Designing with Shrubs and Ornamental Grasses

Fall is an ideal time to get a big head start on next year's growing season! It's a proven fact that fall planting gets perennial flowers, shrubs and trees off to a faster, more vigorous start the following spring.

Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low'
Item # 82550 		Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low'
Gro-Low Sumac

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59

30% off! $5.60
Festuca idahoensis 'Siskiyou Blue'
Item # 52375 		Festuca idahoensis 'Siskiyou Blue'
'Siskiyou Blue' Idaho Fescue Grass

each $5.99
3 or more $5.79

40% off! $3.60
Lavandula angustifolia 'Mitcham Gray'
Item # 63116 		Lavandula angustifolia 'Mitcham Gray'
Mitcham Gray Lavender

each $7.99
3 or more $7.79
Fallugia paradoxa
Item # 51450 		Fallugia paradoxa
Apache Plume

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
Miscanthus sinensis 'Silberfeder'
Item # 70555 		Miscanthus sinensis 'Silberfeder'
Silver Feather Maiden Hair Grass

each $8.79
3 to 6 plants $8.59
7 or more $8.39

30% off! $6.15
Sporobolus heterolepis
Item # 91930 		Sporobolus heterolepis
Prairie Dropseed

each $5.99
3 to 6 plants $5.79
7 or more $5.59
New Mexico Privot
Item # 52550 		Forestiera neomexicana
New Mexico Privet

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
Sedum x 'Autumn Joy'
Item # 89285 		Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
Showy Stonecrop

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
Schizachyrium 'Prairie Blues'
Item # 88474 		Schizachyrium scoparium 'Prairie Blues'
Prairie Blue Little Bluestem

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59

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Shrubs

Shrubs aren’t just a way to screen unsightly views. They can be used to plant attractive, long lived designs for your landscaping. Many shrubs produce berries, others provide fragrance and some produce eye catching fall color! No matter what effect you are trying to achieve, there is undoubtedly a shrub that will fit the bill.

September and October is an excellent time to transplant shrubs. Although you won’t see a lot of stem and leaf growth in the fall, the plants are busy growing new roots. With a more established root system, fall-planted shrub are much better able to handle the harsh, drying winds of spring and the withering heat of summer.

A Few Favorites

These low water, drought tolerant native shrubs have beautiful blooms, are low maintenance, are easy to grow, and they attract birds.

Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa) is an extremely drought tolerant Western native shrub that blooms profusely with pretty white flowers throughout the summer. As the flowers are pollinated they develop showy pink feathery seed heads that cover the shrub by the hundreds. This is a great shrub for harsh planting sites!

Gro-Low Sumac (Rhus aromatica ‘Gro Low’) is an invaluable groundcover shrub that grows well in most parts of the US. Its low spreading branches grow to create an attractive mounding form covered with glossy green summer foliage that turns red and scarlet in the fall.

New Mexico Privet (Forestiera neomexicana) can either be used as a tall shrub or pruned to form a multi-trunked small tree. Its branching structure has great character and it looks good against a wall. The female plants have dark blue berries that birds love.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses are invaluable to the garden in fall and winter as they add movement, texture and color to the garden giving it year round interest. Attractive fall foliage and colorful plumes make ornamental grasses standouts in a fall garden. Graceful in the wind, ornamental grass plumes capture the sun to light up the garden late in the day. This diverse group of plants are easy-care, resistant to browsing deer and are often drought-tolerant.

The following list of ornamental grasses will add bold accents to your fall garden:

A Few Favorites

Silver Feather Maiden Hair Grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Silberfeder’)—One of the most cold hardy and earliest of the Miscanthus to bloom. Its attractive display of silver flowering spikes begins in late August and continues into fall. This large growing ornamental grass is very showy when planted with Russian Sage and Purple Cone Flower.

Prairie Blues Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Prairie Blues’)—The foliage on this cultivar is its outstanding feature. Attractively blue in the summer and beautifully pinkish-purple in its fall coloration. Great planted with Sedum Autumn Joy.

Siskiyou Blue Festuca (Festuca idahoensis ‘Siskiyou Blue’)—it has superb blue-spruce blue coloration combined with a graceful habit and fine textured foliage. Very attractive in bloom as well. Great with Stachys Silver Carpet and Lavender ‘Mitcham Gray’.

Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolis heterolepis)—This smaller growing native prairie grass blooms with a haze of flowers in mid-to-late summer and has beautiful golden fall foliage. It should be mixed into the perennial border particularly with late summer, early fall blooming perennials like Prairie Sage (Salvia Azurea), Gayfeather (Liatris species), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and and other fall blooming perennials. |

Shenandoah Prairie Switch Grass (Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’)—a robust, upright grower with burgundy tipped green foliage summer foliage and a nice display of fine textured flowers purple flower spikes in late summer. Fall changes its leaf color to burgundy and yellow. Plant in the middle of a group of Artemisia Powis Castle.