9 Best Ornamental Grasses for Commercial Properties in Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland

Ornamental grasses can be real landscape superstars on your commercial property. 

Unlike lawn or turfgrass, ornamental grasses aren't meant to be mowed. These taller graceful grasses add aesthetic appeal to your commercial property, many growing to a majestic 36 or 40 inches or even taller. 

Landscape grasses offer year-round texture and graceful movement to your landscaping, without asking much in return. 

They’re low maintenance, cost effective, and some have frilly plumes that actually glow in the sunlight. 

And there are lots of these beauties that thrive here in the Mid-Atlantic, from Mexican Feather Grass to the cool-named Purple Love Grass. 

Read more about the best ornamental grasses, including: 

‘Karl Foerster’ Feather Reed Grass

‘Karley Rose’ Fountain Grass 

Mexican Feather Grass

Pennisetum 'Dark Towers' or 'Onyx and Pearls’

Red Switchgrass ‘Shenandoah'

Maiden Grass

Big Bluestem

Purple Love Grass

Northern Sea Oats

First, What’s So Great About Ornamental Grasses? 

Lots of things:

• Ornamental grasses add structure, texture and graceful movement to your commercial landscape all year round.
• Grasses have deep root systems that are great at holding soil and eliminating erosion.
• Landscape grasses are generally pest- and disease-free, which means you won't need pesticides to help them flourish on your commercial property.
• They provide food and shelter for wildlife, including pollinators.
• Many ornamental grasses are drought tolerant and don't require a lot of watering.
• Ornamental grasses for commercial properties are a cost-effective landscaping solution, as they don’t need to be replaced each season like annuals.
• Grasses are versatile, thriving in lots of different environments, from challenging soil to dense shade to hot sun.

One drawback to many ornamental grasses is that they re-seed, sprouting in places you don’t want them to, says Jesse Ware, a Level Green account manager. 

“Grasses tend to make a lot of seed heads and have a lot of seeds per head,” he says. “This can be managed in beds most of the time.”

Two of his favorite ornamental grasses for commercial properties have sterile seeds, so the plants don’t spread. 

Read about them, and a few other of the best ornamental grasses: 

1. ‘Karl Foerster’ Feather Reed Grass

“This is my favorite to use,” Ware says. “The biggest plus with this grass is that it doesn’t outgrow its space.”

It stays about 3-4 feet tall, Ware says, and doesn’t have a fast growing spread. It stays upright, too, and doesn’t fall over. 

“It also offers a great textured appearance and has great color through the summer.”

The seeds are sterile, so these landscape grasses won’t sprout up in places you don’t want them. 

This popular plant was the first ornamental grass to receive the Perennial Plant of the Year Award, back in 2001. 

Heavy clay? Compacted soil? It doesn’t mind. It deserves a top spot on any list of the best ornamental grasses for commercial properties. 

2. ‘Karley Rose’ Fountain Grass 

Another Ware favorite, this grass is known for its stunning rose-purple plumes that stun in the sunlight. 

A compact grass, it stays at about 18 inches tall and 2 feet wide.

Again, the seeds are sterile, so they won’t sprout up in places you don’t want them. 

3. Mexican Feather Grass

Level Green senior account manager Josh Burton loves this ornamental grass for commercial properties, with wispy, flowing, lime-green foliage, and wheat-colored seed heads that emerge in the spring. 

Drought tolerant once established, it combines beautifully with other plants, he says. 

“Plant it in large drifts to appreciate how it glows in the morning and evening light.”

4.  Pennisetum 'Dark Towers' or 'Onyx and Pearls'

Another Burton favorite ornamental grass in the landscape, these dark ornamental grasses are disease resistant, very drought tolerant “and have foliage that hummingbirds and pollinators love,” he says. 

5. Red Switchgrass 'Shenandoah'

This beauty is a best ornamental grass pick for Level Green branch manager James Kole, who loves its reddish-purple seed heads. 

A spectacular red switchgrass, its upright foliage becomes red tinted during the growing season, culminating in a dazzling fall show. 

6. Maiden Grass

This family of ornamental grasses offers a clumping habit and graceful arching stems.

It shows off in late summer with spectacular plumes and in fall with bronze to burgundy colored foliage, making it among the best ornamental grasses for commercial properties. 

7. Big Bluestem

A native grass of the Midwest prairie, this grass is an obvious favorite for naturalized prairie or meadow plantings but it’s a stunner in your commercial property planting beds, too, with its intriguing seed heads. 

Its foliage draws attention as it changes from green to blue-green and silvery blue in the summer, to red, orange and purple in the fall, making it a favorite ornamental grass in the landscape. 

Bonus: it provides shelter and food for songbirds.

8. Purple Love Grass

This tough little drought-tolerant grass is less than a foot tall, so it’s great not just for the front of planting beds but it shines in mixed container plantings, too, making it a great multitasking landscape grass. 

Use it in mass plantings to show off the subtle blues, greens, and purples of its blooms. Plant it in the sun and watch its delicate, airy flowers glow in the morning sun. 

9. Northern Sea Oats

Also known as River Oats, this native grass produces a multitude of beautiful pale green seed heads in midsummer that flutter in the breeze and turn purplish bronze by late summer. They look stunning when backlit by the sun.

It thrives in just about any situation: sun, shade, moist or dry, making it a great landscape grass for the often challenging conditions of commercial properties. 

It will spread and reseed, so give it space. 

Ready to Add Sturdy, Stunning Landscape Grasses to Your Property? Trust Level Green 

You can’t go wrong with ornamental grasses. These sturdy beauties are favorites of Level Green team members for so many reasons. .

Let us suggest the perfect landscape grasses to make your commercial property landscaping literally glow. 

Level Green Landscaping provides commercial landscape design services in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. 

If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers. Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions. 

Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.

We’d love to hear from you.

Image Source: Mexican Feather Grass, Big Bluestream, Northern Sea Oats