River Oats

Those dangling, flat seedheads are the most distinctive texture in any shade garden, and birds love them through winter.

River Oats is the grass that makes people stop and ask what it is. Flat, oat-like seedheads dangle from fine, arching stems and sway at the slightest movement, individually small but collectively hypnotic when massed. They emerge green in summer, turn a warm copper-bronze in fall, and persist well into winter with surprisingly good structure for a shade-tolerant grass. Plant it along shaded paths, beneath deciduous canopy, or at the edge of a rain garden where moisture collects. It naturalizes readily by seed, spreading gently to fill in bare ground under trees where little else will grow. The broad, bamboo-like blades catch filtered light in a way that adds real life to darker garden corners. Songbirds, especially Cardinals and Goldfinches, strip the seedheads in fall and winter. Cut it back in late winter to about 4 inches before fresh growth emerges. Once established, River Oats is essentially self-sufficient in moist to average shaded conditions.