Ravenna Partners

Red helenium with ravenna grass leaves

One of the most exciting moments in our garden is the rise of the grasses in August.  We grow about a dozen grasses, but by far the tallest that we have is saccharum ravennae, which gets 12' high by late August and then stands all winter.  Since the grass blades arch upwards and fall over, it's a space hog by late summer.  I have it underplanted with some Turks Cap lilies, which are done blooming by the time it overwhelms them.  This spring I had to move a large Provence lavender because the grass shaded it too much.  I replaced the lavender with some red heleniums that weren't doing well in their previous spot of poor soil and full sun.  The heleniums have been able to stand up and take on the grass toe to toe, and I really like the red with the glaucous grass.  It's a win-win situation.

On the other side of the ravenna grass clump I have the white echinacea 'Fragrant Angel', with a pass-along sedum at its feet.  While I'm not sure it's fragrant, it is gorgeous.  It's an accidental moment of taste in our garden that I look forward to each year.

And yes, the garden tour group was lovely yesterday.  We had gorgeous weather following some rain on Friday night.  Now the garden can get back to its regularly scheduled August activity of going to hell in a handbasket.

Echinacea purpurea 'Fragrant Angel' with saccharum ravennae and sedum spectabile (I think)