By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on May 30, 2008
Is it my imagination or do I hear more people talking about using native grasses in their yards these days? Not lawn grass, I mean grasses in flower beds and as substitutes for low shrubs ─ bunchgrasses. Several times recently I’ve heard “accent plant” used in reference to a native bunchgrass.
All this grass talk is encouraging, because certain native bunchgrasses are ideal yard plants for our climate, soil, and overabundant deer. They not only are attractive drought-tolerant landscape plants, they need no attention most of the year, grow just fine without fertilizer in the local calcareous soil, and are deer-resistant.
To call attention to bunchgrasses, Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) is highlighting yellow Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) as Plant of the Month for June. With its golden-yellow plumelike seedheads, Indian grass is one of the prettiest fall plants in the Hill Country. It is gaining popularity as a garden grass and is available in some local nurseries from time to time.
Indian grass can be grown in clumps or as single “accent” plants. It usually grows 3-5 feet high, but can get taller during wet years. The fairly broad leaf blades are blue-green. Indian grass goes dormant during the winter, but it is perennial.
In the wild in Texas, Indian grass grows throughout East Texas and into the eastern Edwards Plateau, mostly in the part of the state averaging greater than 24 inches of rain per year. However, it also is native to the drier Panhandle and some spots in Trans-Pecos Texas. Indian grass is one of the dominant species of tall-grass prairies.
As its natural distribution would suggest, Indian grass thrives in a variety of soil types. In the garden, it seems to benefit from an occasional watering, and, of course, it grows well in rich soil. However, there is Indian grass thriving on the back part of our lot where nothing is ever irrigated and the soil couldn’t be called rich.
The Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas provides free planting and care instructions for Indian grass at nurseries participating in Operation NICE! (Barkley’s Nursery Center, Hill Country African Violets and Nursery, and Maldonado Landscape and Nursery).
One native bunchgrass more widely available in nurseries is Lindheimer muhly (Muhlenbergia lindheimeri), a grass that can look good in any garden or yard. It’s one of my favorite Hill Country grasses, and it is easy to cultivate. Lindheimer muhly is a handsome gray-green bunchgrass that grows three to five feet tall and sends up long narrow plumes in the fall. It could be grown as an accent plant in much the same way as the exotic pampas grass is used.
Another popular muhly grass for landscaping is Gulf muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaries). This bunchgrass is native to Southeast Texas, but does well in Hill Country gardens with a little irrigation during the dry summers. This muhly grass is a spectacular fall bloomer. To catch that special pink glow of the flower plume, plant Gulf muhly in a place that is backlit either by the rising or the setting sun.
A smaller bunchgrass that is gaining wide popularity is Mexican feathergrass (Stipa tenuissima). Its threadlike leaves and feathery silvery seedheads make this little bunchgrass an attractive airy border plant. Mexican feathergrass is native to highlands of the Southwest; therefore, it is highly drought-tolerant.
Two bunchgrasses that I wish were available in nurseries are switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and eastern gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides). I have both started in our yard, and they serve as interesting “accent plants.”
Switchgrass, probably the only bunchgrass ever to be mentioned in a State of the Union Address, is the dominant grass in the Cibolo Nature Center tall-grass prairie. I discovered it also looks good as an individual landscape plant in my yard.
Eastern gamagrass has an interesting seedhead related to corn, with seeds stacked in the same way. This grass was rumored to be the ancestor of corn, but research in Mexico proved that another grass has that distinction. Still, it’s a nice bunchgrass.
