I don't know if it's an American thing or a universal trait, but we all seem to love an underdog, and I've always had a special place in my heart for the perennially underappreciated ornamental grasses. Like Rodney Dangerfield, they just don't get the respect they deserve!

Every day of the winter I am reminded that these stalwart members provide much of the interest in my garden during the offseason. In our climate, nearly nothing besides conifers stays green year round. Many bushes that retain their leaves in milder climes lose them in the Eastern Sierra. Though these skeletons can have their own subdued appeal, a landscape of endless gray is not terribly exciting. Dried grasses provide touches of yellow, orange, and even red to an otherwise drab winter landscape. The setting sun sparkles through their golden inflorescences, and nothing is quite as beautiful as a new carpet of snow lying at their feet.

They provide a unique vertical element in the garden. A mass planting of grasses makes a great backdrop for flowers and other forbs in the warmer season. Their green luxuriance is the very essence of summer. And they come in all sizes, so there's a place for ornamental grasses in any garden area.

Grasses provide more year-round interest in the garden than anything else I can think of, and yet they are relatively carefree. When most people think of grass, they picture a lawn. What could require more work than turf grass? Endless hours of watering, fertilizing, and mowing. Ugh! But unlike their thirsty cousins, many ornamental grasses are relatively xeric, and during the growing season all you have to do is give them a bit of water, step back and let ‘em grow. And grow they do, once things heat up! We all know about the prodigious growth rate of bamboo, like the rest of the grasses, a member of the family Poacaeae.

The only downside to ornamental grasses is their very considerable upside—they can be too successful! Most ornamental grasses grow in clumps, from the inside out, so the centers tend to die off after a few years. By digging them up and dividing them, you are rejuvenating the plant. Give your grasses a “hair cut” once new growth begins in the spring. Every few years, dig up the plants, divide them, discard the dead bits, and you'll have dozens of new grasses to plant or share with friends. With smaller grasses like Festuca glauca (blue fescue), this is a relatively minor task.

On the other hand, dividing something like Miscanthus sinensis is not for the faint of heart, and special tools may be required. Just getting the root ball out of the ground may be a two-person job! After many years of backbreaking work, I've found that the best way to divide these monsters is with a reciprocating saw (sometimes called a Sawzall). I bought a corded one last year for less than $50 and it was a lifesaver. If you already have a chain saw, you could even use that! Here's a video that illustrates how power tools can be used to transform a previously impenetrable mass of roots into dozens of healthy new plants. 

Next time we'll cover some of the best ornamental grasses for the Eastern Sierra. Stay tuned!

 

Last time I extolled the virtues of ornamental grasses for the garden. They exhibit such diversity in size, color and growth habit that you can use grasses in many different ways—as a tall screen, a low border, to soften the edges of walls and other hardscape elements, and to provide texture to mixed beds. Some garden designers aim to have roughly half the landscaping devoted to grasses. Here's a nice article from Fine Gardening on designing with ornamental grasses. Sunset has a handy little book—Landscaping with Ornamental Grasses—that's a good introduction to grasses with lots of photos. One more book that I have to plug (that's actually a grass pun!) is California Native Plants for the Garden, in my opinion the single best book on the subject.

As I said last time, aside from a bit of spring maintenance, ornamental grasses are extremely carefree. They do better without fertilizer, they have ba0sically no diseases or insect pests, and most are relatively drought tolerant. Of course, like any other plant, you will want to give them some extra water the first season or two to develop their root systems, but after that they can go quite a while without water, at least when compared with other garden plants.

There are so many grasses to choose from—cool season and warm season, clumpers and runners, and even some things for sale that look like grasses but aren't (e.g. rushes and sedges). I think the most important factors to consider are how much water you want to provide and what size plant you want. While I certainly don't claim to have exhaustive knowledge of all your grass choices, I do have probably a dozen species that I have grown for many seasons, and below are some of my personal favorites.

 

 

 

Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster' feather reed grass. This is probably one of the most familiar ornamental grasses, and deservedly so. It is widely used in commercial landscaping. The Reno Convention Center is a good place to see hundreds of plants. This one is pretty hard to beat: a compact footprint for such a tall (3-5') grass, beautiful flowers that provide interest from light pink in late spring to a handsome golden tan that lasts through the fall and winter. One interesting thing to note is that the seeds of this hybrid are sterile, so no worries about unwanted babies!

 

 

 

 

 

Deergrass Muhlenbergia rigens This California native is regal in all ways. The plants look like giant pincushions, 5 feet tall and about as wide, and they send up dozens of spike-like flowering stems. This is about as carefree as plants come. Give it sun and space and water once a week and it will thrive. Like many natives, if you give it a gravel mulch and a bit more water, you'll probably get lots of volunteers. That's a good thing, because if you've got the space for it, a mass planting of deergrass is hard to beat!

 

 

 

Purple three-awn Aristida purpureaThe state grass of California, this is a smaller (1-2') grass that's extremely drought tolerant and covered year round with beautiful purple inflorescences that nod in the breeze. However, if you have pets, this may not be a good choice, because the seed heads are very “sticky.” This also helps it reseed readily, especially if given regular water, so you may want to be careful where you put it. So far, I've had little success transplanting these volunteers, so better to just pull up the babies you don't want and rejoice in the new plants that will show up in just the right spot—the edge of a walkway, for example!

 

Silver beardgrass Bothriochloa laguroides ssp. torreyana (formerly Andropogon saccharoides) Yeah, the scientific name is a mouthful, but this is another one of my favorite discoveries. From what I can find, this is not truly native to California, but it is widespread in the state. This is another medium size grass, foliage about 18”, with flower spikes extending another few feet. At the end of these erect spikes are silky little puffs that are perhaps my favorite grass flowers. The leaves turn from red to purple to burnt orange in the late fall, and the flowers seem to glow in the more subdued sunlight of the cool season. The plants are a little bit floppy, so it's best to plant them in masses, where they are simply spectacular. This one can get by without much water. If you want to plant it where it gets regular water, it will be happy with that as well, but it will reseed even more readily.

Miscanthus silvergrass Dozens of cultivars have been created. One of the most widely available is ‘Morning Light,' and if you have room for it, it's a real gem. This is one that gets big (6' and more) and will need dividing every few years, so you may want to consider whether you're willing to commit to a fair bit of manual labor to maintaining this beauty.

Panicum virgatum switchgrass This is a native of the tall grass prairies of the Midwest, and is an important crop not only in native pastures and soil conservation, but also as a biomass crop and for carbon sequestration! As you might guess, it can get big—potentially 8-10', but about half that height in my yard. Despite its utility, this is one gorgeous ornamental grass as well. You can find cultivars with deep green, bluish or even purple-tinged leaves, and the airy flower heads are among the most lovely you'll find. You'll get all that and some of the best fall color around—golden, orange and flaming red.

So, where can you find these wonderful plants? The first three are pretty widely available garden plants. I've seen all of them in local nurseries. The last three are a little harder to find. Deergrass plants and seeds are available at many brick-and-mortar native plant nurseries. Theodore Payne in Sun Valley (near San Fernando) and Tree of Life Nursery between Lake Elsinore and San Juan Capistrano are two good ones in SoCal. I've never seen plants for purple three-awn and silver beardgrass available (and, believe me, I look at a lot of native plant websites!), but I got my seeds from Plants of the Southwest, a great nursery out of New Mexico. Bluestem Nursery in Canada has a great selection of reasonably-priced grasses and is a great site to visit just for information.

 One last thing: most grasses are easy to grow, and sometimes this can create problems not just for the gardener, but for the surrounding habitat as well. Pampas grass has escaped gardens and become an unwelcome part of the landscape of much of the California coast. Pennisetum setaceum is a wonderful grass that has overtaken many native grasses along the roadsides of large areas of the southern California coast. Though I am not aware of any ornamental grasses that have become invasive in the high deserts of the Eastern Sierra, it's always a good idea to check locally before planting any plant—not just grasses—that might be a problem in your area. Here's a website that lists more than 200 grasses and grass-like plants that are considered invasive in some part of the US, while this one has an inventory of California invasive plants. None of the grasses I have suggested are on either list.

This is the time of year that folks get concerned about defoliation of their elm trees. Usually the culprit is a small yellow beetle called, appropriately enough, the Elm Leaf Beetle. It eats elm leaves.

The adults cause small shot holes in the leaves, but the larvae will turn a leaf into skeletons. That's what we're seeing now in late July and early August. The larvae have big appetites!

This is the second generation of the pest this year. The first happened in June. Soon the larvae will crawl down the tree to pupate and repeat the cycle once again. Aberdeen and points south will probably have 3 generations this year. Bishop and Big Pine may also have 3 if the weather stays warm and we have a long autumn, but usually have 2 generations since the growing season is shorter.

There isn't much point in spraying the tree canopy now or using systemic insecticides this late in the season. If you notice the larvae crawling down the tree, it is probably worthwhile to do a band spray on the trunk with an approved insecticide. This is about when that happens on average in Independence and Lone Pine. Big Pine and Bishop are a week or two behind. Since the heat started early, we may be sooner than average this year. The only way to know is to inspect your trees often. Temperature drives development of this pest.

If you notice an accumulation of pupae at the base of the tree, vacuum or sweep them up right away.

Largely this is a pest of humans more than elms if your trees are otherwise healthy. They aren't doing the tree any good, but most of the problem is the mess and lack of foliage in landscapes. Keep that in mind if you decide to treat. There are dozens of elms in Owens Valley that get these every year and never get treated, yet are still alive and well. 

You can find a lot more information about these insects on the Elm Leaf Beetle page at the UC IPM program website. It includes information that can help you to decide whether to attempt control of them.

 

Mahonias belong to a genus of shrubs which are closely related to barberries (Berberis).  They originate from many different areas of the world, including the Pacific Northwest and the Southwestern deserts of the United States, while many with the most striking forms come from China and Japan.

They are mainly characterized by evergreen, spiny pinnate leaves which are leathery in texture and sometimes glossy so that they resemble holly.  They are valued for their yellow flowers which are produced in either rounded clusters or elongated spikes in late winter and early spring when little else is blooming, and these are beloved by honey bees, so provide some welcome early food whenever the sun is warm enough for bees to fly.  

The flowers are followed by berry-like fruits, either blue or black in color, and often covered in a powdery bloom.  These are considered edible, although they are somewhat bitter and should not be eaten in large quantities since that can cause a drop in blood pressure, vomiting and a lowered heart rate.  They are also said to make a flavorful jelly, although I have never tried this personally.

In the garden they can cope with a variety of different exposures depending on the species, but most prefer shade, or shelter from hot afternoon sun in desert areas.  Many will even grow against a north facing wall.  Heights also vary by species, some being creeping while others can grow to 12 ft., although that height would only be reached under optimum conditions.  Water requirements also vary and I have found that although many originally come from the Pacific Northwest they are surprisingly tolerant of dry shade. In general the Mahonias are considered easy to grow although they may take a little while to settle in after transplanting.

For many years I avoided growing these plants because, although the leaves were quite handsome, the actual plants that I saw in peoples' gardens tended to look rangy but I have since discovered that with occasional, judicious pruning they can  be quite handsome, and since they do grow in the high desert, and are generally ignored by deer they have much to recommend them.

Last year I planted a variety of Mahonia x media  'Lionel Fortescue' on a north facing wall, and not only did it come through the winter with flying colors, flowering early as promised in mid February, but it also coped with brief blasts of afternoon sun coming from the west without any damage to its leaves.  It has a strong upright habit which promises to be a striking focal point in the border.

The more commonly planted Mahonia aquifolium, or Oregon Grape is generally lower growing and spreads by underground stems.  It may grow to 5ft. high under ideal conditions, but can also be used as a ground cover if tall stems are removed at the base.  Often new growth is reddish in color.

The desert native, Mahonia fremontii is an upright, multi-stemmed  shrub with very spiny gray-green leaves and short spikes of yellow flowers in late spring.  It is generally considered hardy in USDA Zone 7, although it comes from the Southwestern desert.  It requires very little water.

Another popular hybrid is Mahonia "Skylark" which grows to 5ft tall, has reddish new leaves which then take on a purple hue in winter.  The berries are dark purple.  It requires little water.

There are many other varieties of Mahonia, so whether you are looking for a low-growing foundation shrub for an informal woodland setting, or a bold focal point, a scan of specialist nurseries should provide you with a plant to fit your needs.

More information at:

sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Garden_Sense_Master/GardenSense_Plants/?uid=93&ds...

oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/mapin.htm