Grasses for every situation
Post categories: Gilly Brennan
| 13:50 UK time, Sunday, 12 July 2009
As you struggle through the crowds at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show it's always fascinating to see what plants are filling the bags and pull-along trolleys of the visitors. This year the little pink heads of Sanguisorba officinalis 'Pink Tanna' can be seen waving in the breeze as dozens and dozens of them start their journey to their new home.
Who knows why this easy, sun-loving, herbaceous perennial has suddenly become the plant of the moment? A white variety features in Jane Seymour's garden in the Wives of Henry VIII category and it has been used in several others. It's a plant that looks good in naturalistic planting schemes. It marries well with grasses, having delicate ferny foliage and of course it looks good at the moment.
The plants that are doing it for me this year, apart from succulents of course (I've only bought three so far), are grasses. I know grasses have been fashionable for a while now, but it's not so much the plants, as how they are grown, that caught my eye this time.
Knoll Gardens ( ) have a stylish display outside their tent, all the grasses are planted in rusted metal containers. They are various heights but some are quite tall - 1m at least, this really shows off the cascading varieties and brings the shorter ones up to stroking height. That's the trouble with a lot of grasses, you just have to run your hands through them. On Oak Tree Nursery's () stand they have a sign saying 'Please try not to touch the plants' - it's an almost irresistible urge.
I think the most beautiful of the danglers in Knoll's display is Carex testacea. The fine, bronze-tinted leaves are quite springy but the flower heads hang gracefully, way down the sides of the pot. Another, similar carex called 'Dark Horse' has dark brown bobbly flower heads which look great against the rusty surface. For a bit more colour I loved Eragrostis 'Totnes Burgundy', it gradually changes from green to red as it falls. Hakonechloa macra 'Alba aurea' , a bright, gold and green variegated grass that fans out quite horizontally, also looks good in a tall container, whereas Stipa arundinacea or Pheasant grass, needs to be a bit lower because it is taller - approx 60cms.
I could go on but I'll spare you - my point is that it's worth choosing the right shape of container for your grasses to really show them off. Something like a chimney pot would be fun to try.
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