1.0.48 Laubwerk Plants Kit 20 Temperate Ornamental Grasses

Laubwerk Plant Kit 20 – Temperate Ornamental Grasses

The following 10 temperate flowering ornamental species and cultivars are included in the Plant Kit 20. Each species or cultivar comes in 3 variations in one seasonal aspect (in full bloom), for a total of 30 models per Kit. Note that Kit 20 is a pre-release, with currently only one season and therefore offered at a reduced price.

Blue Grama

Bouteloua gracilis

A deciduous tufted grass with linear leaves and slender stems. Each stem bears a few horizontally growing, one-sided, comb-like flower spikes of reddish-brown color, which bloom from summer to late summer. From afar, the inflorescence looks similar to a mosquito swarm, hence the common name. Deer resistant and attracts butterflies. Native to the Great Plains in the southwest U.S., western Canada and northern Mexico, mosquito grass makes for a great addition to nature gardens and prairie plantings.

Common Quaking Grass

Briza media

A tufted medium-sized, semi-evergreen grass that bears blue-green narrow leaves. From late spring to summer it features slender upright stems adorned delicate, heart-shaped, nodding, purple-tinted green flowers, which fade to buff, hang from wiry branches. Native to Europe, common quaking grass is a great addition to nature gardens or rockery and heathland inspired plantings. The pretty spike flowers are commonly used in dried flower binding.

Feather Reed Grass ‘Karl Foerster’

Calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’

A clump-forming, perennial grass with an upright habit with narrow-vertical growing bright green leaves. Feathery plumes of summer-blooming pink to purple tinged flowers on narrow upright stalks, which flutter and sway in the breeze. They bleach straw colour, standing firm throughout winter. The cultivar was named in honor of the late great nurseryman, Karl Foerster (1874-1970), responsible for introducing this grass in horticulture. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit and it has been the first ornamental grass receiving the Perennial Plant of the Year Award (2001) award.

Japanese Sedge ‘Evergold’

Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’

A very distinctive ornamental grass-like perennial with an arching, upright habit. Slender bright gold foliage with fine dark green margins that shimmers in slight breezes. Plants are evergreen in mild winters. Inconspicious brownish flower spikes appear on triangular stems in spring. This popular variegated cultivar has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Dwarf Pampas Grass

Cortaderia selloana ‘Pumila’

A dwarf, tufted, cold hardy pampas grass selection with dense mounds of evergreen, sharp-edged, narrow, mid-green leaves, moving freely in the light wind. From late summer to fall showy, silky, silvery-yellow plumes of flowers are produced on tall erect stems. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Tufted Hair Grass ‘Goldschleier’

Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldschleier’

A tuft-forming evergreen grass with dark, bluish-green leaves. It produces golden-yellow flowers with a silvery sheen from late spring to summer that are followed by long-lasting plumes giving good fall display. Flower panicles turn yellowish brown after bloom as the seed ripens and may remain attractive through much of the winter. One of the few ornamental grasses that grows well in shade.

Blue Fescue ‘Elijah Blue’

Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’

A dwarf evergreen, rhizomatous, ornamental grass forming small cushions of very fine, inrolled, intensely ice-blue leaves, becoming greener in winter. From late spring to summer it bears narrow, bristly blue-green flower plumes that turn golden-brown. One of the best and most colorful of all blue fescue varieties. Easy to grow plant, ideal for rock gardens, sunny borders, in pots and for adding color to winter containers. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Cogon Grass ‘Red Baron’

Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’

A very decorative and distinctive ornamental grass with a stiff upright growth and loose tussock habit. It produces upright, fresh green blades whose upper half turns a fiery red in summer and deepens to burgundy until late fall before it goes dormant in temperate winter. This cultivar is a less invasive horticultural selection that reportedly rarely flowers, does not set seed and thus lacks the invasive spreading tendencies attributed to the species.

Eulalia ‘Ferner Osten’

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’

A clump-forming deciduous grass with narrow, arching leaves that turn dull orange in autumn and early winter. Feathery flower panicles which open deep red, ageing to pink and as they mature they open into fluffy, cotton-like, silvery plumes that look great left on the plant over winter. An absolute top variety in the league of early flowering, half-tall cultivars, which looks particularly good as a solitaire or in larger gardens in groups as a structuring plant. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Black Lilyturf ‘Niger’

Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Niger’

Small, clump-forming, evergreen perennial with blackish-purple, arching, grass-like. In summer, small spikes of bell-shaped, pale mauve flowers appear, followd by spherical purple to dark blue berries mature in fall. Foliage, evergreen in warm winter climates, may appear almost black in many lighting situations. This unusual, easy to grow plant looks fantastic with other grasses, provides a brilliant contrast with silvery plants in sun, or bright green ferns in shade.