The 9 Best Ornamental Grasses for Quick Landscape Impact in Idaho Falls

If you think landscaping with grass sounds boring, you haven’t seen these grasses.

Stunning golden seed heads that shimmer in the sun. Slender variegated leaves of pink, burgundy and cream. Fuzzy purple plumes that wave in the breeze.

Idaho boasts ornamental grasses that will stop you in your garden tracks.

Jump to Section

• How to Choose Plants for Idaho Falls Planting Zones?
• What’s So Great About Ornamental Grasses for Landscaping?
  
  • Best Grass for Shade
  • Best Grass for Dry Areas
  • Best Grass for Along a Fence
  • Best Ornamental Grasses For Privacy
  • Best Annual Grasses for Color
• What Grasses Are Native to Idaho?
• Oops: Too Many Ornamental Grasses
• You’ve Planted Your Grasses: Now What?
• Need Ornamental Grasses for Idaho Landscaping? Trust Outback

What are the best ornamental grasses for Idaho? ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass. Northern sea oats. Maiden grass. Little Bluestem. Dazzling annual varieties with cool names like ‘Fireworks.’

Keep reading to learn more about ornamental grasses for landscaping.

How to Choose Plants for Idaho Falls Planting Zones?

Idaho is all over the place when it comes to the USDA climate zone map, that U.S. Department of Agriculture tool that helps determine what plants can thrive and survive in what regions of the country.

Idaho lands in several different planting zones, ranging from 3b to 7b. The city of Idaho Falls is in Zone 5b, with cold winters, hot summers and all kinds of weather in between, from high winds to heavy snowfall, flooding to wildfires.

What are the best plants for USDA climate zone 5b? Luckily, a huge variety of trees, shrubs and perennials, from astilbe to yarrow.

High on the list? Ornamental grasses, a hugely hardy group of plants that can handle everything Idaho weather can dish out, including wide swings in temperature and moisture conditions.  

What’s So Great About Ornamental Grasses for Landscaping?

Just about everything. They’re so versatile, you can find the perfect ornamental grass for any spot in your Idaho Falls landscape design.

A tall, intriguing grass can be the perfect focal point in your garden. Or make it a few for a nice privacy screen.

Shorter grasses are great as ground covers or in rock gardens.

Some grasses thrive in dry conditions, while other moisture-loving varieties will do great in your bog garden.

The fibrous root systems of ornamental grasses make them great at stabilizing soil erosion.

Some are purple, blueish or pink, adding stunning color to your landscape.

The best ornamental grasses for Idaho are great to include in intriguing layers in your foundation plantings. Layer graceful grasses with small ornamental trees or upright evergreens; mid-size shrubs; perennials, and low-growing ground covers.

Kim Rubert, a landscape designer at Outback Landscape, loves the sturdy quality of ornamental grasses for landscape design in Idaho Falls. They hold up to active kids and dogs and general foot traffic, she says. Plus, they add intriguing texture, movement, and a softness to your Idaho landscaping. Landscape designers love ornamental grasses.

And when winter moves in and most plants hang it up for the winter, many ornamental grasses still stand strong, with pretty dried seed heads that offer captivating winter interest and sturdy stems that hold up to piling snow.

You get the idea. Ornamental grasses are must-have multitaskers.

Some ornamental grasses shine in certain situations. Need a grass for privacy? For shade? For a burst of color in an annual planter? To grow along a fence?

What grasses grow best in Idaho for all these garden needs? We’ve got you:

Best Grass for Shade: Northern Sea Oats

While most ornamental grasses prefer sun, Northern sea oats is considered one of the most shade-tolerant ornamental grasses.

It’s a beauty, too, with bamboo-like foliage and stunning seed heads that dangle from arched stems.

The seed heads attract birds, provide winter interest and add texture to your landscape.

Best Grass for Dry Areas: Little Bluestem

What grass is resistant to drought in Idaho?

Whether you’re installing xeriscape or just have a dry area, Little Bluestem is a good bet, thriving in dry soil.

This native grass is prized for its blue-green leaf color that offers attractive color all season long.

In fall, it turns a striking reddish-bronze, with tufted seed heads.

Bonus: it’s a host plant for several Idaho butterflies.

Best Grass for Along a Fence: Karl Foerster Grass

This award winner is great for softening the hard lines of a fence, adding texture, movement, and softness.

Feathery stalks emerge reddish brown in spring and turn a rich golden color in fall. Its seeds are sterile, so that they won’t produce a bunch of unwanted seedlings.

It looks great year-round, a big bonus for landscape design in Idaho Falls.

Best Ornamental Grasses For Privacy: Three Stunners

Some ornamental grasses are perfect for privacy, growing dense and tall. They’re perfect for screening a deck, patio or those unsightly recycling bins.

Here are three of the best grasses for privacy in your Idaho Falls landscape design:

Zebra Grass

Zebra Grass lives up to its name, with striking green and yellow horizontal stripes. It grows about 5 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide. Watch for a pale pink plume to emerge in late summer.

Maiden Grass

Maiden Grass grows full and fluffy, and this clumping grass gets a bit bigger each year, so you keep gaining privacy year after year. It has pretty plumes, too, that start out maroon and change to a creamy silver, then brown.

Giant Silver Grass

Giant silver grass is seriously giant, growing up to 9 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It’s great to hide behind when it’s your turn to load the dishwasher. Soft pink plumes form in the fall.

Best Grass for Foot Traffic: Blue Oat Grass

Need something sturdy? This blue-hued ornamental grass isn’t just a walkable groundcover, it’s a stunner, and one of the best ornamental grasses for Idaho.

Its blue-green foliage tapers to a point and is topped with flowers tipped with golden, oat-like seed heads. Blue oat grass keeps its attractive light brown fall color right through the winter. Hardy and low-maintenance, it’s a winner for planting in Idaho Falls.

Best Annual Grasses for Color: Purple Fountain Grass and ‘Fireworks’ Grass

While most people think of ornamental grasses as perennial, a few annual varieties are great for one-season beauty, tucked into combination planters or adding summer interest to garden beds:

Purple Fountain Grass

This popular annual grass has striking burgundy foliage and feathery purple plumes that add a pop of color and graceful movement to beds and planters. The fuzzy plumes are really impressive, growing up to 15 inches long.

’Fireworks’ Variegated Red Fountain Grass

This one’s a stunner, with narrow variegated leaves of red, hot pink, burgundy and cream. Purplish plumes that look like fox tails rise above the leaves in summer.

You’ll wish this beauty came back every year.

What Grasses Are Native to Idaho?

The interest in native plants is booming, including native varieties of ornamental grasses.

Native plants are varieties that have always been here, so they’re automatically at home. Once they’ve settled in, they require less water, fertilizer and maintenance than non-native plants.

Landscaping with native plants also helps pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, which especially love these plants.

What grasses are native to Idaho?

This fantastic five, to name a few: Idaho fescue; Prairie Junegrass; Great Basin wildrye; Bluebunch wheatgrass and Little Bluestem.

Oops: Too Many Ornamental Grasses

With so many great ornamental grasses to use here in Idaho, it’s easy to go overboard.

Use some restraint, cautions Outback Landscape designer Kirk Jeppesen.

People have planted so many of this go-to plant, he says, now they’re everywhere.

Remember, you have a ton of amazing plants to choose from for Idaho Falls landscape design, from burning bush to daylilies, ninebark to coneflower.

Mixing ornamental grasses with shrubs, perennials and groundcovers can help create interesting, diverse planting beds with four-season appeal.

Yes, we love ornamental grasses as much as the next guy, but be sure to branch out a bit.

You’ve Planted Your Grasses: Now What?

Just when you thought you knew all the great qualities of ornamental grasses for planting in Idaho Falls, here’s one more: they look great with minimal maintenance.

They don’t need a lot of water or fertilizers. Most bugs don’t bug them.

But they do have some specific needs when it comes to cutting them back.

It’s important to cut back ornamental grasses each year to keep them looking tidy and to encourage new growth.

Early spring is the best time for this. Leaving the old growth over winter helps protect the plant’s crowns. And the seed heads add winter interest to your landscape while also offering food for hungry wildlife.

When it’s time to tackle the task, cut away and remove all the dead stems as close to the ground as you can without touching the green crown. That usually means leaving about 3 to 5 inches.

After a few years you might notice something called “center dieback,” where the middle of the plant has died out, leaving a donut shape of growth. That means your ornamental grass needs dividing.

Dig up the grass and some surrounding soil in early spring and cut the crown into four or five pieces. Return the biggest piece back to its original spot, then plant the others in other areas of your garden. Free plants!

Need Ornamental Grasses for Idaho Landscaping? Trust Outback

So you want all the ornamental grasses, but you’re afraid you’ll choose too many. How are you supposed to decide among all these standouts?

We’d love to help you choose. We know the best ornamental grasses for zone 5b and can help you plan exactly where they’ll shine in your Idaho Falls landscape design.

Outback Landscape is a full-service landscaping company offering landscape design in Boise and Idaho Falls. We install beautiful, functional landscapes and stay with you for the long haul, taking care of your property through all four seasons.

We serve residential and commercial properties in Idaho Falls, Rexburg, and Pocatello, Idaho, as well as Bonneville, Madison, and Bannock counties. Call us at 208-656-3220 or schedule a no-obligation meeting with one of our team members. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Image Sources | Northern Sea Oats, Little Bluestem, Great Basin Wildrye