Ornamental grasses under 3 feet
Ornamental grasses and sedges up to 3 ft (90 cm) tall, for small gardens and the front and middle of a bed.
Grasses bring what flowers cannot: movement, sound and a long season. They catch the light low in the evening, stand through winter as straw-coloured shapes, and between bolder plants their fine leaves are the calm that makes the rest stand out.
The small ones on this list fit the front and middle of a bed. Warm-season grasses wake late (leave last year's growth until late winter, then cut it down); cool-season ones grow in spring and autumn and may rest in summer heat.
60 plants: 60 grasses.
The dozen to start with
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Japanese forest grass
18 in · grown for its leaves
The plain green species: a cascading mound of bright green, bamboo-like leaves that all flow in one direction, like water over a stone.
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Pink muhly grass
3 ft · mid September to early November
In October a quiet mound of wiry, dark green leaves disappears under a billowing cloud of vivid pink that looks like cotton candy.
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Little bluestem
3 ft · grown for its leaves · host plant
Blue-green summer blades turn copper and bronze in autumn and hold their colour through winter.
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Blue fescue
10 in · grown for its leaves
A compact ornamental grass that forms neat tufts of striking blue-silver blades.
A bed planned only from these plants
The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and full sun, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.
The plants
- 1 Moor grass 'Greenlee' × 8, tan
- 2 Blue moor grass × 8, purple
- 3 Oriental fountain grass 'Karley Rose' × 1, pink
- 4 Switchgrass 'Cheyenne Sky' × 8, purple
- 5 Gray's sedge × 11, green
- 6 Leatherleaf sedge × 2, bronze leaves
- 7 Blue grama 'Blonde Ambition' × 4, cream
Planned as a contemporary bed: 38 of the 38 plants that stand in groups (100%) are set out in a pattern with their neighbours: a straight row, a triangle, or five like the five on a dice. The flowering is at its height from late July, with 5 kinds out together. The bones of the bed are oriental fountain grass 'Karley Rose' and leatherleaf sedge. The Design check says heights needs revision.
The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 3 Good, 1 Satisfactory, 1 Needs revision. Its weakest point is height and scale: Heights average about 14 in at the front, 2½ ft in the middle and 3 ft at the back. Along the back row the heights step up and down, between 2½ ft and 3 ft, and no two neighbours are the same height. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
All 60 plants
Show all 60, by where they go in a bed
Front of a bed 34
- Appalachian sedge 10 in · grown for its leaves
- Autumn moor grass 16 in · mid August to early October
- Blue fescue 10 in · grown for its leaves
- Blue fescue 'Elijah Blue' 10 in · grown for its leaves
- Blue moor grass 10 in · mid April to mid May
- Blue sedge 10 in · grown for its leaves
- Blue sedge 'Blue Zinger' 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Bowles' golden grass 18 in · grown for its leaves
- Bristleleaf sedge 8 in · grown for its leaves
- Corkscrew rush 16 in · grown for its leaves
- Fountain grass 'Burgundy Bunny' 16 in · late July to mid September
- Fountain grass 'Little Bunny' 14 in · late July to mid September
- Greater woodrush 16 in · early May to early June
- Japanese forest grass 18 in · grown for its leaves
- Japanese forest grass 'All Gold' 14 in · grown for its leaves
- Japanese forest grass 'Aureola' 16 in · grown for its leaves
- Japanese forest grass 'Beni-kaze' 24 in · grown for its leaves
- Japanese sedge 'Ice Dance' 14 in · grown for its leaves
- Moor grass 'Greenlee' 12 in · mid May to late August
- Orange New Zealand sedge 18 in · grown for its leaves
- Pennsylvania sedge 8 in · grown for its leaves
- Prairie dropseed 'Tara' 24 in · early August to mid September
- Purple love grass 16 in · early August to mid September
- Sedge 'Bunny Blue' 10 in · grown for its leaves
- Sedge 'Everest' 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Sedge 'Evergold' 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Sedge 'Everillo' 14 in · grown for its leaves
- Sedge 'Frosted Curls' 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Seersucker sedge 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Snowy woodrush 18 in · late May to late June
- Sweet flag 'Ogon' 10 in · grown for its leaves
- Variegated broadleaf sedge 8 in · grown for its leaves
- Variegated Japanese sedge 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Wavy hair grass 16 in · early June to late July
Middle of a bed 26
- Atlas fescue 2½ ft · late May to late June
- Blue grama 'Blonde Ambition' 2½ ft · mid July to mid October
- Blue oat grass 2½ ft · early June to early July
- Blue rush 'Blue Arrows' 3 ft · grown for its leaves
- Bottlebrush grass 3 ft · late June to late August · host plant
- Bowles' golden sedge 2½ ft · grown for its leaves
- Dwarf fountain grass 'Hameln' 2½ ft · late July to mid September
- Gray's sedge 2½ ft · late May to early September
- Leatherleaf sedge 24 in · grown for its leaves
- Little bluestem 3 ft · grown for its leaves · host plant
- Little bluestem 'The Blues' 3 ft · early August to early October · host plant
- Mexican feather grass 20 in · early June to late July
- Northern sea oats 'River Mist' 2½ ft · late July to mid September · host plant
- Oriental fountain grass 'Karley Rose' 3 ft · late June to early October
- Palm sedge 2½ ft · grown for its leaves
- Pink muhly grass 3 ft · mid September to early November
- Prairie dropseed 2½ ft · mid August to mid September
- Purple moor grass 'Moorhexe' 2½ ft · mid July to early September
- Purple moor grass 'Variegata' 24 in · mid July to mid September
- Quaking grass 24 in · late May to mid July
- Sideoats grama 2½ ft · early July to mid August
- Soft rush 3 ft · grown for its leaves
- Switchgrass 'Cheyenne Sky' 3 ft · late July to mid September · host plant
- Tufted hair grass 3 ft · late June to late August
- Tufted hair grass 'Goldtau' 24 in · mid June to late August
- Tussock sedge 2½ ft · grown for its leaves