previous
  • NEW Video Series: There's a Better Way
    NEW Video Series: There's a Better Way
  • Lawn Alternatives
    Lawn Alternatives
  • Homegrown / Homemade
    Homegrown / Homemade
  • Make a Succulent Topiary
    Make a Succulent Topiary
  • In Pursuit of the Perfect Potting Shed
    In Pursuit of the Perfect Potting Shed
  • Fast-Growing Trees for Impatient Gardeners
    Fast-Growing Trees for Impatient Gardeners
  • Comfortable Alfresco Dining
    Comfortable Alfresco Dining
  • Containers as Focal Points
    Containers as Focal Points
  • Plants that Spark!
    Plants that Spark!
  • Pretty in Pink
    Pretty in Pink
  • Slideshow: Beautiful Clematis
    Slideshow: Beautiful Clematis
  • Save Money by Growing Your Own
    Save Money by Growing Your Own
  • Fragrant Plants for Pathways
    Fragrant Plants for Pathways
  • Mulch for a Healthy Garden
    Mulch for a Healthy Garden
  • Plant an Easy-to-Water Strawberry Jar
    Plant an Easy-to-Water Strawberry Jar
  • Stylish Shady Containers
    Stylish Shady Containers
  • Garden Confidential: A Plant Walks into a Bar
    Garden Confidential: A Plant Walks into a Bar
  • Colorful Selections for Shade
    Colorful Selections for Shade
  • 6 Tips for Weed Control
    6 Tips for Weed Control
  • Elephant's Ears
    Elephant's Ears
  • Thoughts From a Foreign Field
    Thoughts From a Foreign Field
  • Dwarf Citrus Trees
    Dwarf Citrus Trees
  • Designing with Curved Terraces
    Designing with Curved Terraces
  • Building a Compost Bin
    Building a Compost Bin
  • Indeterminate or Determinate Tomatoes?
    Indeterminate or Determinate Tomatoes?
next

Browse Plants

Narrowed By:Type: Grasses+ Zone: 9, 11+ Seasonal Interest: Summer+ Botanical Name: S - U
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 listings   Sort By: Sort
no image available Saccharum arundinaceum
(Plume grass, Hardy sugar cane)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

In late summer, this large, clump-forming species bears huge plumes of delicate pink flower clusters, which eventually fade to silver.

Saccharum ravennae Saccharum ravennae
(Ravenna grass)
Be the first to rate this plant
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This large, clump-forming grass has linear leaves with central white stripes. In late summer it bears huge, purplish-bronze flower clusters, which eventually fade to silver. It resents high fertility and shows considerable drought tolerance.

Sasa veitchii Sasa veitchii
(Kuma bamboo grass, Kuma zasa)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This dwarf bamboo has deep-green leaves that become bicolored with the onset of autumn. The leaves then exhibit straw-colored margins, which persist into spring in warmer zones. It is a striking plant en masse or as groundcover in a woodland garden. It usually grows to 2 or 3 feet tall, but may reach 5 feet tall in deep shade.

Schizachyrium scoparium Schizachyrium scoparium
(Little bluestem, Prairie beard grass)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Little bluestem is a tidy, finely textured clumping grass with a blue-green summer color. Its silvery seed heads rise to a height of nearly 2 feet in late summer and are at their best when backlit in the morning or afternoon sun. In fall, the grass turns a rosy rust color that lasts all winter.

Sorghastrum nutans 'Indian Steel' Sorghastrum nutans 'Indian Steel'
(Indian grass)
Be the first to rate this plant
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Golden yellow plumes and a vase-like form give 'Indian Steel' a refined look. On the flower spikes, bright yellow pollen sacs stand out against the darker seed heads. Metallic blue foliage morphs to a coppery tan shade after frost. 'Indian Steel' tolerates a range of soil types, including heavy clay. -Scott Vogt, Native grasses, Fine Gardening issue #124

Sporobolus heterolepsis Sporobolus heterolepsis
(Prairie dropseed)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

The finely textured, green leaves of this slow-growing, clump-forming perennial turn golden yellow in autumn. It bears cloudy panicles of fragrant, pale-pink to tawny flowers 5 to 10 inches long in late summer, reaching 3 feet tall.

Sporobolus wrightii Sporobolus wrightii
(Wright's dropseed)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Largely untried in the northern states, Wright's dropseed is a great new grass that is becoming a substitute in southern gardens for unwieldy pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana). Heat and drought tolerant, its gray-green foliage sports airy clouds of flowers atop tall stems in summer. This grass is good as a single specimen or in a group as a showy backdrop.

no image available Stipa arundinacea
(New Zealand wind grass, Pheasant's tail grass)
Be the first to rate this plant
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This evergreen species makes a handsome specimen with narrow, arching foliage that is streaked orange in summer and becomes orange-brown in winter. Its fine, pendent flower inflorescences open purplish-green in midsummer and have a misty quality.

Stipa tenuissima Stipa tenuissima
(Mexican feather grass)
(5 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

No other grass exhibits quite the refinement of texture as this species. Its bright green foliage resembles delicate filaments that arise in elegant, vase-like clumps and spill outward like a soft fountain. All summer it bears a profusion of feathery panicles, which mature from foamy-green to blonde. It is native to the Americas.

Tripsacum dactyloides Tripsacum dactyloides
(Eastern gamagrass)
Be the first to rate this plant
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

In early summer, slender stems are topped with flowers that produce a crop of jointed seeds. Clumps get large and die out in the center, so division is necessary. Autumn frosts turn the leaves attractive shades of red-bronze. -Scott Vogt, Native grasses, Fine Gardening issue #124


Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 listings   Sort By: Sort