An excerpt from the book:

When the local nurseryman started extolling the virtues of ornamental grasses, I was not impressed. The last thing I needed in my garden was more grass. Twitch grass, alias couch grass, foxtail, June grass and crab grass were quite enough. Why do even lawn grasses grow so much more luxuriantly in the garden than they ever do in the lawn? 

He took me out to the display garden and showed me a large, arching specimen of Australian fountain grass, Pennisetum alopecuroides. I grudgingly admitted it was striking but wondered audibly how many more arching specimens he would have next year. He assured me that, while the clump would increase in size, it would not spread. 

"Of course there are some that are invasive," he said, "but we indicate those." 

"Why do you carry them if they are invasive?"  I asked with visions of the green spears of couch grass springing up everywhere in my garden.

 "I wouldn't think anyone would want them?"

"Well, if you have a steep slope where nothing else grows, they will hold the soil in place and prevent erosion. There, the more they spread, the better. "There are more varieties over here," he continued, leading me to the other side of the yard. In the perennial border the clumps of ribbon-like grass foliage made attractive ground covers and the feathery flower heads were a pleasing contrast to the heavier mass of other garden plants.

Another section was devoted entirely to grasses. Here was not just green grass but leaves of every hue from pale yellow-green to rusty-red to a real sky-blue. Some plants were tiny tufts, others arched like a fountain. Grass leaves rippled in the breeze and flower and seed heads dipped and swayed, revealing translucent hues from white to pink to copper and purple. Some varieties appeared identical but closer inspection turned up subtle differences in texture, growth pattern, leaf color and shape of flower and seed heads.

I became a convert. Dissatisfied with the bits and pieces of information in garden catalogues and general perennial books, and the preponderance of southern grasses depicted in books written about ornamental grasses, I began to collect information relevant to my own gardening conditions.

Ruth Zavitz is a fifth-generation Canadian farmer and gardener, growing plants both indoors and out and dabbling in hybridizing houseplants. Over the past 25 years she has shared her hands-on gardening experiences in articles published in Canadian and U.S. national magazines as well as in a newspaper column.