ORNAMENTAL grasses are the unsung heroes of modern gardening, offering texture, structure, movement and even gentle sound to help you create your peaceful oasis.

Generally requiring little maintenance and tolerant of a range of conditions, ornamental grasses often provide an ideal ecosystem that encourages wildlife into the garden.

By choosing a mix of deciduous and evergreen varieties, you can enjoy their aesthetic appeal all year round.

In this column, we’ve highlighted five different grasses that we find do well in East Lothian.

To help you choose varieties for year-round interest, it’s helpful to know that grasses that come from cooler climates such as Deschampsia, Festuca and Stipa will begin growing in late winter/early spring, flowering in early summer.

By comparison, those that originate in warmer climates – for example Miscanthus and Pennisetum – are later to begin growing and flowering.

Festuca ‘Intense Blue’ This low-growing, clump-forming grass is amongst our best sellers and prized for its vibrant blue foliage.

An evergreen plant, its leaves tend to become greener in winter whilst the blue intensifies during summer.

With an average height of between 10cm and 40cm, it is often used in rockeries, at the edges of cottage garden borders, in planters or even in gravel paths.

F. ‘Intense Blue’ enjoys well-drained, sunny positions and requires little maintenance. In spring, ‘comb out’ any dead leaves to allow the fresh new blue foliage to flourish.

Over time, the centre of the plant will die out, so lift and sub-divide it in the dormant season every few years to keep this beautiful grass fresh and vigorous.

Ophiopogon nigrescens

This unusual plant has dark, purple-green leaves and in ideal conditions the leaves will appear almost pure black. An evergreen plant, it is particularly low-growing, only reaching heights of about 25cm.

In summer, it produces white to pink flowers which look particularly striking against the dark leaves.

With its dramatic colouring and compact habit, it is often used as contrast in rockeries, underplanted amongst shrubs or roses, for ground cover and in planters.

O. nigrescens thrives in moist, well-drained, fertile, slightly acidic, humus-rich soils and enjoys full sunlight to partial shade.

Like most ornamental grasses, it is low maintenance and only needs to have its dead foliage removed from time to time.

To keep it fresh and encourage new leaf growth, divide the plant every two or three years in springtime.

Hakonechloa macra Commonly known as Japanese forest grass, this is a deciduous perennial with distinctive, arching, bright lime-green leaves.

Growing in clumps approximately 50cm high, it produces flower panicles on arching stems in late summer and autumn. H. macra can be found in many different situations, from informal cottage gardens to more formal city courtyards, and even in planters or rockeries.

For best results, plant it in moist, humus-rich, well drained fertile soil, where it will get full or partial sunshine.

A low-maintenance plant, it simply needs old flower stems and dead leaves to be cut back in late winter to allow new growth in the spring.

Dianella Blue Stream Commonly known as the Tasmanian flax, this evergreen perennial has tough, leathery, sword-shaped leaves.

Growing to approximately 1m tall, these robust plants are ideal for creating all-year-round structure in the garden. D. Blue Stream produces starry, deep blue flowers in summer which mature to long-lasting blue or purple berries in autumn.

It prefers a sheltered spot with humus-rich, well-drained soil where there is full sun to partial shade.

Like many of the flax varieties that originate in Australia and New Zealand, it grows well in our coastal county gardens.

Miscanthus Morning Light Sometimes known as Chinese Silver Grass, for anyone looking for a grass with attractive seed heads that is restful and rustles gently in the breeze, Miscanthus is hard to beat! M. Morning Light is a clump-forming, deciduous perennial with narrow leaves which are finely edged with white, giving it the silvery look.

Pink-tinged, silky seed panicles are produced in autumn and often last for many months into winter. Growing to approximately 1.5m tall, it is ideal for providing height in cottage borders, while the gentle rustling sound makes it a popular choice for sensory gardens.

A low-maintenance plant that likes fertile, well-drained soil and plenty of sunshine, like most deciduous plants it benefits from being tidied up in spring to encourage new growth.

Of course, this is only a brief introduction to the amazing diversity of ornamental grasses.

If you’d like to know more, see our website at merryhatton.co.uk or pop in and have a chat with our knowledgeable plant team – they’re always more than happy to help you choose the plants that will work best for you and your garden.