If you're planting for privacy, the wrong grass can leave you waiting years for coverage — or worse, spreading aggressively into beds you never intended to plant. The right ornamental grass, picked for height, density, and a well-behaved root system, can give you a living screen that gets better every season instead of becoming a maintenance headache.
Here's what we recommend, based on what actually performs as a privacy screen in real landscapes — not just what looks tall in a nursery pot.
What Makes a Grass Good for Privacy Screening?
Three things matter more than height alone: density (does the foliage actually block a sightline, or just wave above it), growth habit (clumping varieties stay where you plant them; running/rhizomatous varieties can spread into places you didn't intend), and year-round presence (a screen that goes fully dormant and flat in winter isn't screening anything for several months of the year).
Our Top Picks for Privacy Screening
Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' — Feather Reed Grass
The benchmark privacy grass for a reason. Narrow, upright, and rigidly vertical, 'Karl Foerster' doesn't flop or sprawl — it stands at attention, which means you can plant it closer together for a denser screen without the floppy, wide-spreading habit of other tall grasses. Its feathery seed heads persist well into winter, so the screen doesn't fully disappear in the cold months.
Shop Feather Reed GrassPhormium tenax — New Zealand Flax (multiple varieties)
Technically a flax, not a true grass, but Phormium earns its place on this list for one big reason: it's evergreen. While many ornamental grasses go dormant and brown in winter, Phormium's bold, sword-like foliage holds its color and density year-round. We carry several colorways — burgundy, bronze, variegated, and deep purple-black — so a privacy planting can also do real color work in the landscape, not just block a view.
Shop Phormium VarietiesMuhlenbergia rigens — Deer Grass
A California native that forms dense, fountain-like mounds wide enough to genuinely close gaps in a planting. It's also deer resistant and drought tolerant once established, which makes it a strong low-maintenance choice for a screen you don't want to babysit. Its arching habit gives a softer look than the rigid verticals of Feather Reed Grass — worth mixing the two for visual variety along a longer screen.
Shop Muhlenbergia rigensMiscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light'
Fine, variegated foliage with a graceful, fountain-like arch and late-season plumes that catch light beautifully. A classic privacy and specimen grass.
Cordyline — Design-a-Line & Banksii Varieties
Another non-grass that earns its spot here for the same reason as Phormium: evergreen, architectural, and available in colors most true grasses can't touch — burgundy, electric pink, deep bronze. Cordyline reads as more tropical and works especially well anchoring the ends of a screen planting or breaking up a long run of grasses with a different texture.
Shop CordylineHow to Plant for Privacy: Spacing & Layout
Spacing depends on how fast you want coverage versus how much you want to spend up front. For most of the clumping grasses above, planting at roughly two-thirds of their mature spread apart gets you a closed screen within one to two growing seasons, without the wasted material of overplanting. For Feather Reed Grass specifically, that's typically 24-30 inches apart; for the larger Phormium and Cordyline varieties, plan closer to 3 feet.
Stagger your planting in two rows rather than a single straight line if you have the depth for it — a double row closes gaps faster and reads as a fuller, more intentional hedge rather than a thin row of individual plants.
A Note on Mixing Varieties
A privacy screen built from a single variety can look uniform and a little flat. Mixing 2-3 of the picks above — say, Feather Reed Grass for vertical structure, Muhlenbergia for softness, and a Phormium for evergreen color — gives you a screen with real depth and year-round interest, rather than one that looks identical in every season.
Looking for more options? Browse our full Privacy & Screening collection, or check our guide on designing with ornamental grasses for layout ideas beyond a straight screen.