8 Ornamental Grasses for Coastal Gardens
Ornamental grasses are some of the simplest plants to design together on the shore because almost every ornamental grass tolerates the salt spray and harsh winds off the sea.
They seem great massed, which is also a great feature for the shore because massing plants helps the wind move up and over the plants without even giving them a beating.
But the number-one reason to appreciate using ornamental grasses at a coastal landscape is since they create the breezy setting a true advantage. The wind catches their wispy leaves and produces a graceful sense of movement in the landscape.
The rolling look of the beige flowers evokes the changing of the sand dunes or the whitecaps on the sea. There is no better way to reflect the beauty of the sea in your landscaping afterward by using decorative grasses, and these eight types will suit any coastal garden.
Blasen Landscape Architecture
Mexican feather grass: Nassella tenuissima is a finely textured, loosely swaying grass that seems to fit with the weathered, natural look of the shore. They hit 3 ft tall and tolerate harsh coastal winds, lean sandy soil and little water once established. Cut them back to a height of 5 inches when the blades begin clumping together and resembles big dreadlocks.
Kathleen Shaeffer Design
California red fescue: Festuca rubra is native to California and creates an excellent lawn replacement in coastal areas. It retains the sandy soil down and takes little water or care to come up with a flowing feel and healthy green appearance.
Daniel Nolan for Flora Grubb Gardens
Flax grass: Phormiu comes in a broad range of colors and sizes, from dwarf foot-tall specimens to spiky monsters 8 ft tall. Most contemporary cultivars top out around 6 or 5 feet tall and wide. They are available in colours like bright red, gold, glistening black, white, cream-variegated and more. Since they have such wide blades, they create an immediate dramatic influence from the coastal landscape. While their blades can be ruined by wind, they’re such vigorous growers that if you are eager to periodically thin out any damaged leaves, they will make a stunning showpiece plant for the coastal garden.
Debora carl landscape layout
Golden sweet flag: Acorus gramineus or “Ogon” is one of relatively few decorative grasses happy in partial or even complete shade. The cheery golden color brightens up the shady side of a coastal landscape, and this grass tolerates salt winds easily. Reaching only two feet tall and 3 feet wide, it’s happiest with routine water in the landscape and can even be utilized at a water feature or bog planting. On top of that this easygoing plant is evergreen.
Huettl Landscape Architecture
Feather reed grass: Calamagrostis x acutiflora “Karl Foerster” is an upright, slender marijuana with blond flowers (shown) from late summer through winter. Since it reaches 4 feet tall but only two feet wide, it can be an effective alternative against the home or near pathways where a wider plant would overtake the distance. Feather reed grass needs pruning only once a year in late winter or early spring before it begins to regrow. Cut it back to a height of 5 inches tall, and it will reward you with fresh new growth come spring and summer.
Melissa Gale Photography
Cape dash: Chondropetalum tectorum is an easy-to-grow plant that tolerates a wide assortment of soils as long as it’s watered regularly. It does well in full sunlight or with at least five hours of direct sunshine every day, and reaches about 4 ft tall and 6 ft wide. It fits in particularly well in contemporary coastal gardens since the dark brown (almost black) bracts and flowers make this type of solid display with contemporary elements such as rusty black or metal resin planters. It is evergreen and needs no pruning.
Lankford Associates Landscape Architects
This landscape includes two favored coast-loving grasses. The bigger grass in the foreground is blue oat grass, Helictotrichon sempervirens, which is an evergreen sun-loving grass that needs great drainage but is otherwise unfussy. The only maintenance blue oat grass needs is to have its own foliage combed every couple of weeks to remove the beige leaves. To comb, wear rubber gloves and then run your hands through the grass. The old leaves will stick to the rubber and come out readily.
The second kind of grass in this shot is maiden grass, Miscanthus sinensis or “Gracillimus”. This grass reaches about 5 ft tall and wide, and so creates a bolder statement from the landscape. The purple flower plumes in fall are a superb accent when seen against a coastal shore. Unfortunately, maiden grass is not evergreen and must be cut back to 6 inches tall in late winter or early spring.
More:
5 Hot Cool-Season Grasses
5 Smokin’ Warm-Season Grasses