Daily Dose Blogger Bios
Does This Say "Beach" to You?
I love ornamental grasses - they add so much to a garden, I can't even tell you. They are textural powerhouses, giving you a sharp/linear/blade-y vibe and a soft focus/fuzzy/wispy thing going on all at once. I can't think of a garden that I wouldn't use grasses in - they capture the air; bending and swaying in the slightest breeze - dancing in what otherwise could be a static landscape. So why are some people so opposed to grasses in their yards? So often, when I'm presenting people with the plants I'd like to use in their gardens, they'll poo-poo these beauties - and the reason I am given 7 times out of 10 - is that it's "too beach-y" What? Beach-y? I think beach and I see palms, rocks, sand, seaweed... never prairie grasses! Can anyone explain this to me?
Anyway, even if grasses were "beach-y" so what? I don't understand people who segregate plant material- we can't use a mediterranean plant and a tropical one in the same grouping! Cactus and tulips- hiss, boo! Who made these rules so hard and fast? I feel that if you can make plants work together culturally, mix away! Eclecticism is the way of the Post Millenium! Let's all get on the bus! Pennisetum orientale = beautiful garden plant ... use it!
I love ornamental grasses--they're gorgeous, easy to grow, make lovely sounds in the winds, lovely shadows as the sun sets... One of my favorite photos is one I took of a sunset over the harbor, through the ornamental grass in my mother-in-law's back yard. It's the fluffy kind and it was November, so the grass was all dried out and pale, and just glowed.
I wonder if it's people who didn't grow up with a yard, so they want something really manicured. Or who grew up in the Midwest, like me, and they see the median of HIghway 80 when they look at ornamental grasses.
It's true, Kathy - alot of people see these grasses and think "...wait - isn't this freeway grass?" And nobody wants 'freewaygrass'. But there are so many beautiful plants related to the common, dependible, drought tolerant, tough-as-nails Pennisetum setaceum (or, freeway grass) and it would be a shame to turn up our noses at them because they look too 'common'. That's just plain plant snobbery.
Hi Katef (I've got to go to your blog and tell you about a meal I cooked the other night!)- I agree with you 100%! Look at the quality of the plant itself, and love it or hate it for those reasons, right? One of my favorite moments in my garden is in the evening, when the sun goes down and back lights my mexican feather grass. It almost breaks my heart.
Just wondering: how do you people keep grasses free of debris like dead leaves from nearby trees?
Hi there Suasoria! How've you been? I'm sure things in the garden are getting pretty interesting...
I happen to have 3 huge sycamore and 2 super big liquidamber in and around my garden - and those are some of the biggest leaves around (well, the sycamores, anyway). I have lots of grasses, and the qualities that make them such a great textural foil for other plants also make them easy to deal with, leaf litter- wise. The blades are long and move easily with the wind, so leaves rarely get caught in the grass - if they do, they'll tend to fall to the ground with the next breeze. If some get caught anyway, I just give the grasses a good shake and let the leaf litter fall where it will. I'm a big lover of leaf litter, much to my maintenance man's annoyance. I want it to stay around and rot and feed my plants, so even if things look a little unkempt, I don't mind. What about you?
Meh. Mr. S likes grasses and grasslike foliage but rarely takes the time to de-litter them. Maybe our trees are messier than most. I'm happy with leaf litter on the ground, not that happy with it clogging up the foliage.
There must be grasses growing near the shore somewhere, because landscape painters seem to love to put grass in their seascapes.