VeraScape
GrassGroundcoverSpecimenShade gardenDeer resistant

Japanese Forest Grass

Hakonechloa macra

A graceful, cascading grass whose arching, bamboo-like leaves bring soft texture to shade, edging a path or massed as a groundcover, and deer avoid it. It spreads slowly without being invasive. It needs rich, steadily moist, well-drained soil out of hot sun, and it's happiest where summers are cool.

See Japanese Forest Grass in your yardEarly access is free. Join the waitlist.
Japanese Forest Grass: whole plant
Photo: Thérèse Gaigé, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mature size
1.5 × 1.5 ft
0.5 × 0.5 m, tall × wide
Hardiness
Zones 5a–9b
USDA
Sun
Part sun to full shade
Water
Medium to moist

Japanese Forest Grass at its mature size

A mature Japanese Forest Grass grows 12 to 18 inches tall and 12 to 24 inches wide.

Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.

Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Missouri Botanical Garden.

Through the year

What Japanese Forest Grass looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.

Dormant · Dec–Feb

Dried pale straw-tan leaves, still arching but partly collapsed, no green left.

Below ground · Mar–Apr

Cut back; new shoots barely out of the ground.

In leaf · May–Oct

Cascading mound of arching plain bright green leaves.

Fall · Nov

Early fall: the mound still mostly the same fresh green it has now, with a coppery orange and pink-red blush only on the blade tips and outer blades, about a third of the colour; reads green with copper highlights from a distance, not solid orange, not dry or brown.

Photos

Japanese Forest Grass: whole plant
Whole plant · Thérèse Gaigé, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Japanese Forest Grass: fall color
Fall color · User:SB_Johnny, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Japanese Forest Grass: leaves
Leaves · Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Growing Japanese Forest Grass

Grows well in
The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
Growth rate
Slow
Good for
Groundcover, specimen, shade garden, and deer resistant
Leaves
Dies back in winter
Native to
Japan

Spacing

VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Japanese Forest Grass, that’s about 1.5 ft apart, center to center.

Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.

Other hakone grasses

All drawn to the same scale.

Golden Hakone Grass 'Aureola'1.5 × 1.5 ft · Zones 5a–9b