Graceful grasses

Gently wafting in the breeze, adding punchy upright focal points, carpeting the ground or providing fireworks of sunlit flowerheads, ornamental grasses bring a multitude of qualities.

August through autumn is when many really come into their own as they reach their full flowering heights.
Grasses are an easy-care option, needing only one cut a year - in spring - if at all.

Mostly coming in muted tones they can give borders a sophisticated restful feel, although that’s not to say that some can’t bring the drama too!

They are particularly prized for their sensory benefits, bringing movement and sound into the garden as their foliage rustles in the wind.

Others have temptingly tactile fluffy flowerheads that demand to be stroked, although beware Miscanthus and Cortaderia (pampas grass) have deceptively sharp-edged leaves that are best left untouched - instead admire their spectacular arching habits.

Stipa tenuissima is one of the best for gravel gardens and the coastal garden look.

If you want to add neat vertical growth to your borders, the Calamagrostis are the ones to go for.

Low carpeting evergreen grasses can keep the weeds at bay, and are particularly effective in Japanese style gardens.

But probably the finest way to use ornamental grasses is by combining them with swathes of late-flowering perennials in prairie gardens.

• Find a varied choice of ornamental grasses this August at Katie’s Garden Plant Centre