Saturday, September 12, 2015

Grass love ~


Between water restrictions and increasingly hotter summers gardeners here in Southern California are spending lots of time rethinking their landscapes, looking for plants that will thrive, look good, and do well under these adverse conditions.

With this in mind I am looking forward to adding more ornamental grasses to my garden. They are tough, the foliage adds interest and when the sun shines through the blooms they are ethereally beautiful.

Cutting them back every winter is the only care they seem to need.

Red Fountain Grass by the pond

I already have quite a few grasses. I am very fond of the Red Fountain Grass, Pennisetum rubrum and have several scattered around. Even when out of bloom they add a wonderful burst of burgundy color

I love this dwarf Pampas grass which is planted in the back garden.This variety stays small and fits quite nicely in my garden. When it blooms in early fall it is spectacular. I would really like to add another one...or two. This one hardly ever gets water and look at it.


Dwarf Pampas grass by the green house

With all of this in mind I was very pleased to walk into Home Depot and find a nice selection of ornamental grasses.  Two of them are new to me, Fireworks Pennisetum, a variegated variety and Panicum Cheyenne Sky which promises blue green foliage with red tips in the fall.



Lucky me.

 These will be a great addition to my garden. Look how beautiful they will be in the early morning sun. Spectacular


...now I am going to check online for another dwarf Pampas grass, then I will be perfectly satisfied...well for a little while anyway. Pretty soon it will be time to plant bulbs.

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Today we finally have some relief from our continual bout of hot, hot weather and the El Nino seems to be gathering steam. Hooray!

Thank you for visiting.

7 comments:

  1. I've invested in a lot of deer and drought tolerant plants too.
    We id have a new lawn installed in our back garden and it will be established by next spring and summer. We hope that we will be able to continue a bi weekly watering...but time will tell.
    Our recent storm has filled up the reservoirs ~ i wish you lots of rain!

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  2. Love the grasses they are beautiful. AS my roses die I am not replacing them, will add more drought plants.
    My Lion Tail plant is going crazy and look wonderful.
    I sure hope that we get a lot of RAIN - I am sick of watering only two days a week.
    Have a great Sunday.
    Mary

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  3. Grasses are so lovely, I especially love the blue oat grass and the maiden grasses we can grow here. I can only grow the purple fountain grass as an annual, because of our winters, but it's beautiful. I loved viewing all your pretty photos of your grasses.
    sending hugs...

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  4. Your grasses are indeed beautiful! I love them too because they are so maintenance free yet add such great free form in the garden. The worst part is cutting them back, but at least that's just once a year!
    Mary Alice

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  5. We were hearing all about the drought and forest fires on the radio news this morning. So sad to hear that people lose everything when the fire moves into areas where there are houses.
    Ornamental grasses are a great idea. They do take a fair bit of abuse weather wise. They look spectacular in your garden Adrienne.

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  6. Ornamental grasse in the garden are just so pretty and add some much contrast; and the best part of it is the easy maintenance. The look so stunning in your garden!!!
    Here in the Minneapolis area, I've notice how these types of grasses are being used more and more in people's gardens.

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  7. Thanks so much for this information. I have to let you know I concur on several of the points you make here and others may require some further review, but I can see your viewpoint. Artificial Grass Lawn Bolton

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