Miscanthus nepalensis

Himalayan fairy grass

This morning there was a definite chill in the air. Summer has surely given way to autumn, and this is the time of year when the ornamental grasses come into their own. In the average sized garden, it’s a mistake to grow too many different ones together, as they then lose their individual impact; so autumn is the perfect season to visit a few gardens and take a closer look at each of their qualities.

It was just a few months before the pandemic that we last went to Great Dixter and I saw a magnificent clump of this beautiful miscanthus positioned on the corner of a bed, which was the perfect place for it to strut its stuff – a veritable fountain of sunshine.

This is a graceful and distinctive, other-worldly sort of grass (hence its common name perhaps?), and the pendant, bronzy-golden plumes are held well above the foliage to about one and a half metres. Hardiness is clearly a much-discussed issue around M. nepalensis, and it’s fair to say that sun, shelter and – critically – very sharp drainage are essential, because it dislikes nothing more than winter wet.

Some plants really are worth cossetting and this is one of them.

NB Louise has published a beautifully produced book of her plant profiles – A Plant for Each Week of the Year. It costs £9.99 and is for sale in our online shop here.

More NB If you’re not already a subscriber and you’d like a bit more gardening chitchat from the3growbags, please type your email address here and we’ll send you a new post every Saturday morning.

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