These enthusiastic ornamental grasses are superb performers, whether used in borders, prairie-style planting schemes or for bold, simple drifts in the garden
WORDS NEIL LUCAS PHOTOGRAPHS JASON INGRAM
Grown primarily for their masses of high-summer flowers, Miscanthus have been present in our gardens for a very long time. Victorian gardeners, for example, would use variegated forms such as Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’ as ‘dot’ plants within their complex bedding schemes. Although this remains an excellent garden cultivar today, with its yellow, cross-banded foliage and occasional red flowers, the emphasis on Miscanthus in our gardens has since largely moved from foliage to flower.
Miscanthus can be characterised as tall, deciduous, generally upright, warm-season grasses. This simply means that in our climate they wake up comparatively late in the spring but then have the capacity, temperature permitting, to grow at a fast pace. Most flower initially around June to July, although – given the late springs we have recently been experiencing – flowering can be some weeks later.
Like many other warm-season grasses, such as Pennisetum and Panicum, the combination of fast growth, fresh flower and numerous, subtle, autumnal variations to both foliage and flower allow Miscanthus to be effective in our gardens for a large part of the year. Take, for example, the long-established and hugely impressive selection M. sinensis ‘Malepartus’, whose strongly upright habit and dark reddish-purple flowers remain the standard by which many a newer selection is judged. With the onset of cooler nights, and as the flowers gradually fade through silver and beige, the foliage turns from green to a deep, glorious yellow and then finally to myriad shades of brown, to stand resolute and largely intact deep into the winter.
There have been numerous selections over the years, mostly from the clump-forming Miscanthus sinensis, offering flowers that vary significantly in shape and colour, from dark purplish-reds through numerous shades of pink, silver and white. M. sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’ is another first-class, dark-red-flowered selection. At around 1.8m, it has a rounded habit and orange-tinted autumn foliage. Pinkflowered selections range from the jewel-like, silvery pink of M. sinensis ‘Emmanuel Lepage’ and the delicately pendulous soft pink of M. sinensis ‘Flamingo’, through to the darker, luscio
