To create bright and expressive compositions, landscape design masters recommend using a wide variety of elements and materials. When decorating a plot, each of us wants to create a cozy corner of nature with bright accents of flowers, which are harmoniously combined with a discreet, but no less spectacular background from other plants. To create such original combinations, cereals are increasingly used in landscape design, the decorative forms of which make it possible to add depth, volume and special sophistication to the garden space.
Ornamental grasses, which include many types of ornamental grasses, as well as representatives of the family of not only cereals, but also cattails, rump and sedge, can have the widest variety of colors and shapes.
Cereals are at first glance inconspicuous plants, capable of giving any landscape corner of special expressiveness and delicacy
They are attractive at any time of the year: in the spring they form luscious carpets that dress up in intricate panicles and spikelets in summer and autumn, and with the onset of winter, under the cover of snow, they create fabulous reliefs that give the garden a special mystery. Even after cutting, cereals can retain their attractive appearance for a long time. They are indispensable in the design of dry bouquets and floristic compositions.
But the main secret of the popularity of plants lies not only in their decorative appeal. One of the key trends in landscape design in recent years is the low maintenance of the garden, which requires a minimum of effort to care for the green spaces on the site.
Most cereal crops are unpretentious, which makes them a desirable “inhabitant” in any area. They are often used when decorating rocky gardens, landscaping ponds and decorating flower beds.
Grains easily tolerate both an abundance of moisture and prolonged drought. They are highly resistant to pests and diseases. A characteristic feature of cereals is the ability to easily get along with representatives of other plant species. Due to this, they are often used in the preparation of mixed flower beds and mixborders.
Note! Cereals of light shades, reflecting the sun’s rays, protect themselves and neighboring plants from overheating.
All cereals can be divided into two main groups: annuals and perennials. Each of them is interesting in its own way from the point of view of landscape design.
Annual cereals are attractive by the presence of variegated and unusual inflorescences, which are a bright decoration of the plant composition.
Perennials are interesting for their decorative foliage, which can please the eye for several seasons.
Low-growing varieties of cereals
Low grasses, the height of which does not exceed 20-50 cm, are good as ground cover crops. They are used in the design of rocky gardens, rock gardens and rockeries, as well as borders and carpet flower beds.
Fescue can give bright strokes to rocky hills, which, due to the variety of varieties, can have dark olive, grayish-green, light blue and deep blue shades.
A breeze-shaped fire, a hare’s tail, a busennik, golden lamarkia, maned barley can act as a framing of the paths. For its dense spike-shaped panicles and decorative foliage, the graceful thin-legged is appreciated among many gardeners. A spectacular combination with flowering perennials gives variegated bulbous ryegrass.
Medium-sized crops
Medium-sized cereals, the height of which varies in the range of 50-100 cm, are good for decorating mixborders and multi-tiered flower beds. Among this group of cereals, feather grass is considered the most beautiful. The awns of the plants swaying from the breeze are simply mesmerizing with their grace and beauty.
Since in nature feather grass grows in the steppe, then when creating picturesque corners on the site, it is used to decorate rocky hills and as small group plantings
Among the ornamental varieties in the middle layer group, one can also distinguish: oats, pinnate bristle, Canary falaris. They go well with wildflowers: chamomiles and poppies, salvia and cornflowers.
Against the background of a rocky garden, the brilliant sesleria stands out – a perennial decorated with olive-white spikelets, framed by evergreen foliage of an amazing silver-green hue
Tall types of cereals
Tall types of cereals, the height of which is from one meter and more, are used to create a background in multi-level plant compositions, as well as screens and screens. The striking representatives of tall varieties are handsome pennisetums.
The bluish pennisetum with maroon spikelets and bronze-red leaves is unusually beautiful. The shaggy pennisetum with fluffy purple panicles also looks original
Decorative varieties of pearl barley look no less interesting. Its purple spikelets with whitish inflorescences can become a real decoration of a shady garden.
Tall cereals are good both in group plantings and as tapeworms. Tall cereals give an effective combination in the vicinity of conifers: against the background of evergreen conifers associated with constancy, cereals act as a kind of symbol of perpetual motion.
Due to the fact that cereals calmly tolerate an excess of moisture, they are often used for landscaping artificial reservoirs.
To decorate a picturesque corner on the shore of a reservoir, you can use decorative varieties of doublet, miscanthus, blue lightning. Blooming in the second half of summer, they form real impenetrable screens, decorated with green-white, golden-yellow and purple-burgundy ears and panicles.
