Deschampsia cespitosa Northern Lights

Deschampsia cespitosa 'Northern Lights' is a variety of compact tussock grass, with particularly decorative tricoloured foliage. This beautiful perennial and evergreen grass is as attractive for its long, slender green leaves variegated with cream, gold, and pink-purple as it is for its beautiful winter silhouette adorned with culms and faded flowers. It forms a compact and gracefully arching clump, from which large, airy inflorescences emerge in summer, in loose panicles, blending gold and silver. This plant is superb in a contemporary setting, a wild garden, or planted in a pot on a patio.

Deschampsia cespitosa is a perennial grass with a densely tufted, non-spreading (cespitose) rhizome, belonging to the Poaceae family. It is native to Europe, temperate Asia, and boreal America, where it readily grows in various wet and uncultivated places. Very long-lived, this extremely hardy plant self-seeds quite easily, but the young seedlings can be easily eliminated.

The cultivar 'Northern Lights', from which it originates, forms a small, upright clump reaching 65cm (26in) in flower (40cm (16in) for the foliage), with a spread of 40 to 50cm (16 to 20in). The evergreen leaves are flat, 2 to 5mm (1in) wide, very rough, and often very long. They are medium green with pale-yellow to cream-coloured, or pink to purple, margins. In the centre of the foliage, large inflorescences appear from July to September in wide, fluffy spikes, carried by stiff culms. They are composed of numerous small flowers, which are initially purple before turning golden yellow with silvery reflections. This flowering becomes increasingly bright as the days go by.

Few plant scenes match the almost unreal spectacle of an autumn sun flooding a mass of tussock grasses, especially if they have been planted against a background of yew trees. A fascinating and poetic tableau, even easier to reproduce in our gardens as these two very hardy plants tolerate any ordinary, moist soil, even if it is clayey and heavy. Deschampsia does not interfere with neighbouring plantings and thrives at the edge of water features. This grass will show its best in mass plantings, mixed with perennials with ample foliage such as Darmera or Ligularia, or planted in front of a screen of dark foliage. It happily accompanies daffodils, jonquils, and many late-season perennials (heleniums, echinaceas, Japanese anemones, asters). It also grows well in a pot, enhanced by a wall covered in ivy or a flamboyant Virginia creeper in autumn. Finally, its long inflorescences lighten bouquets, fresh or dried.