Day 178: sparkling stipa

Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year

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Another charming giant (see yesterday’s post on Cephalaria gigantea) that , the golden oat grass (Stipa gigantea) manages to bring both texture and height to the garden without ominously looming overhead, which you might imagine something that easily reaches two metres in height might be inclined to do. The common name is nothing if not descriptive – you could imagine the flowerheads on the side of your breakfast cereal box – but the one essential quality it fails to encapsulate is that of movement – in flower, these grasses are never still, whispering in the breeze, glimmering in the sun and bouncing light around as if someone had hung a curtain of mirrored sequins from a lofty branch.


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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, writer, photographer, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking this image.

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