Grass-Like Plants

In the landscape, the lawn has become more than just a breaking point for the plants. It has become the most important part for many gardeners. But it is only supposed to be a place to play and run, or as a separation between larger landscape beds. But what is our appeal with grass? The softness of the foliage helps soothe us. Therefore, grass-like plants should help as well.

A border of grass-like plants can help soften the overall landscape when transitioning from turf or lawn to a mixed shrub and perennial border. Large sweeps of ornamental grasses become rivers of moving life within the landscape. We have an obsession with grass and grass-like foliage plants.

I use large perennial and shrub borders around the landscape at my house. I break up those beds with grass-like plants as borders and masses within the beds. There is something very soothing about finding sweeps of grass-like plants among the beds of perennials. So what kind of plants are they?

What Are Grass-Like Plants?

To put it simply, they are plants which have leaves that are thin and narrow, similar to a grass stem. While none of them are true grasses, they have similar leaf structures with nearly parallel veination. There are many types of plants that fall into this category. Some of them are large and others tiny. They help create a textural dividing line between the coarser leaved perennials like sedums, salvia, and rudbeckia.

However, the flowers of these plants are nearly always just as pretty as their coarse-leaved counterparts. So do not mistake grass-like plants for being grass. Many of them grow like grass, though, spreading by rhizomes. Others form bulbs or bulblets, spreading slowly over large areas.

Grass-Like Plants for the Garden

I am going to tell you about many of the grass-like plants which grow well here in the Central Great Plains. Separating them into various growing groups, such as bulbs, rhizomes, and fibrous roots. They are quite varied and can be kept separate in the garden, or grouped together. I like to group various species together to create a more flowing look.

Bulbs

Of course, the bulbs we plant each fall go directly into this category. Many of our most beloved spring flowering plants with grass-like foliage are bulbs under the ground. The bulb is how they grow and store their food each winter. But there are more than just our favorite spring flowering plants in the bulb world. What about amaryllis? It is not a perennial here, but it does have grass-like foliage.

There are several hundred species of the various spring and summer flowering bulbs available to home gardeners. But only a few of these are important enough for this post. I am not going to dive into the myriad of bulbs that you can get, but rather show you a few which are more grass-like than the others. Tulips are probably the main species which are not grass-like, though the leaves can be narrow and pointed more than other coarse-leaved plants.

• Ornamental onions – one of my favorite perennials for the garden border. They come in a variety of sizes and various shades of lavender or purple flowers.
• Daffodils – the most showy (other than tulips) of the spring flowering plants. I love the color yellow in the garden!
• Lilies – these can be quite varied and showy. Colors range greatly over the various species, and some are quite fragrant.
• Chives & garlic chives – watch out for these. If you plant these grass-like plants in the garden, be sure to deadhead them before they set seed, unless you want a mess.
• Crocus – the second earliest flowering bulb in the spring (after winter aconite).
• Surprise lilies – these show their leaves first, then produce pink flowers in midsummer.
• Blazing star – there are actually 2 types, ones with corms (flattened bulbs) and ones with rhizomes.

Fibrous Root Systems

Each of these lists are about the same length, because there is a lot of variety in the plant kingdom. Want to try some exotic grass-like plants? How about pineapples? You let me know how that goes, and I will try some too. Anyways, the plants in this category have fibrous root systems, meaning that they rarely “travel” or spread aggressively by their roots. However, this does not mean they will not seed out into areas around them.

• Red hot poker – one of the best flowers in summer for attracting hummingbirds.
• Liriope – just like the Blazing stars, there are 2 types of liriope.
• Spiderworts – and again, there are 2 types of spiderworts. Though I prefer ones which stay put in the landscape.
• Sedges – these are often confused with grasses, but they have triangular stem bases, while grasses are round.
• Black Mondo grass – this is closely related to liriope, and it has the appearance of spreading with rhizomes, but it is runners on top of the ground.
• Dianthus – a great groundcover or specimen plant, usually with a lot of fragrance.
• Threadleaf ironweed – a great little late summer bloomer for the garden. And it is tough!
• Willowleaf sunflower – the only species of perennial sunflower with grass-like foliage. It can reach 16 feet tall in the wild, so look for cultivars like ‘Autumn Gold’ and ‘First Light’.

Rhizomatous Grass-Like Plants

These plants have rhizomes for roots, which are stringy or thickened roots which mainly grow near the soil surface. Each rhizome can produce a new plant, so division is easy. I like to move these plants at any time during the growing season, but fall is better to get new blooms the following year.

• Iris – there is a lot here. There are many different species and subspecies of iris, not to mention several thousand cultivars. But I prefer the bearded iris, Siberian iris, Louisiana iris, copper iris, and dwarf iris.
• Liriope- here is the other species, which can spread quickly in part to full shade.
• Spiderwort – these things are monsters in the garden, watch out for them! They are best suited for adding to an existing (5 year old at least) meadow or prairie garden dominated by grasses.
• Daylilies – come with a wide variety of flower types and colors. I love the non-traditional colors in my garden.
• Bluestar – there are a few species of this native which has wonderful foliage in autumn as well as the rest of the season. The small blue flowers are a nice addition to the plant’s texture.
• Blazing star – is one of my favorite grass-like plants in the garden, because the flowers are visited by a lot of bees and butterflies.

Companion Plants for Grass-Like Plants

You actually do not need companion plants for grass-like plants. You can make a bed of just them. But it is also nice to added varied interest to the garden throughout the year, in order to achieve flower power potential. So I like to make pockets of grass-like plants among and surrounding coarse-leaved plants. If you look through the winter posts of the Kansas Gardener’s Garden, you can see just what I am talking about.

The following list contains plants which I have put in with or around the various grass-like plants in my garden beds.

• Baptisia
• Roses
• Salvia
• Garden phlox
• Goldenrod
• Agastache
• Penstemon
• Butterfly milkweed
• Beebalm
• Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’
• Rudbeckia ‘Little Henry’
• Mountain Mint
• Catmint ‘Whispurr Pink’
• Culver’s Root
• Purple Coneflower
• Hostas
• Coral Bells

Conclusion

Grass-like plants add depth and variety to any landscape, helping to break the texture of coarse-leaved plants like shrubs, trees, and other perennials. And they can complement both the lawn and ornamental grass beds. You could even make an entire landscape with just grass and grass-like plants. Let your creativity and imagination run wild in the garden.

Happy planting!