This low-maintenance plant for €5.99 will keep your garden green all winter – reveals expert

IT’S that tricky time in our gardens when all the perennials disappear and we wait for the bulbs to arrive.

But to avoid the gloomy empty bed syndrome a bit: have you ever thought about grasses?

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Not only do they look fantastic in autumn and winter, they are also easy to care for and can add much-needed structure to your outdoor space.

Neil Lucas is director of Knoll Gardens – Britain’s leading ornamental grass specialists, based in Wimborne, Dorset.

He told Sun Gardening: “These days we want our gardens to work well, but we need less work to do so – and grasses fit that bill in lots of different ways.

“There is such a wide range and lots of grasses with a wow factor and big flowers usually blooming in late August, September, October and November.

“So they have a beautiful winter presence. Plus, they are so easy to care for; they only need to be cut down in February, March or even early April so that the new shoots can emerge.

“And they need very little food and a little sun and shade.”

NEIL’S TOP SIX GRASSES FOR YOUR GARDENS

• Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ Very popular, it looks so good and makes a nice informal screen and works even in the smallest of gardens.
• Panicum ‘Sea Mist’. A very nice upright shape and at the moment it still looks beautiful. It’s starting to turn beautiful warm yellow colors, which is quite fantastic.
• Mollinia ‘Overdam‘Generally erect, about waist high with many individual flower stems. Purple to start with, but at this time of year they are the warmest, almost orange, honey brown color.
• Miscanthus ‘Cindy‘. Creates lovely mounds and soft, delicate pink flowers that are held about a foot above the foliage later in the summer. That’s a beautiful shape and color.
• Miscanthus ‘Malepartus‘Very upright, quite large grass. So not for the smallest garden, but with one of the darkest purple flowers and beautiful autumn leaves.
• Pennisetum ‘Black Arrow’. All Pennisetums form truly beautiful mounds of round leaves and emerge in high summer. They literally explode with all those bottlebrush-like flowers, which are quite dark. Absolutely beautiful.

You can buy Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ now from £5.99 from J.Parker’s.

Miscanthus Cindy and Pennisetum ‘Black Arrow’ are both available from Knoll Gardens for £12.99.

But it’s not just grasses that look fantastic when it gets cold.

Recommendations from Exbury Gardens‘ head gardener Tom Clarke included Nyssa trees.

He told Sun Gardening: “These provide fantastic autumn color with a whole range of different cultivars ranging from golden orange to dark fiery red.

“A decent winter shrub is Edgeworthia chrysantha, which has beautiful ivory, strongly scented flowers in midwinter

“Rhododendron Christmas Cheer is an early flowering rhododendron with pink/white bunches that brightens up any winter garden

“And Cotoneaster ‘Rothschildianus’, originally grown in Exbury in the 1920s, is a semi-evergreen shrub with attractive yellow/ivory berries that persist well into winter.”

New book ‘Plants for the Winter Garden’ by Warren Leach describes a range of perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees to add interest in the cold and snow. Now available at Hachette

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