Did not had any problem growing them together--they both like plenty of water and fertilizer.

I used grasses that did not spread much and that did not reseed. I think the main thing is you want grasses that won't overrun your roses. Roses just can't compete.

I used smaller grasses like Carex, Festuca. Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' is very nice.

What hoovb said; I found that many of the Miscanthus are too large to be next to roses; shades them, droops over them, etc. My mixes with Calamagrostis varieties and Panicums have done better.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings blog

I keep making mistakes with grasses even though the first year they are fine. One mistake is using grasses that become too large, and the second is to fail to recognize that the grass is not perennial.

A friend gave me a link to a nursery that sells grass seed, but I have not tried them yet.

Good luck. If we report the idiot who posted before me, they may remove the entire thread. I am sorry that happened, and hope nobody clicks on the link.

Sammy

Sammy, we all seem to forget that everything in Nature gets pruned. Whether it's by being burned, frozen or eaten, everything gets mown down. I haven't found a grass yet that didn't look better after being cut pretty much to the ground.

I love Stipa tenuissima or Feather Grass, because it's so easy and elegant here. I know many will denounce it because it seeds so prolifically, but it's also as easy as alyssum to pull out where it isn't wanted. I hack it to the ground at least once a year and find it quite easy to actually thin by separating. I don't worry about killing it because it's so durable here and is always replaced by seedlings.

I guess I would be less enthusiastic about hacking grasses back and pulling clumps of it apart if they were less tenacious here. I'd think as long as the grass isn't rhizomatous, you should be able to keep it in check with regular "mowing". I usually just grab it in a clump with one hand and slice through it with my clippers. It's worked quite well here. We have to remember, also, that most of them will, like lavenders and other companion plants, have to be replaced every few years. Most tend to get too woody and thick with age, resembling chaparral plants, which many are. Kim

mmmm, yep, I have had a bit of a thing for grasses for the last few years and like other posters, there are some caveats to emphasise. Whilst I like native ploants, I find native grasses are just too insanely prone to seeding everywhere and in everything. The slightly tender pennisetums, some panicums and miscanthus have been good as well as the amazing stipa gigantea - giant oats. OTOH, I have had some epic fails with an unnamed millet (not Bowles - which will seed but is easier to see and remove before it turns into a menace). The very worst was Blue Lyme grass (thank you, Gertrude J....who obviously had a load of hefty minions to dig out the supercharged turbo-couch savage rhizomes) I whip any sign of flowerheads of heliotrichon or festucas. In all though, I tend to associate grasses with my wild roses - a much more robust style which suits the clumps of grass, the whole being a tumbling, moving mass (which looks rather better from across the allotment rather than up close. I have not exhausted the grasses yet - although I would not countenance even a well behaved bamboo (too mjany horrible jobs removing these horrendous things from peoples ponds)

Agreed, Campanula. Bamboo and Horse Tail Reed are two things you give someone you really DON'T like! LOL! There is a nearly forty year old stand of Golden Bamboo in front which was thought to be "contained" by massive hard scape. It didn't take it long to find an abandoned metal conduit which formerly carried lighting wiring under the brick stair case. The danged thing grew through that "pipe" and began invading the planter on the opposite side of the stairs. It's finally grown under the deep footing of the block wall containing it to the east, too. Unfortunately, the gophers don't seem to care for bamboo, or it doesn't care about them. Still haven't figured out which...Kim

I have a similar height problem in my mixed mini bed. Some of the perennials that are in there get taller than the minis do and so the minis get shaded out and stop blooming. I try to keep the perennials as short as possible now to prevent that but going into fall it's still a problem sometimes. The daylight hours are shorter and the nights are cooler and the mums take off on me. I don't want to cut them back because I'll lose all my bloom.

Ha, the supposedly well behaved clumping bamboo outside the refectory at my old college actually broke through the concrete to invade the canteen. Several years ago in the UK, nearly all fargesias died, after flowering, right across the country - mostly, they had all been imported from one huge nursery. Insanely, there was a small fad for prehistoric looking plants - we came across several ponds with marestail (equisetum hymenale or such) deliberately planted....and yep, I guess they imagined it was 'contained'- shook our heads in wonder!

I encountered a Black Bamboo which had literally crawled many feet over an old patio to make it to open ground where it escaped in to the rest of the garden. There apparently wasn't an easier way out of the contained area, so it took to spreading across the pavement where it was ignored until it colonized the outer areas. That stuff definitely has the will to find a way out! Kim

In my neighborhood there is one house which has bamboo out by the street - it is now coming up through the pavement in the middle of the street! Another thing to think about - at least here in dry summer hot weather No Cal, bamboo is said to be a horrible fire hazard - my town has told homeowners that they MUST remove 2 kinds of plants from their yards - bamboo and junipers. The Fire Dept is actually enforcing that.

Jackie

I have several small miscanthus, mostly Adagio and Morning Light (I had to part with others that were too large for my small property - I esp. loved the wide-leafed Cabaret!). I haven't yet tried the small Dixieland, but I'd like to since it shows a lot of white.

I have many pennisetum - about a half dozen Hameln (alopecuroides), and a couple dozen Bunny Tails/Red Tails (messiacum). Since the Bunny Tails and the Hameln are so small, I've added more and more through the years.

Another grass I love is the Silver Comet pampas grass (cortaderia selloana). This grass stays reasonable small and gives light to the landscape with it's striped leaves (more white than green). I grew it successfully for several years until it died one winter. Subsequent plantings haven't been successful. Not sure if it was my fault or the severe weather. I may try again. Or I may just try Dixieland for the white touch.

The things I love best about grasses is the different texture when paired with roses, the movement they give the garden, and that they cover the bare legs of whichever roses have them. Probably the same thing you all go for in grasses.

Lou

Do you have pictures?