Good question! Tire of them? Never!

Wishing for more color? The simple answer is probably yes....color is important but why not have both?

Ornamental Grasses give you a tremendous choice of color, texture, height and form. If you want to add other perennials that bloom for a number of months, go for it.

I've enjoyed looking at my grasses since the day they were planted. By choosing different variegated grasses I get an array of shades green, yellow, cream, and pink. Blue and blue gray play a role in my garden as does burgundy. If the weather stays hot, I get red.

No complaints from where I sit.

Thanks for asking.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Grasses & Gargoyles

Hmm, "a gardening phase"? Only if the gardener is prone to following gardening "fashion", I guess....which I don't believe I am. (Having a big yard probably helps with that, I guess - I haven't reached the stage of having to get rid of otherwise good-performing plants to replace them with something more currently fashionable.) If they do well in one's area, and one is pleased with them, I don't see why they'd be a temporary phase in the garden.

I sometimes wonder if I too am in a phase with grasses that will wear off a little. In college I got into Frank Zappa and bought dozens of his albums and had a ton of fun! I don't listen to as much Zappa these days...

That said, A mixture of fine grasses and complimentary perennials makes for a spectacular garden. That makes for great peace and pleasure down the road as you enjoy the long season of interest in the grasses and the perennials that come and go around and between them. Really, with grasses, there is only a month or two when they are not totally great to admire in the garden. Movement, form, texture, variety! Grasses are the best! I've got 54 varieties in the yard last count and not one mass or sweep. That's next.

40+ cultivars and counting! Need I say more. I love them all. I enjoy them year round. Not a phase an addiction!
Best Regards,
Anthony in TN.

40+ growing here as well.

Only "phase" in gardening that I know of is when a plant(s) does not preform well or grows bad (is that a good statement " ... grows bad") then that plant is phased out of the garden.

We have grown many more grasses that are not conducive to our zone but we try anyway just in case we find a grass that might just survive.

No phase ...... just praise.

Jake

anyone of you folks with the 40+ cultivars havce a spodiopogon sibericus?? I'm wondering what experiences people have with this particular grass.

perry in Portland, OR.

We do not have it in our beds. The garden center or nursery where we buy most of our grasses never has it available when we stop by even though it is on their list of grasses.

They list over a hundred different grasses for sale.

Jake

Never a phase. There is more production, hybridizing, usage, and awareness of ornamental grasses than there was 30 years ago, heck, 15 years ago. From wetland restoration, to fire ravaged landscape reconstruction, to personal landscapes to commercial artwork, grasses are here to stay, and that is why I grew attached to OG's 15 years ago, and started cultivating over 50 varieties for the garden and my nursery, as well as hybriding genus like Panicum and Miscanthus. Whoever tells you ornamental grasses are just a phase, send them to me. I will whip them with a bunch of Miscanthus blades....OUCH!

AgastacheMan -

The nurseries around here all sell the same or more "common" grasses while we have a few grasses in our beds that are hardy but not that common. I am thinking of propagating and making these grasses more available to the area.

Having read your bio and knowing that you are in the nursery business would you please send me a note regarding the nursery practice of setting up beds for propagating grasses?

I would appreciate your knowledge and suggestions regarding this endeavor.

Jake

Please post your reply concerning nursery beds for grasses. I have filled one (overfull) with seedlings, and will be making more this fall.

Great request! Look forward to reading this myself. Please post.
Many thanks for your experience.
Anthony in TN.

Pezhead,
Here's a link for the spodiopogon sibiricus you're looking for http://www.earthlypursuits.net/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=EPI&Category_Code=SPOD
I've bought lots from Monika. Nice plants and very pleasant to deal with. This is Kurt Bluemel's sister. She does the retail side of the grasses. I think a gallon is $8.50 and she has quarts also.
Best Regards,
Anthony in TN.

Well, in my production for OG's, I use both production blocks, field division blocks, and seed/division plugs. Production blocks that I use are about 6 feet across, and range anywhere from 120 to 200 ft long. They can either be raised beds with a border like wood or plastic, or ground level beds cultivated for ease of division and growth development. Seedling blocks are hand sown, and then raked in by hand, thinned out by hand, and definately pruned and dug by hand. For instance, Panicum varieties that I can reproduce by seed, is the easiest and cheapest. I can grow a containerized-ready to sell Panicum grass that was grown from seed within 8 months after first sown, using production blocks. Plug trays are used when running grasses and aggressors can prove time consuming, or that I have to propagate by small, rhizome or stolon division.
Overall fertilization of seedling and divisions are lliquid fed for the first 3 months, using a mixture between a weak fish emulsion and liquid kelp. Kelp by all means is a true tool for the grower, from vegetables to trees. I use only products like neem oil, hexacide, sporan etc etc because I can see only the best results in controlling problems that may occur like rust or miscanthus weevil.
Other than the blocks, I grow lots of plugs, from perennials to grasses, and all have the same regiment of feeding, moisture, pest/disease management. Yet, the grasses have the quickest turnaround in terms of plug to container, or plug to ground exchange. Grasses like Muhlenbergia japonica variegata are grown here by two inch pots, because I have to take a quarter sized piece of the stolon to work with, and putting that in a half inch plug won't work. Other than that, winter protection is only thoght about and used when the production block of that certain genus is prone to damage or not entirely hardy with surface roots. Grasses as a whole are straight forward in terms of cultivating, but one can easily be overwhelmed with too many plants in little time.

With the way deer are becoming such a pest in many areas, I think that interest in OGs will continue to grow. I never gave grasses a second thought until the deer ate all of the daylilies and hostas in my garden. I still grow hostas but have to repeatedly spray them with repellent throughout the season. Daylilies are almost a total waste, as the deer wait until they start blooming and then eat all of the buds whether you spray or not. Grasses are one of the few plants I have discovered that the deer don't bother -- not yet anyway.

Thanks AgastacheMan for passing along your professional success and knowledge. Here in the Great Plains I do believe that your methods can work as well.

If there is one thing in our area that we need to be concered with would be the winter protection.

Again thank you for taking the time to pass along the above information.

Jake