Rick Darke ♥ Grasses

Now I know I wrote here that Kurt Bluemel is Mr. Grass, but then what do you call someone who's written (at my count) FIVE books on the subject, especially when that writer is the irrepressible Rick Darke'? Let them duke it out or maybe share the title, since they've collaborated around grasses, anyway - in naming the Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light,' and introducing many others.

Recently I was one of the capacity audience at the National Arboretum to hear Rick talk about grasses and a lot more.  He showed us photos of Miscanthus growing on rooftops and filling whole fields in Japan, where it's native and indisputably gorgeous.  And what about growing it here?  Rick says there's "nothing immoral" about growing it here, as long as it's a late-bloomer like 'Morning Light' that's effectively sterile.  That notion is a matter of dispute lately, with lots of writers declaring that "Miscanthus sinensus is invasive" without distinguishing between early and late bloomers, though at least one source - here on HGTV's website -  makes the distinction, quoting Darke.

We also learned that Miscanthus is a damn good source of fuel, 5 to 10 times more efficient than switchgrass.  In fact, the Germans have been using Miscanthus as fuel for 15 years.  It's also drought-tolerant and well adapted, and Darke declared its seed-sterile late bloomers to be environmentally neutral - neither a detractor nor a contributor.  And that's coming from an early leader in the native plant movement and a self-described "landscape ethicist".  He's also friends with Doug Tallamy, who happens to be a colleague of his wife at the University of Delaware.

Oh, and Darke proved to us with before, during and after photos from his own Pennsylvania garden that large grasses are the cheapest, easiest and fastest way to provide screening and the sense of enclosure needed to create a garden space.  In Darke's garden the grasses did the job in their first year and kept doing it until the trees and large shrubs he planted among them grew up to do the job.

Grasses are also a major player in the landscaping style that first appeared in 1987 and was quickly dubbed the New American Garden.  Think sweeps of grasses, coreopsis, sedums, and black-eyed susans.  Darke's a big fan and described the style as unharnassed, free, vigorous, vividly blending the natural and the cultivated.  He credits it with getting us away from the "European model" and "loosening things up".  Thank gawd.   

Rick's latest book on the subject is his Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes.  I haven't seen it (ahem) but the good people at Timber Press sent along these photos with some meaty captions.  More below the jump.

Above: Molinia caerulea subsp arundinacea 'Windspiel' is a cultivated variety of purple moor grass representing the taller of two subspecies."

Above: Hachijo susuki is the Japanese vernacular name for Miscanthus sinensis var. condensatus, shown in this late-October view in native habitat between Mount Hakone and Mount Fuji, which is just visible through distant clouds."

Above: Provenance matters. These switchgrasses, Panicum virgatum, growing unplanted along a road outside Dallas represent the local population of this species. The dry, sunny Texas provenance of these particular plants makes it likely that they possess more genetically inherent heat tolerance than cool northern representatives of P.virgatum."

Comments

[Genevieve]

I love Rick Darke's books.

I've seen some gorgeous Miscanthus screens in our area - they do get cut down each year but for getting a screen up fast, they can't be beat.

[Josh]

I wish I had more space for grasses! I definitely need one of those Molinia!

[James]

I'd rank Rick Darke among the best of American writers on landscape, nature, and gardening. He's right about the difference between early and late blooming miscanthus. I got some early blooming (unidentified, but called Gracillimus) miscanthus at a big box store, and it has started seeding itself in a very disturbing manner. Now I'm faced with removing them all next spring and burning them. Plant miscanthus (I love them) but be careful to watch for the early bloomers. (This is in central/western New Jersey.)

[Old Kim]

Vernacular sounds funny. So do people burning big box weeds.