FAMILY TREE NURSERY

Title of this post: Ornamental Grass!

This hot summer weather kills nearly everything.  It just does!  Even if you resolve to water, most perennials are winding up their season.  Summer vegetables are ripening and sprinting towards the finish line and annuals are begging for water and blooming their ephemeral little hearts out! I'm not saying that your yard or garden is dead- no no.  It is just that time of year when the first harvests have been made and apples are sitting up there about to ripen.  The pumpkins, melons and other big squash are ripening up or stubbornly staying pale, waiting for the invisble signal to get perfectly done. 

What looks good this time of year in a landscaped green existance?  Well-watered annuals. Established shrubs (sumac, viburnums, maybe hydrangeas, rose of sharon) and GRASSES.  This is the time of year when ornamental grass begins to 'bloom'.  Those wonderful heads, fuzzy, feathery, airy and light.  I've been noticing them all over.  They are paired successfully with knockout roses often.  This is a pairing that has become really trendy in the last few years.  Don't know how much I love it but.... it works, right?  I prefer the small Hameln Dwarf Fountain Grass to a larger maiden grass with roses.  Simply because the smaller scale allows the roses to be the focal point (in terms of color if nothing else) and the grass heads are so tactile and satisfying! 

Please look at other gardens to see what is working and what is not.  It's an important step to determining your own taste and figuring out what works at really challenging times of year!  Best of luck....

xoxox