Best Grasses for Sunny Borders Collection

Landscapers are loving ornamental grasses, but they can be overlooked in home gardens. We get it, we've found the average garden center variety to be a little lackluster too. However, Spring Hill Nurseries R&D farm manager, Jeff Bartley, put together a collection that really shows what an ornamental grass can do. These varieties are foolproof, especially in full sun borders where their drought tolerance (once established) is incredibly useful. The long, slender, upright-to-arching blades add tons of graceful texture. With these four varieties there's also a surprising amount of color variation, from the dark green, whispy stems of Blackhawks Big Bluestem to the blue tones of Standing Ovation. The plant forms and seed heads are all distinctive too. Foxtrot's bottlebrush seed heads create a soft feature over a fountain of green foliage, while Blonde Ambition's seed heads take a swift 90° turn, sticking out horizontally like a flag mid-breeze. You'll get nearly four seasons of interest out of this collection, including some lovely fall color-changes. The collection includes Blackhawks, Blonde Ambition, Fox Trot and Standing Ovation. Andropogon gerardii 'Blackhawks', Bouteloua gracillis 'Blonde Ambition', Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Fox Trot', Schizachyrium scoparium 'Standing Ovation'