It’s understating things somewhat to say there’s not a lot of interest in the mid-winter garden. The limited time we can enjoy outside due to the light and the weather is usually dedicated to tidying up or belatedly planting bulbs.
Structure is what will stimulate your eye in January and February yet even the architectural plants that don’t rely on colour for impact are beginning to lose shape by the time days begin to get longer.
There is, however, one group of plants that can mostly withstand the winter storms, and retaining their elegance through the dark, dank days.
The fashion for ornamental grasses really took off around 15 years ago, and while many dismissed them as a fad that would soon be out of favour, their appeal has prevailed.
They are generally low maintenance, a good companion to most perennials and great at giving a garden a wild, unbridled edge.
But be warned, in the wrong context they look appalling and are more likely to be mistaken for a weed rather than a prized plant. On an almost daily basis I see my favourite ornamental grass – Calamagrostis x acutifloria ‘Karl Foerster’ – planted, presumably by a Housing Executive contractor, in isolation in an urban setting, with a gable wall as its backdrop.
It looks forlorn. I can almost hear it pleading with me to come and dig it up and transplant to a place where its characteristics will be better suited and therefore appreciated. In the right hands and ensuring at the very least you have a good ‘clump’, ‘Karl Foerster’ is a statement plant but all’s it’s saying on this occasion is ‘job lot’.
Ornamental grasses can work in formal, urban settings but there needs to be plenty of them and little else, so it effectively looks like they grew in a solid, symmetrical block. The taller ones tend to lose their personality and impact when placed sporadically among other plants.
In late summer, a group of grasses will move together on the breeze, their open seed heads dancing in unison. It seems cruel to leave them on their own.
But fast forward a few months, to the cold winter mornings, when they are static, more rigid, and coated with sugar-like frost that sparkles in the morning sunlight.
Pheasant’s tail grass (Anemanthele lessoniana), which carries RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), is a good year-rounder. It’s tall-ish with colourful, arching foliage but tough and a good option for an exposed site.
The aforementioned Calamagrostis – AKA feather reed grass – is also a robust and handsome favourite but in my experience less likely to endure in tact through to February.
Stipa gigantea - or giant oat grass - benefits greatly from a backdrop of sun late in the day, allowing the full glory of the clouds of large oat-like flowerheads to be seen in silhouette. In common with many grasses, this perennial’s architectural merits increase as the life drains from the current year’s growth.
While the temptation is often to cut plants down to ground level for the winter in the process of ‘tidying up’, grasses are best left until March before they get the chop – or a comb, as the case can often be.
