Perennial Ornamental Grasses How to Plant and Care
If you want your garden to look especially beautiful, do not limit yourself only to flowers, shrubs and bushes – perennial ornamental grasses will help to attain perfection in the garden design.
If you want to spread some fresh greenery in your garden and to cover the places where it is not possible to plant the flowers, it is advisable to consider ornamental grasses – a nice solution for any garden.
Lighting requirements
Make sure you have some sunny spots in your garden, because most of the ornamental grasses like full sun.
But some grasses will do perfectly well in partial shade as well: you can plant Calamagrostis acutiflora, Calamagrostis brachytricha, Carex, Festuca, Miscanthus giganteus, Phalaris and Sesleria autumnalis in shady places.
Most of them need a few hours of direct sunlight, but prefer to avoid the hottest part of the day. If planted on sunny locations, make sure to provide regular watering for them.
Soils
Grasses prefer the soils rich in organic matter. At the same time, they are not heavy feeders, that is why you should make sure that the soil in your garden is not excessively high-nitrogen, otherwise it will reduce the growth of the grasses.
Time to plant
The best time to plant ornamental grasses is in the beginning in spring, or alternatively in the beginning of autumn.
It will help them to develop before the hot summer month or cold winter period.
If you have a reason to plant the grasses in summer time or during the hottest periods of other seasons, it is highly recommended to cut approximately 1/3 of their foliage. It will help them to overcome the difficult times.
Dividing ornamental grasses
You will not have to bother about division for a long time – typically perennial ornamental grasses does not require that for about five to seven years.
When it is time to divide them, try to do that in spring, when the grasses start their new growth. But in fact you can perform division any time.
The only problem that it might be quite difficult, so make sure you have some tools available – a saw or an axe would be perfect. Cut back one third of the grasses if their growth started before you fulfill the division.
Insects and diseases
Usually perennial ornamental grasses are not a target for the pests. However, if you choose to plant Miscanthus, it is quite possible that you will have problems with mealybug.
This irritating insect is extremely difficult to get rid of, and the only way to fight it is to dig out the infested plants and to keep them away from your garden.
The occurrences of rust are not exceptional as well: it can appear in spring as a result of some particular processes. As soon as you notice the rust on the leaves, just prone them off.
Perennial ornamental grasses will decorate your garden and create the atmosphere of neatness and good maintenance. A nice ground cover, created by the grasses, looks beautiful and sophisticated, creating an effect of a lovely carpet.
If you want to spread some fresh greenery in your garden and to cover the places where it is not possible to plant the flowers, it is advisable to consider ornamental grasses – a nice solution for any garden. 
