Briza maxima or quaking grass is a graceful grass with pendant, nodding flowers adding elegance to summer gardens and useful for winter decoration when they can be sprayed silver, gold etc. Easy to grow. Best sown directly into the garden where it grows to about 40cm.

This very attractive evergreen grass with showy heart shaped flowers, emerges green then turns gold with maturity. Briza media is called the common Quaking Grass because of the rustling and rattling noise the puffy spikelets make during the spring and summer. The spikelets are attractive, well branched and make superb cut flowers.

A native to New Zealand, Carex buchananii Red Rooster is an evergreen perennial grass with a dense clumping growth habit. The foliage is an orange-brown to a copper/red colour. This variety of Leatherleaf Sedge is upright and slightly arching, due to the leaves curling at the tips. Great for landscaping, rock gardens, near water gardens, and containers, can reach 60cm tall. Does best in a moist well-drained soil.

An attractive mop-top sedge, Carex comans 'Amazon Mist' is a cool blue-gray-green colour, with white on the undersides of the leaves, which gracefully curl back. Hence its Mist like name. Excellent for containers, or as an accent in the garden. Use it to fill in odd spaces, as it's neutral colour goes with everything.

Carex comans Bronco is a wonderful, hardy, finely textured grass which combines easily with other colours in the garden with pale brown, spikelets mostly obscured by the bronze foliage. Grows to about 30cm. A plant with subtle appeal for the rock garden, containers or when planted in large drifts in the garden.

Job's Tears is an ornamental, tufted perennial grass (annual in temperate climate) from Southeast Asia. Excellent for pot culture.  The hard seeds are used to make rosaries, or may be lightly toasted and ground for making a tea. The plant grows well outdoors as an ornamental summer annual in the UK or as a perennial in a greenhouse where it gets to about 3 feet high.  It requires full sun and a warm position, with very free-draining compost.

Cortaderia selloana  or Pampas grass is a popular tall ornamental grass. The large plumes can be harvested and dyed in cold water dyes to make lovely house decorations. If the clump gets too large you can set it alight, but you will need plenty of space as the resulting “bonfire” is awesome! Best set alight in spring on a dry day. The much reduced plant surprisingly survives and soon makes new clean growth from the ashes.

This hardy form of Papyrus has unusual flower spikelets, with up to 8 heads on one stem. Good for cutting, but Cyperus glaber  prefers a wet or boggy position like all Papyrus and grows to about 75cm.

Elymus arenarius is a stunning clump forming perennial grass with attractive wide leaves of glaucus blue/grey. Looks good in a border but it will need containing as it can be an aggessive runner. Also useful as a spectacular container plant for a sunny patio. In the second year from seed tall flower spikes appear, at first blue then changing to a buff colour. Height 60cm (24in) with a 150cm (60in) flower spike. We have planted ours in an island bed in a lawn where the running shoots get mown off which seems to contain it quite well.

This grain plant, a native cerial crop in Ethiopia, is great for containers or for use as a cut decoration. The rich burgundy seed heads drape over compact clumps of upright grass to 24". They have a long bloom time and keep their colour when dried, looking great in both fresh and dried arrangements. The seed when cooked is used as a cereal for making bread and as a fermented food.

Festuca glauca is a well known dense, tufted, blue grass. Effective as ground cover and invaluable in the border or used in rockeries to 25cm.

Hordeum jubatum, -a very attractive annual grass with 6 cm long, creamy-coloured, feathery flower spikes, useful for cutting and drying. Grows to about 60cm.

These delightful dwarf mounds throw up masses of soft fluffy bunny's tails. Ideal for growning in the border or in beds, pots and containers. Lagurus ovatus Bunny tails is short growing to 20cm.

Luzula nivea is an evergreen grass with deep green leaves and dense clusters of creamy-white flowers, which make good dried arrangements. The flowers are held well above the foliage in summer. Height 60cm

Yet another fine ornamental clumping grass Melica transsilvanica Red Spire bears long, satiny spires of reddish-brown spikelets in early summer. Useful in arrangements either fresh or dried. First year from seed about 1m but to 2m in following years.

You might want to try this new annual grass, Melinis nerviglumis 'Savannah'.  It has lovely blue-green fine leaves and silky seed heads that start a deep rose and gradually turn a soft pink as the season progresses. Medium height to 45cm

Millium Effusum is an attractive form of millet grass with amazing golden yellow foliage that looks spectacular planted in lightly shaded borders or containers. The weeping habit is particularly attractive. Cut back foliage the following spring to encourage new coloured grass each year. Best in a sheltered position out of full sun.

A garden favourite for centuries Miscanthus sinensis New Hybrids is a large bunching grass, to 12 ft (3.7 m) tall and 5 ft (1.5 m) wide, with leaf blades almost 1 in (2.5 cm) across. The leaves are medium green with a prominent white midrib, and dry to straw yellow in winter. The dense inflorescence, produced in late summer, is reddish purple, aging to silvery.

Oryza sativa Black Madras is an easy to grow green purple ornamental grass related to the rice plant. Paddy field not essential! However do not let the compost dry out - great in patio containers.

An excellent cut flower filler for bouquets. Panicum Frosted Explosion also makes a great border plant if planted in groups, or for use in large containers. The airy flower plumes seem to burst from the centre of the plant resembling a Fireworks sparkler. If planted in a bed for cut flowers, keep harvested to produce a second flush of stems. To 70cm tall.

Pennisetum glaucum Jester has young leaves that are green but as the leaves mature they become more burgundy red in colour. Developing plants to 1 metre tall show a definite multi-colour appearance as leaves mature. Produces flower spikes at the end of the season if sown early.

Pennisetum glaucum Purple Baron or ornamental millet boasts purple foliage that is slightly darker than that of 'Purple Majesty'. The plant's large, thick flower spikes and solid basal branching give the plant a strong, sturdy appearance and add a balanced look to mixed containers. As with 'Purple Majesty,' young 'Purple Baron' plants are green. The stem and mid-rib of the foliage turns purple after about eight leaves have developed, and the foliage will turn dark purple when the plants are moved from the greenhouse outside to full sun. 'Purple Baron' performs well in borders, mass plantings, and mixed containers, and makes a great addition for spring to autumn displays.

Pennisetum glaucum Purple Majesty is a recent all American selections gold medal award winner- 'Purple Majesty' Ornamental Millet is a superb annual for a hot sunny position. "Tall, dark and handsome" describes this purple-leaved millet. Young plants are green-leaved, but as they mature exposure to direct sunlight stimulates development of purple leaf color. Mature leaves are long and slender, with a red midrib. Capable of growing 3 to 5 feet tall, the plants are embellished with 8- to 12-inch flower spikes. The immature spikes can be cut and used in floral arrangements, or left on the plant to attract birds that feed on the seeds. 'Purple Majesty' is very easy to grow and is very tolerant of heat and low moisture but you should choose a well-drained, sunny site. The plant is tropical in origin and likes warmth. The sunny location is important because sunlight strengthens the purple colour, which appears after a three-week juvenile phase. Although it can tolerate drought and poor soils, Purple Majesty responds strongly to early fertilizer applications and light watering.  Picture shows Purple Majesty planted with Arundo donax variegata.

Pennisetum setaceum or Fountain Grass is an attractive grass from Africa with a densely clumped growth form and erect stems that grow 2 to 3 feet high. Best treated as an annual in the UK, the small flowers of fountain grass are grouped in pink or purple, bristly, upright inflorescences 6-15 inches long. Makes an attractive ornamental grass for the border.

Pennisetum villosum is actually a tufted perennial but usually grown as an annual grass with linear leaves and feathery, whitish-green panicles turning purple with age. To 70cm tall

The vibrant lime colour of this Millet is excellent for flower arrangements to 3ft with self supporting strong plants. The panicles emerge from the top of the stalk and gradually bend over as they lengthen but its easier to integrate into arrangements before they start to curve over too much.

A dark, red leaved variety producing brown red hairy semi-pendulous panicles. Makes a great cut flower, dried flower and garden plant. 120cm.

In our opinion, Stipa barbata Silverfeather is one of the most beautiful of all grasses, but also one of the slowest growing. It may take several years before it gets to a decent size but well worth the wait. Forming a dense clump of foliage to about 1m tall, the excitement comes in June and July when it forms its dramatic feather-like awns. The extremely long silvery silky plumes are held horizontally and they wave and undulate in the slightest breeze. A higher price than most grasses as it is difficult to collect the seeds before they fly away!

Stipa capillata Bridal Veil produces long, narrow, silvery green leaves and long, feathery, silvery-white awns.  Flowers June to July.  Can be used as a dried flower, cut in good time or the awns will fall out.  Height to 1m

Stipa gigantea is a very striking evergreen grass that forms a spiky clump of arching deep green foliage from which a huge sheaf of very long-stemmed, oat-like flower-heads erupt in mid-summer to 2m high. When mature, the flower heads splay apart to make a wide fountain shape that almost hides the plant. The seed-heads dry out naturally on the plant and persist into early winter, where they make a good architectural feature, especially when outlined in frost. This is an excellent alternative to pampas grass as a lawn specimen in small gardens, and perfect in a border or a gravel garden. AGM award.

Germination -- Easy ■ Moderate ■ and Challenging ■

Backlog for Fresh Seed ♦ Flavour ♪

Hardiness - To -5°C җ To -10°C җҗ Fully Hardy җҗҗ

Needs Shady Position ☻ Sunny Position ☻ Water Loving ♥