Pennisetum grass is one of the most popular garden plants and often decorates pots on terraces and balconies. Like all ornamental grasses, it impresses with its elegant simplicity, although it is the fronds of this grass that are particularly eye-catching. However, some people would like to brighten up the simple look with a little color. Which plants are suitable for this?
If you would like to combine Pennisetum grass in a pot, you basically have a good selection available. The combination with other flowering plants is typical of the so-called “New German Style”, a natural-looking garden style that has become established in German gardens in recent years.
Combine the undemanding pennisetum grass in the bucket
The feather bristle grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides), as this beautiful specimen is also called, is a very undemanding plant, which is one of the reasons for its popularity. In order for coexistence with other plants to work well, this should of course also apply to them. Let's take a quick look at the location and care requirements:
- sunny location
- little water
- fertilize rarely: once with slow-release fertilizer at the start of the season; In rare cases, a second fertilization in summer is necessary, e.g. B. when the plant has grown large
- Flowering period from late summer until October
Further tips for choosing the right partner for the ornamental grass
- What you should also keep in mind when choosing your planting partner is that they must also be suitable for containers. Not all garden partners thrive in pots.
- A sufficiently large bucket is also important. Dwarf varieties of Pennisetum grass that require at least 20 liters of space are usually chosen as potted plants. In combination with other specimens, a larger capacity for the bucket may be necessary.
- Think about a drainage layer to prevent waterlogging and stability so that even strong winds cannot knock the pot over.
- If you want to combine Pennisetum grass in the pot, you can choose flowers that bloom at different times to achieve the longer flowering phase or those that bloom at the same time as the grass.
Here you will findgreat ideas for designing beds with ornamental grasses.
Suitable planting partners for feather bristle grass
As already mentioned, you can use the flowering time to create arrangements that suit your needs. That's why we've also written down the flowering time of the suitable plants to give you a better overview.
You can find out how to cut feather bristle grass correctlyread here.
Plants with flowering periods before and during that of Pennisetum
Feather bristle grass with its great flower fronds as a background and colorful flowers as a foreground - a beautiful idea, isn't it?Since ornamental grasses are very decorative even when they are not in bloom, it doesn't make any difference if you concentrate on planting with species that are already blooming beautifully. The Pennisetum grass will then provide an attractive background for the rest of the arrangement. And often the flowering stages even overlap, as you'll see from the list below:
- Angelonia (Angelonia) – May to October
- Astern (Aster) – until November
- blue fescue (Fescue glauca) – June and July
- Verbena (Verbena bonariensis) – July to October
- Fetthenne (Sedum) – June to August
- Flammenblume (Phlox) – June to September
- Autumn anemones (Anemone hupehensis) – from July to October
- catnip (Nepeta cataria) – April to July
- Cushion Purple Bells (Heucherella) – May to August
- Lavender (Washing her) – June to mid-August; different times depending on the variety
- beautiful candle (Gaura lindheimeri) – June to the first frost in October
- Splendid Charte (Liatris) – from July to October
- purple bells (Heuchera) – from April to September
- Rosen (Rosa) – depending on the species and variety from June to October
- jewelry basket (Cosmos bipinnatus) – July to October
- spider flower (Cleome spinosa) – July to October
- Coneflower (Echinacea) – from July to September
- Storchschnabel ‘Rozanne’ (Geranium) – June to November
- marguerite (Argyranthemum) – May to October
- Strawflower (Helichrysum) – July to September
- Zebragras (Miscanthus sinensis) – usually without flowers, but with striped blades of grass
- cigarette flowers (Cup of fire) – November to March
- Onion plants (e.g. ornamental garlic –Garlic) – different times depending on the variety; July to October
A notice:The specified types are of course only examples and by no means all possible variants.
How to overwinter the arrangements in the pot
The general rule for the Pennisetum grass is that it can remain outside even in a pot with appropriate winter protection.
- Place the bucket in a dry place. Too much moisture in the winter will cause the plant to rot and it will not sprout again in the spring.
- Cover the grass with fleece.
- Water rarely and sparingly, but do not neglect watering completely, otherwise the plant will dry out. Also choose days that are as frost-free as possible for this purpose.
And what about the planting partners?
You should check in advance whether and how the respective combination partners should be wintered. In most cases these are specimens that cannot survive the winter outdoors, or at least not in a container. Therefore, it will probably be necessary to either replant in the coming season or find winter quarters with suitable conditions so that all plants can survive. It is important that this place is neither too warm nor too cold and, above all, bright.
You could in the gardenCombine hydrangeas with pennisetum.
Titelbild: Shanshan0312/ Shutterstock
