Best Ornamental Grasses for Modern Landscaping

Modern landscaping is often about keeping things simple: strong shapes, clean lines, repeated planting and a limited selection of plants that look good throughout the year.

That is exactly where ornamental grasses come into their own.

Ornamental grasses and grass-like plants can soften hard landscaping, add movement around pathways and driveways, fill large garden beds and create contrast against architectural plants, feature trees and contemporary homes.

They are also an excellent choice when you want a garden that looks professionally landscaped without relying on large numbers of flowering plants.

For Brisbane gardens, choosing the right variety is particularly important. Plants need to cope with warm summers, periods of heavy rain and, depending on the position, intense sun.

From compact Lomandra for borders to blue-grey foliage for contemporary gardens and cascading Carex for softer planting, there are plenty of options.

Here are some of the best ornamental grasses for creating a modern landscape.

1. Lomandra Lime Tuff

If you're looking for one ornamental grass that suits almost every modern landscaping style, Lomandra Lime Tuff is an excellent place to start.

Lime Tuff has fine, bright green foliage and forms a neat, rounded clump. It has enough structure to look intentional in a contemporary garden while still bringing softness and movement to areas dominated by concrete, paving, rendered walls and large pots.

Nurso lists Lime Tuff at approximately 50–70cm high and wide at maturity, making it particularly useful where you need a medium-sized plant that won't completely dominate the plants around it.

One of the best ways to use Lime Tuff is through repetition.

Rather than planting one here and another somewhere else, try planting a series of Lime Tuff at regular intervals along a pathway, driveway or retaining wall. The repeated rounded forms create rhythm and make the landscape feel much more considered.

It also works extremely well when planted in larger groups.

Use Lomandra Lime Tuff for:

Garden borders
Driveway planting
Pathways
Mass planting
Modern front gardens
Around feature trees
Poolside landscaping
Commercial landscaping
Large pots and planters

Its bright green foliage is particularly effective against charcoal, white, grey and natural concrete finishes.

If your home has a very minimalist exterior, Lime Tuff can introduce greenery without making the garden look busy.

2. Lomandra Blooming Blue

For a cooler, more architectural colour palette, Lomandra Blooming Blue is one of the most interesting choices.

Instead of the brighter green foliage associated with many Lomandra varieties, Blooming Blue has distinctive blue-green to blue-grey foliage.

That small difference in colour can have a surprisingly large effect in a modern landscape.

Blue-grey plants work beautifully alongside concrete, stone, gravel and darker building finishes. They can also be used to break up an otherwise completely green garden.

Nurso lists Blooming Blue as a compact Lomandra reaching approximately 30–40cm high and around 50–60cm wide.

That lower growth habit makes it particularly useful toward the front of a garden bed.

For example, you could plant a feature tree or large architectural plant toward the back of the bed and use repeated groups of Blooming Blue along the front.

The result is structured without looking overly formal.

Blooming Blue is also listed as highly drought tolerant once established and suitable for full sun through to partial shade, making it a practical option for modern low-maintenance gardens.

Use Lomandra Blooming Blue for:

Modern front gardens
Coastal-style landscapes
Driveway borders
Low garden borders
Mass planting
Rock and gravel gardens
Around large pots
Commercial landscaping
Contrasting against dark foliage

For a particularly contemporary look, combine its blue-grey foliage with black pots, charcoal walls or light-coloured gravel.

3. Lomandra Little Pal

Not every landscape needs a large ornamental grass.

Sometimes you need something compact enough to create a defined border without covering nearby plants or spilling too far onto a pathway.

That is where Lomandra Little Pal works particularly well.

Nurso lists Little Pal at approximately 30–50cm high. Its compact clumping habit makes it a useful option for edging, borders and repeated low planting.

In a modern landscape, smaller plants like this are particularly useful for creating a transition between hard surfaces and larger plants.

Imagine a wide concrete path with a garden bed beside it.

Instead of placing shrubs directly against the concrete, a repeated line of compact Lomandra can soften the edge and make the transition into the garden feel more natural.

Little Pal can also be useful when you have narrow planting areas where larger Lomandra varieties would eventually become too wide.

Use Lomandra Little Pal for:

Narrow garden beds
Pathway edging
Driveway borders
Small front gardens
Mass planting
Around stepping stones
Modern courtyards
Low-maintenance landscaping

Its smaller size also makes it easier to combine with larger architectural plants.

4. Lomandra longifolia

When you need something larger and tougher, Lomandra longifolia is a landscaping staple.

It forms substantial clumps of long, arching green foliage and has a more natural appearance than some of the compact selected Lomandra varieties.

Nurso lists mature plants at approximately 60–100cm high and wide.

That additional size makes Lomandra longifolia useful when the ornamental grass needs to do more than simply decorate the front of a garden bed.

It can provide genuine volume.

This makes it particularly useful for larger properties, commercial landscapes, broad driveways and gardens where smaller grasses would disappear visually.

Lomandra longifolia can also create an effective transition between very structured landscaping and more natural planting.

For example, a modern home might have concrete retaining walls, large-format paving and rectangular planters. Planting Lomandra in large repeated groups introduces movement and softness without losing the contemporary feel.

Use Lomandra longifolia for:

Large garden beds
Mass planting
Commercial projects
Large driveways
Native gardens
Low-maintenance landscaping
Borders
Large-scale modern landscapes

When you have a large area to landscape, resist the temptation to fill it with many different varieties. A large sweep of one Lomandra can often look much stronger.

5. Lomandra Hystrix

For larger landscapes where you want a more substantial grass-like plant, consider Lomandra hystrix.

This is a considerably larger option.

Nurso lists Lomandra hystrix at approximately 1–1.5 metres high and wide at maturity.

That means it should be treated more like a structural landscaping plant than a small border grass.

The foliage forms a large rounded clump with broad, arching green leaves. Because of its scale, it can create a strong visual presence even when planted amongst larger shrubs and trees.

In a modern garden, Hystrix can work particularly well where you need to fill a substantial garden bed without planting lots of individual species.

A group of mature plants can create a bold mass of foliage while maintaining a relatively simple planting palette.

Use Lomandra Hystrix for:

Large landscaping projects
Wide garden beds
Feature clumps
Large properties
Commercial landscapes
Naturalistic gardens
Screening lower areas
Around large feature trees

Give this variety enough room to reach its mature size.

One of the most common landscaping mistakes is buying plants based only on how they look in their nursery pot. Always consider how wide they will eventually become.

6. Liriope Emerald Cascade

If you want something softer and lower growing, Liriope Emerald Cascade is an excellent option.

Although Liriope isn't a true grass, its fine, strappy foliage gives it a similar appearance and makes it extremely useful in ornamental grass-style landscaping.

Emerald Cascade forms dense clumps of arching green foliage.

Nurso lists it at approximately 30–45cm high and 40–60cm wide, with purple flower spikes appearing during the warmer months.

The softer cascading shape makes Liriope useful when you don't want the planting to look too rigid.

It can be planted underneath trees, along the front of garden beds or in groups around larger feature plants.

It is particularly effective in modern tropical landscaping.

For example, you could combine:

A large Strelitzia as the feature plant
Cordylines for colour
Liriope Emerald Cascade underneath

The different foliage heights create a layered garden while maintaining a relatively simple plant palette.

Use Liriope Emerald Cascade for:

Underplanting
Borders
Groundcover
Shaded garden beds
Tropical landscaping
Courtyards
Around feature plants
Mass planting

If Lomandra provides structure, Liriope provides softness.

Using both in different areas of the same landscape can create a good balance.

7. Liriope Evergreen Giant

If you like the look of Liriope but need something with more presence, Liriope Evergreen Giant is another option.

As the name suggests, it has a larger, bolder growth habit than many compact Liriope varieties.

Its long, arching deep-green foliage forms dense clumps, giving it enough visual weight to work alongside shrubs, feature plants and larger garden beds.

This is particularly useful when designing a layered garden.

Smaller groundcovers can sometimes disappear underneath large tropical or architectural plants. Evergreen Giant provides a stronger middle layer between the low groundcover and the taller plants behind it.

Use Liriope Evergreen Giant for:

Mass planting
Garden borders
Underplanting trees
Tropical gardens
Modern courtyards
Larger garden beds
Along walls and fences

For contemporary landscaping, repeated groups usually look stronger than isolated plants.

8. Festuca glauca

If you're creating a modern garden with a cooler colour palette, Festuca glauca is worth considering.

Often known as Blue Fescue, this ornamental grass is known for its compact tufts of blue-grey foliage.

The colour is the main attraction.

Most gardens contain a lot of green, so introducing blue or silver foliage can immediately create contrast.

Festuca can look particularly effective in contemporary landscapes that use concrete, white render, charcoal finishes, gravel or stone.

Because it is relatively compact, it is usually most effective when planted in groups.

One Festuca by itself can disappear into the landscape. Ten or twenty planted repeatedly can become a strong design feature.

Use Festuca glauca for:

Contemporary gardens
Gravel gardens
Low borders
Mass planting
Modern courtyards
Contrasting foliage
Around stepping stones
Architectural landscaping

Try combining blue-grey grasses with darker green shrubs rather than mixing them with too many other foliage colours.

9. Carex Feather Falls

For something softer and more flowing, Carex Feather Falls offers a different look.

Carex varieties tend to have a fine, cascading appearance that works well where you want foliage to spill slightly over the edge of a garden bed or planter.

This can be particularly useful in landscapes dominated by straight lines.

Modern architecture often contains lots of hard horizontal and vertical surfaces: retaining walls, stairs, paving, fences and rectangular planters.

A cascading grass-like plant introduces a completely different shape.

That contrast helps soften the architecture.

Use Carex Feather Falls for:

Raised garden beds
Planters
Borders
Pathways
Modern courtyards
Softening retaining walls
Layered planting

Carex can also be very effective in pots, particularly when you want the foliage to soften the edge of the container.

10. Carex Moon Falls

Carex Moon Falls is another option for introducing fine foliage into a modern planting scheme.

Like other Carex varieties, its strength is the soft texture it brings to the landscape.

Rather than using it as the main structural plant, consider it a finishing plant.

Use it along edges, underneath taller plants or in planters where the foliage can be appreciated at close range.

This is especially effective in courtyards and entrance gardens where people walk close to the planting.

Use Carex Moon Falls for:

Courtyard gardens
Raised planters
Garden borders
Underplanting
Feature pots
Modern entrances
Softening hard landscaping

Why Ornamental Grasses Work So Well in Modern Gardens

There is a reason ornamental grasses appear so frequently in professionally designed contemporary landscapes.

They solve several design problems at once.

Modern homes often contain large expanses of concrete, glass, paving, steel and rendered walls. While these materials create clean architectural lines, they can also make an outdoor area feel hard if the planting is too sparse.

Ornamental grasses introduce movement.

When their fine leaves move in the breeze, the landscape feels more alive.

They also introduce texture without adding visual clutter.

A garden filled with many different flowering shrubs can look busy. A garden containing repeated groups of grasses can feel lush while still maintaining a minimalist aesthetic.

The Secret Is Repetition

If you want your garden to look professionally landscaped, one of the simplest principles to follow is repetition.

Don't buy one of every plant you like.

Choose fewer varieties and use more of each.

Instead of:

One Lomandra
One Liriope
One Cordyline
One shrub
One groundcover
One flowering plant

Consider:

Five Lomandra
Three feature plants
Ten groundcovers

The second approach usually creates a much stronger landscape.

Repeated plants create rhythm and visually connect different parts of the garden.

For example, you might plant Lime Tuff beside the front entrance and repeat the same plant further along the driveway.

Even though the two areas are separate, the repeated plant makes the landscaping feel connected.

Choosing the Right Height

Before buying ornamental grasses, think about where they will sit within the overall planting.

Low grasses

Compact varieties work best along pathways, borders and at the front of garden beds.

Look at plants such as:

Lomandra Little Pal
Lomandra Blooming Blue
Liriope Emerald Cascade
Festuca glauca
Carex

Medium grasses

Medium-sized grasses can provide more substantial mass planting without dominating the garden.

Lomandra Lime Tuff and Lomandra longifolia are useful examples.

Large grasses

Larger plants such as Lomandra hystrix can become structural elements in their own right.

They need more space but can be extremely effective in large modern landscapes.

Always design around mature size rather than the size of the plant when you purchase it.

Best Ornamental Grasses for a Modern Front Garden

Front gardens usually benefit from simplicity.

You want enough planting to soften the house and driveway without hiding the architecture.

For this reason, compact Lomandra varieties are particularly useful.

A simple front garden might contain:

A feature tree
A repeated row of Lomandra Lime Tuff
Low groundcover between larger plants
Decorative gravel or mulch
One or two large feature pots near the entrance

This gives you different heights without requiring a complicated plant palette.

If the house has charcoal or darker exterior finishes, Blooming Blue can introduce a striking blue-grey contrast.

For white or light-coloured homes, the brighter green of Lime Tuff can provide a crisp, fresh look.

Best Ornamental Grasses for Driveways

Driveways are one of the best places to use ornamental grasses.

They need plants that can visually soften a large hard surface without constantly growing across the driveway.

Compact clumping plants are ideal.

Lomandra Little Pal, Blooming Blue and Lime Tuff can all work well depending on the amount of available space.

For a long driveway, repetition becomes particularly important.

A continuous rhythm of the same plant can turn a basic driveway into a major landscape feature.

Best Ornamental Grasses Around Pools

Ornamental grasses can also be effective around pools because they provide greenery without necessarily creating the heavy visual mass of large shrubs.

The best choice depends on the amount of sun, available space and the overall pool design.

For contemporary pools, grasses can be used to soften paving and create a transition into larger tropical or architectural plants.

A planting combination might include:

Lomandra for structure
Cordylines for foliage colour
Strelitzia for height
Liriope as lower underplanting

The result combines movement, colour and large foliage while still keeping the overall planting relatively simple.

Best Ornamental Grasses for Pots

Ornamental grasses don't have to be planted directly into the garden.

They can also look excellent in pots.

In fact, combining the simple shape of a modern pot with the movement of fine grass foliage can create a particularly strong contemporary look.

Use grasses in pots to:

Frame an entrance
Soften a patio
Create repetition along a walkway
Add greenery to a balcony
Fill an empty corner
Add texture around an outdoor entertaining area

The pot itself becomes part of the landscape design.

For a minimalist look, use several identical pots with the same grass rather than choosing a different pot and plant for every position.

What Colour Ornamental Grass Should You Choose?

Green isn't your only option.

Foliage colour can significantly change the appearance of a landscape.

Bright green

Plants such as Lime Tuff create a fresh appearance and contrast strongly against dark architecture.

Deep green

Darker foliage can create a more established, lush look and works particularly well in tropical or shaded landscapes.

Blue-grey

Blooming Blue and Festuca can provide a cooler, more contemporary appearance.

Blue-grey foliage is particularly effective alongside:

Concrete
Charcoal finishes
White walls
Natural stone
Gravel
Dark pots

Variegated foliage

Variegated grass-like plants such as selected Carex can add another layer of interest without relying on flowers.

What Should You Plant With Ornamental Grasses?

Ornamental grasses become even more effective when contrasted with plants that have completely different foliage.

This is where architectural plants come in.

Rather than placing five different fine-leaf plants together, contrast the grasses with broad or bold foliage.

Depending on your garden style, consider pairing ornamental grasses with:

Cordylines
Strelitzia
Olive trees
Philodendrons
Feature shrubs
Lilly Pillies
Sculptural native plants
Feature trees

The ornamental grass becomes the soft layer while the larger plant creates the focal point.

Ornamental Grasses With Olive Trees

Olive trees and ornamental grasses are a particularly strong combination for modern landscaping.

The olive provides height, a sculptural trunk and silver-green foliage.

The grasses create a soft lower layer around it.

Blue-grey grasses can create a restrained Mediterranean-inspired palette, while green Lomandra provides stronger colour contrast.

This combination works particularly well with gravel, stone, rendered walls and large contemporary pots.

Ornamental Grasses With Cordylines

Cordylines have strong upright foliage and can introduce red, pink, burgundy and variegated colours.

Fine green grasses planted around them create contrast.

Instead of surrounding a Cordyline with other colourful plants, allow the Cordyline to be the feature.

Use green grasses around it as the background.

This makes the colour of the Cordyline stand out much more strongly.

Ornamental Grasses With Large Pots

Large pots can act as focal points within a landscaped garden.

One effective approach is to use a large pot containing a feature plant and surround the base of the area with repeated ornamental grasses.

The contrast in scale works particularly well.

The large pot and feature plant attract attention while the lower grasses visually connect the feature back into the garden.

This can work at:

Front entrances
Pool areas
Courtyards
Outdoor entertaining spaces
Commercial entrances
Restaurants and cafés

How Many Ornamental Grasses Should You Plant?

This depends on the mature width of the variety and how quickly you want the area to fill.

The important thing is to check the recommended spacing for the specific plant rather than guessing based on its current pot size.

For example, Nurso recommends approximately 50–70cm spacing for mass planting Lime Tuff, while Lomandra longifolia is generally planted around 60–80cm apart. Larger Lomandra hystrix requires considerably more space, with Nurso suggesting approximately 1–1.2m for mass planting.

Closer spacing generally gives you a fuller result sooner, while wider spacing allows each plant's individual form to become more visible.

For a modern landscape, consistency is important.

Measure the area first, calculate the spacing and then purchase the required quantity.

This will generally give you a much better result than buying plants individually and trying to fill the gaps later.

Are Ornamental Grasses Low Maintenance?

Many of the varieties commonly used in modern Australian landscaping are selected specifically because they are relatively easy to maintain once established.

That doesn't mean they require no care.

New plants generally need regular watering while their root systems establish. Soil preparation, drainage and appropriate positioning are also important.

Once established, suitable Lomandra varieties can be particularly useful in lower-maintenance landscapes.

Occasional removal of old or damaged foliage can help keep plants looking clean.

The key is choosing the right grass for the position from the beginning.

A plant growing in unsuitable light or poorly drained soil will usually require more attention than a plant growing where it naturally performs well.

Common Mistakes When Landscaping With Ornamental Grasses

Planting too many varieties

This is probably the biggest mistake.

Modern landscapes usually look better with fewer varieties repeated more often.

Planting too close together

Remember that a small nursery plant may eventually become 60cm, 1m or even 1.5m wide.

Always check mature size.

Ignoring the architecture

Choose grasses that complement the house.

A blue-grey grass may work beautifully with a concrete contemporary home, while bright green Lomandra might provide better contrast against a dark exterior.

Forgetting about layers

A garden containing only grasses can sometimes look flat.

Add a taller feature plant, tree or architectural plant to create vertical interest.

Choosing plants based only on flowers

In modern landscaping, foliage is usually more important.

Flowers may last for weeks or months. The foliage structure is what you see throughout most of the year.

Which Ornamental Grass Is Best for Your Garden?

There isn't one variety that is best for every garden.

For a clean, versatile modern look, consider Lomandra Lime Tuff.

For blue-grey foliage, look at Lomandra Blooming Blue or Festuca glauca.

For compact borders and edging, consider Lomandra Little Pal.

For larger mass planting, Lomandra longifolia provides more volume.

For a large structural grass-like plant, consider Lomandra hystrix.

For soft underplanting, Liriope Emerald Cascade is an excellent option.

For a larger Liriope, consider Evergreen Giant.

For soft cascading foliage, look at Carex Feather Falls or Carex Moon Falls.

The best choice ultimately comes down to the amount of space available, sunlight, soil conditions and the style you're trying to create.

Create a Modern Landscape With Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses are one of the easiest ways to give a garden a clean, professionally landscaped appearance.

They can soften driveways, define pathways, fill garden beds, surround feature trees and add movement around modern architecture.

The most successful designs are often the simplest.

Choose a small number of varieties. Consider their mature size. Repeat them throughout the landscape. Then combine them with a few larger feature plants for height and contrast.

Whether you're creating a new front garden, landscaping around a pool, refreshing a driveway or designing a larger commercial project, ornamental grasses can provide the structure, texture and movement that ties the whole landscape together.

Shop ornamental grasses at The Nurso, including Lomandra, Liriope, Festuca, Carex and other landscaping plants for modern Brisbane gardens.