Using grass, flaxes and sedges can be a great way to create structure and movement in the garden.
The wind can catch the long billowy grass blades and in turn create a wonderful visual effect. Sometimes it can even be the sound of the wind moving the grass clumps around that is the feature. Clumping flaxes and strappy-leafed lily type plants won’t give movement so much but will definitely add variety to your planting palette in the form of different structural shapes, colours, and textures.
- Sensational 7 Choices -
Agapanthus: dwarf and tall varieties are available with flowers ranging in colour from white, blues, two tone and even pale pink. Full sun.
Pennisetum rubrum: dwarf and large forms available. Cut it back to almost ground level when it looks shabby and brown. Full sun.
Lomandra ‘Mat rush’: a native rush that comes in dozens of sizes and foliage types. Hardy.
Dianella: a native flax that produces delicate blue flowers and edible purple berries. Good for sunny or shady locations.
Anigozanthos ‘Kangaroo paw’: famous Australian native cut flower. Good drainage and full sun are essential.
Cymbopogon citratus ‘Lemon grass’: Large growing grass to 2m that produce lemon flavoured stems and blades used in cooking and teas.
Clivia: Fleshy, dark green leaved clumping lily that produces flowers in shades or cream, yellow, apricot, orange, vermillion and even green. Shade lover.
Other popular choices: Dietes bicolour ‘Spanish iris’, Dietes grandiflora ‘Wild iris’, Tulbaghia violacea ‘Society garlic’, Carex species and cultivars, Festuca glauca, Themeda triandra ‘Kangaroo grass’, Phormium tenax ‘N.Z Flax’, Helmholtzia glaberrima ‘Stream lily’ Hemerocallis ‘Daylily’, Hymenocallis littoralis ‘Spider lily’, Hippeastrum cultivars, Miscanthus species.
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