The Five Best Ornamental Grasses for Winter: Grasses for Your Winter Garden

Just because it's winter doesn't mean you can't have a garden full of interesting plants. You can plant ornamental grasses to enjoy in your garden all winter long.

Here are the top five ornamental grasses you can plant for the winter.

Blue Oat Grass. Blue Oat Grass, also known as Helictotrichon sempervirens, is a good ornamental grass for the winter because it does well in cool seasons. Blue Oat Grass has blue foliage and makes a great accent plant for your garden. Blue Oat Grass grows to about three feet tall.

Indian Grass. If you're looking for a tall dramatic grass for your winter garden landscape, consider planting Indian Grass, also known as Sorghastrum nutans. This ornamental grass makes a bold statement because Indian Grass can grow as high as six feet tall. It's very sturdy and tolerates all kinds of weather conditions, including the winter season.

Maiden grasses. One very popular ornamental grass for the winter are Maiden grasses of the Miscanthus species. This Asian grass is grown in the United States for more than 100 years and has develop a good reputation landscapes. One thing you'll notice about the Miscanthus are the silky flower at the tops of the grass that are still present during the winter. These tassel-like plant features will look great in your garden and catch the attention of passersby.

Feather Reed Grass. You may recognize Feather reed grass, also known as Calamagrostis x acutiflora or 'Karl Foerster' because it looks like wheat. This ornamental grass commands a lot of attention because of its appearance. The feather reed grass is a great accent plant for your garden all year around. In the spring, the ornamental grass forms green-hued spikes, then the spikes turned golden in color. When the winter season rolls around the spikes are a light tan color.

Switch Grass. Switch grass, also known as Panicum virgatum, is a ornamental grass with a straw color. It grows vertically with some varieties of switch grass reaching heights of up to a whopping eight feet. In the fall switch grass is a pale yellow color. A good thing about switch grass is that it can grow in many different types of soil conditions including dry or moist soils. It also does well in the colder winter weather. You have to keep an eye on this ornamental plant though so that the switch grass doesn't invade other areas of your winter garden.