Ornamental grasses in pots

flowerbomb21

Hiya,

Can anyone please give me some advice on planting grasses. I have some pennisetum alopecuroides "little bunny", and pennisetum "red bunnytails", carex testacea "prarie fire"  aswell as a stipa tenuissima and black dragon "niger". I was going to put them together in a 50cm pot but am guessing they will need more room for root growth. Would 2 pots be adequate for them ? They are all currently in 1 litre pots. Also, I would really appreciate it if someone can help me out with the soil requirements, ie. any perlite and grit and if so in how many parts?

Thanks very much

Obelixx

I wouldn't try and cram them all into one pot.  Their habits are too similar to provide ineterest and the pennisetums are not as hardy as the others and will need more shelter over winter.

I suggest you look each one up on the RHs website and see what their preferences are for sun, shade, drainage and shelter and let that guide you for compost and position.  This will start you off - https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/43920/Pennisetum-alopecuroides/Details 

Dovefromabove

I think I’d put them in individual pots then group the pots together ... perhaps will some other contrasting shapes and textures. 
Individual pots are great as you can shuffle them around to bring whichever us looking better at the time to the fore. 

flowerbomb21

Thank you so much to you both for your advice - very helpful as always!! 

The_herpetologist

Good drainage is a must with most grasses. I tend to use 30% perlite. If the compost is fresh and very fertile, you’ll tend to get more growth taking place below the surface (roots) and vigorous foliage growth the following year. Grasses do especially well in infertile soil so don’t be in a rush to change the soil / compost annually as you might with other plants. Some of mine are quite happy sitting in the same soil for 3 consecutive years. As for growing them in the same pot, you can do this as long as you have a very big pot and use slate as dividers to stop the roots intermingling (or bury them in their pots), but I’d concur with Obelixx in terms of the aesthetic. Grasses work so well with so many plants that I’d be minded to experiment with these combinations. Putting them together strikes me as a bit of a waste.

flowerbomb21

Thank you Hep, that was very useful and I agree with you guys. I'm really glad I posted really helpful feedback. Thank you so much for your time