STIHL tip
Never wrap ornamental grass in foil, as it is excellent at holding in moisture – which means certain death for many ornamental grasses which love dry conditions.
Overwintering grasses
Many ornamental grasses are hardy enough to withstand winter in our climate, but some need to be protected against cold and moisture. Our tips will help you to correctly overwinter grasses in beds and planters.
21.11.2025
Overview: Overwintering grasses
- Most ornamental grasses can be easily overwintered without additional protective measures
- The best winter protection for deciduous grasses: cut back in spring
- Cover evergreen grasses with fleece or leaves for the winter
- Tie pampas grass together for winter to protect it from cold, wet conditions
- Winter-hardy grasses in pots need more winter protection than those in beds
Grasses should be winterised before their roots become damaged by continuous cold rain in late autumn and winter, and at the latest before the first night frosts.
When to tie grass up depends on how wet, cold and stormy late autumn and the start of winter are. Make sure you choose a sunny, dry day, before the first overnight frosts are expected, to tie together your ornamental grass.
Grasses are best tied together with string made from natural materials, such as sisal, hemp or coconut fibre (coir). It is important that the material you use is tear-resistant.
The following grasses should be tied up in winter: tall ornamental grass types which stand as individual stalks and are particularly sensitive to moisture, such as Cortaderia selloana ‘Sunningdale Silver’ pampas grass or Arundo donax giant reed. You can also tie up fountaingrass and Chinese silver grass if you don’t want blades and stalks to be strewn around your garden when autumn and winter storms come.
Grasses need to be overwintered in different ways
The majority of the ornamental grasses you can buy in garden centres are sufficiently hardy to thrive in German climatic regions. However, for non-native grasses used to dry cold, such as pampas grass, the often-wet and cold central European winters are a problem. These grasses need additional winter protection, especially against moisture.
Evergreen ornamental grasses need to be protected from harsh winter sun to avoid withering. For all grasses which need to be overwintered in pots on a balcony or terrace, you should take suitable measures to protect the soil in the planter from becoming frozen.
Winterising grasses
In most cases when overwintering ornamental grasses, less is often more. This is because the best winter protection for deciduous grasses – such as feather reed grass, switchgrass or Korean feather reed grass – is provided by their own dense, tuft-like blades and stalks – their clumping form. This protects the rootstock in the soil from cold and excessive moisture.
With this in mind, you should avoid cutting back the brown, dried blades and stalks in autumn, and instead only cut them back in spring. Thanks to their winter silhouettes, sturdy Chinese silver grass and moor grass in particular add structure and lightness to the tired garden. Another advantage of keeping the plants intact through winter, is that any privacy screening the grasses provide is also largely preserved.
Particularly moisture-sensitive grasses should also be tied up for winter. Doing this allows rainwater to run off pampas grass, for example, as it would off a thatched roof.
Many evergreen grasses, such as the native sedge (carex), don’t mind moisture and cold, but cannot tolerate too much winter sun. These species often suffer from the lack of shade-providing leaves on trees in winter. Covering these grass types with leaves or fleece means the grasses lose less moisture through evaporation from the blades during the winter and as such prevents them from drying out so quickly.
Young, deciduous ornamental grasses planted only in autumn have generally had too little time to grow by the time winter sets in. These too are best overwintered with a thermal barrier made of leaves or fir brushwood. If you plant grasses earlier, in the spring, they can root in well over summer and are better able to withstand winter conditions.
Tying up and overwintering grasses
Tying your grasses together will offer the rootstock better protection from cold and moisture, as rainwater will simply drains outward from the compact tip of the bunched blades. Excessive moisture during cold seasons is particularly bad for much-loved pampas grass as it will quickly rot it from the inside.
Many ornamental grasses attractively adorn beds even in autumn and winter
Tall grasses which have individual stalks are significantly safer when tied together in winter. These include the pampas grass variety Cortaderia selloana ‘Sunningdale Silver’ and the Arundo donax giant reed.
Sufficiently hardy winter species such as giant Chinese silver grass can be tied up for winter if you don't want stalks and blades to be damaged by autumn storms and strewn around the garden.
After the rains of autumn, the latest you should tie up grasses for overwintering is when the first overnight frosts are forecast. A sunny, dry day is ideal for this, so you don’t have to deal with wet foliage.
All you need to tie the grasses together is some tear-resistant sisal or raffia cord, cut into two to three sufficiently long pieces. Wear gloves and appropriate clothing to protect you from sharp blades.
Discover useful information for your grasses
Decorative grasses can be easily tied up for winter
How to tie grass up for winter:
Loop the first section of cord around the plant, beneath the leaf crown, and hold both ends in one hand.
Using the other hand, pull the cord ring upwards, little by little, until it is around 50 cm high (this step may be easier with two people).
At this point, pull the cord tight and tie it in a knot. Tie the grass together at one to two more positions above the first cord so it forms a compact bunch of foliage.
Grass braiding for winter protection: instructions
Braiding is a decorative but labour-intensive method for overwintering grasses. For this method to succeed, you need leaves which are long enough – almost all types of pampas grass are suitable. You should also wear gloves and long-sleeved clothing to avoid cuts.
How to do it:
Think about the height at which you want the braiding to start, perhaps 50 centimetres. Grab a good handful of long stalks and divide the bundle into three equal parts – each about as thick as a broomstick.
Just as when braiding hair, move the strands in turn from the outside to the middle to form a plait. The right strand goes over the middle, then the left strand is moved to the middle. Each strand takes its turn to change position.
Working clockwise around the plant, keep braiding and, whenever you move a right-hand strand to the middle, continuously work in new stalks. Keep going until you have circled the ornamental grass entirely and are satisfied with your sculpture.
Tie the loose ends together with cord and tuck it into the bundled stems.
Overwintering potted grasses
Even those hardy winter grasses that can survive winter without additional protection in beds will need additional winter protection when planted in pots. This is because whatever the size of planter, the soil in it can become frozen very quickly.
To avoid this you should wrap pots of fountaingrass and blue grama in plenty of coir matting or fleece. For ornamental grasses which are not sensitive to moisture, you can also cover the soil with leaves.
It is best to group potted grasses close together in front of a house wall, so they are protected from rain and sunshine during the winter. Adding a wooden or polystyrene plate or small clay feet under the pots will ensure that less cold creeps from the ground into the pot soil. Water occasionally on frost-free days!
