Knowing your location helps us recommend plants that will thrive in your climate, based on your Growing Zone.
Posted By High Country Gardens Content Team on Sep 12, 2014 · Revised on Oct 10, 2025
By David Salman, Chief Horticulturalist and Founder of High Country Gardens
The Spring garden usually consists of smaller growing plants; those that wake up early, grow and bloom with the cool conditions of the start of the growing season. The fall is the time for the big plants to take center stage, having had the whole summer to reach flowering size. Many of the most dramatic plants in the late season garden would have to be the ornamental grasses. With their large size and interesting flowering spikes, these grasses have no equal when it comes to reflecting the glow of sunlight late in the day. And the grace of their swaying stems in the slightest breeze brings movement to the landscape.
All of the ornamental grasses are good candidates for fall planting, and you'll get a head start on next spring's growth. Know that the warm season growers won't show a lot of top growth, as their energies will be spent growing roots. The cool season growers will show both above and below ground growth. Grasses are loosely divided between cool season growers and warm season growers.The cool season grasses include:
The warm season growers include many of our native prairie grasses, such as:
When considering the addition of warm season grasses to your landscape, it's nice to know that they are outstanding companion plants to a variety of herbaceous perennials and smaller flowering shrubs. Their presence with perennials immediately captures your attention. In fact, many of the large growing ornamental grasses are great shrub companions for creating an interesting but very low care landscape. They are a great choice for the casual gardener.
For more garden design inspiration, see our article on The Tall Grandeur Of The Late Season Garden.
Don't cut them back in the fall! The most common mistake I see with ornamental grasses happens when they're cut back in fall as part of fall garden clean-up. This robs you of their beauty over the fall and winter months which is a big part of their usefulness, especially in climates with long, dreary winters.
