Until fairly recently, grasses were not really a staple in the gardener’s palette. Even now, if you google grass garden you will find plenty of entries on grass killing herbicides or, alternatively, aids for establishing lawns which are then sheared down to within an inch of their lives. Fortunately, the arching plumes of the many ornamental grasses have changed lots of minds on this subject.

My own preference is for what you might call landscape or meadow grasses, especially those which emulate the way grasses grow in the wild as in this picture taken yesterday in Australia’s Great Otway National Park. If you want to see some pics of how beautiful grasses can be used in the garden context, check here and here.