Japanese Forest Grass

Ornamental grasses are becoming better and better appreciated, as they should be. Japanese Forest Grass, among other true ornamentals—not turf grasses, but those that take as prime a place as any perennial in the garden—are gaining popularity.

For centuries, ornamental grasses have been used in Asian landscapes. More recently (in the ’30s), Karl Foerster who revolutionized the way European perennial gardens were designed, utilized grasses among his plantings and helped them to gain appreciation for their visual appeal in four seasons. You’re probably aware that an upright ornamental feather grass is named after Foerster. Planted among flowering perennials and attractive shrubs, it holds its own beautifully, supplying as much visual interest as garden-mates with bright blooms.

Japanese Forest Grass, or Hakone Grass, grows with a mounding, cascading habit. Its moderate overall scale (at maturity, about three feet wide, and a slightly lesser height), ease of growth, and attractive form make it a choice that is becoming ever more popular among North American gardeners (in zones 5-9) looking to add something different to their perennial beds and borders.

Planted along a border, Japanese Forest Grass builds drama through texture, as its bright green blades of foliage cascade to meet the edge of the pathway it decorates. Planted in multiples, Japanese Forest Grass generally will not blend into a single cascading border but will stay, instead, as close-growing yet somewhat separate mounds. Creating an undulating look, the series of mounds is reminiscent of a sea of waves. This creates a part of the garden one would love to dive into, as though those “waves” could keep a body buoyant, bobbing along in the garden the way buoys do on a windy day on the ocean.

Needless to say, diving into the soft-looking mounds of Japanese Forest Grass is ill-advised. But the look of this grass surely makes the thought of this appealing. And because Japanese Forest Grass can thrive in dimly lit areas and cooler summer temperatures, it is a wonderful choice for adding to many North American gardens. For all of us who might think of ornamental grasses as being the plants of xeriscapes, out in the baking sun, or sun-drenched rock gardens, Japanese Forest Grass reminds us that the shady spots in our landscape, under protective tree canopies that let little light in, can also host ornamental grasses.

The variegated Japanese Forest Grass ‘Albo-striata’ brightens up a shady area, with bright green blades that are streaked, similar to the way a spider plant’s foliage is (though more subtly), with creamy white. Doing best in acidic soil, it has a toughness, unbothered by deer… again, a great addition to woodland sites.

Utilizing ornamental grasses in the landscape is not new. But it’s new to some of us, who have focused more on flowering ornamentals, shrubs with blooms and berries, and low-growing ground cover. In growing Japanese Forest Grass and seeing all that it offers to shady, woodland areas, I’d say that its popularity is quite sure to grow ever more.