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Ornamental Grasses That Add Texture and Movement to Your Landscape
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items When it comes to adding year-round beauty, movement, and texture to your landscape, few plants offer the versatility and low-maintenance charm of ornamental grasses. Often overlooked in favor of flowering shrubs or perennials, these graceful growers ...
This award-winning grass is a landscape designer’s dream. With its narrow, upright habit and feathery wheat-colored plumes, Feather Reed Grass ‘Karl Foerster’ adds vertical interest and gentle sway to garden beds. It thrives in full sun and tolerates...
Feather Reed Grass 'Karl Foerster'
Compact, cool-toned, and low-growing, Blue Fescue forms tidy mounds of spiky steel-blue foliage that hold their color through the heat of summer. It’s often used as an edging plant, in rock gardens, or to fill small gaps in mixed borders.
Blue Fescue (Festuca glauca)
This North American native shines in late summer with burgundy-tinted blades and airy seed heads that shimmer in the sunlight. Switchgrass ‘Shenandoah’ is a more compact variety, perfect for smaller spaces and mixed borders.
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’)
Looking for something elegant for the shade? Japanese Forest Grass is one of the few ornamental grasses that thrives in low light. Its arching golden blades spill over rocks, walls, and borders like a living waterfall.
Japanese Forest Grass Hakonechloa macra
When fall rolls around, Pink Muhly Grass puts on a show. Its billowing, cotton-candy-like plumes in soft pinks and purples add an ethereal touch to any sunny garden. It’s particularly stunning when planted en masse.
Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris)
Another American native, Little Bluestem offers fine-textured foliage that changes color with the seasons—from blue-green in summer to reddish-orange in fall. Its upright form brings structure and contrast.
Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
Compact and graceful, Fountain Grass ‘Hameln’ is one of the most popular varieties of fountain grass. Its soft, bottlebrush-like plumes arch over narrow green blades, offering a breezy, naturalistic feel to borders and containers.
Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’)
This distinctive grass features flattened, drooping seed heads that resemble oat sprays—especially lovely when backlit by the sun. It’s ideal for shady spots and adds a woodland vibe to the garden.
Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)
This tropical beauty is grown as an annual in colder climates but worth the effort for its dramatic burgundy foliage and fluffy, purple plumes. It’s a showstopper in containers and mixed summer beds.
Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum)
With tall, arching blades and fine texture, Maiden Grass adds elegance and movement to large garden beds. Its late-summer plumes emerge coppery and fade to silver, creating a shimmering winter silhouette.
Maiden Grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’)
A more refined cousin of ‘Gracillimus’, Japanese Silver Grass ‘Morning Light’ boasts narrow variegated blades with silvery-white margins that sparkle in the sun. This variety is prized for its tidy form and soft glow.
Japanese Silver Grass
True to its name, Zebra Grass has bold horizontal stripes across its green blades. It adds a playful and exotic touch to sunny beds while still delivering all the vertical drama Miscanthus is known for.
Zebra Grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’)
Not all ornamental grasses are true grasses. Sedge belongs to a different plant family but behaves similarly in the landscape. ‘Evergold’ is a low-growing variety with creamy yellow and green variegated leaves—perfect for shady borders and containers...
Sedge (Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’)
This Southeastern native is a hidden gem, with silvery-white seed heads that glint in the sun and wave in the wind. It turns purplish-bronze in the fall and offers valuable wildlife habitat.
Silver Beardgrass (Andropogon ternarius)
A cool-season grass that forms neat mounds and sends up delicate, airy flower panicles in early summer. Its fine texture and adaptability make it a graceful addition to both formal and naturalistic designs.
Tufted Hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa)