reed grass or gardener’s garters (Phalaris arundinacea ‘Picta’) zones 2 to 9
- Common reed (Phragmites australis) zones 3 to 10
- Giant reed (Arundo donax) zones 6 to 10
- Japanese blood grass (Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’, syn. ‘Rubra’) zones 5 to 9
- Lyme grass (Leymus arenaria ‘Glauca’) zones 2 to 8
- Running hardy bamboos (Phyllostachys, Pleoblastus, Sasa, Pseudosasa, etc.) zones vary according to species, from 3, 4, 5, or 6, up to 9
- Silver banner grass or Amur silver grass (Miscanthus sacchariflorus) zones 3 to 9
Ornamental Grasses by Category
There are, in fact, 3 categories of ornamental grasses.
The first is creeping grasses, also called rhizomatous grasses, the ones that produce long rhizomes and quickly form large colonies. Think of the common reed (Phragmites australis), a grass often seen in roadside ditches where, in certain cases, it has been known to spread for dozens of miles (kilometres), all from a single original rhizome. Now, that’s invasive!
These grasses grow in clumps. They do expand in diameter over time, as does any perennial, but only very slowly. So they really aren’t invasive. If they do get too big, all you have to do is divide them… just like you would divide any other perennial.
There is also an intermediate group: grasses with short, determinate rhizomes, sometimes called sod-forming grasses. They do expand outward, but don’t go very far, forming a tuft perhaps less dense that that of a clumping grass, but nothing truly invasive. Again, all you need is shovel to cut out any excess growth: that will put the plant back in its place.
Types of Ornamental Grass and Which to Plant | NatureHills.com
FAQ
What are the smallest ornamental grasses?
- Mondo grass grows 12 to 18 inches tall; dwarf mondo grass grows 4 to 6 inches tall.
- Everest sedge grows 10 inches tall.
- Elijah Blue Blue Fescue reaches 12 inches tall.
- Lucerne Blue Eyed Grass grows 12 inches tall.
- Variegated features grape hyacinth-like flowers and grows 9 to 15 inches tall.
How do you keep ornamental grasses from getting too big?
To support them, try using a plant cage, the kind you use for tomato plants. They are dark green and unnoticeable. They will do an adequate job of supporting the grasses through rain and wind, You might also cut the top 8-12 inches off the grass when it is early in the season to reduce the weight load on the base.
Is there any grass that stays short?
Kurapia (Lippia nodiflora) If you’re truly committed to having a grass-like no-mow alternative, then look no further than Kurapia. Developed in Japan, Kurapia grows no taller than 2 to 3 inches and tolerates drought well.
What are the best low maintenance ornamental grasses?
Introduced Grasses such as Feather Reed Grass and Fountain Grass are beautiful, highly resilient, easy-to-grow, and proven garden favorites. These are popular across the country for their stunning foliage and exceptionally low-maintenance habits.