These plants share the characteristics of blade-like leaves, and flowers with no petals. Generally, the varieties sold by nurseries form clumps, but some ornamental grasses also spread by runners. Grasses interplanted with flowers can really accent flower colors and provide fine texture and presence when the more ephemeral flowers stop blooming. Grasses come with leaves of many colors - brown, blue gray, bright green, rusty orange, white variegated, striped yellow, and burgundy. Ornamental grasses each have their own distinctive character and form and one must ask basic questions to determine the life strategy of the individual plant.
Grasses can be annual or perennial.
Annual kinds grown for their showy flowers typically are started from seed. At Sierra Azul we grow perennial species. Grasses can be deciduous or evergreen and there are advantages to the gardener in either strategy. The spiky, blue gray Helictotrichon sempervirens and the low, arching Calamagrostis foliosa look good all year. Periodic 'combing' with your fingers can often remove the old and dead blades that accumulate in the clumps over time.