Hair grass (eleocharis acicularis), also known as Needle spike-rush, is an attractive dense but slow growing British native grass with bright green needle-like stems topped by tiny brown spikelets.

Whilst it is considered evergreen, after ‘flowering’ in the summer it tends to go brown and may also do so if grown above water in very hot sun, however new green growth will slowly emerge over time through the old brown ‘thatch’, and to encourage this and tidy it up it can be given a ‘Chelsea chop’ in early spring.

It is an excellent oxygenator if grown under water, where it will grow to around 15cm high, but is also happy in shallow water grown as a marginal plant where it will stay slightly shorter.  Ours are grown above water so if submerged the old growth may die back to replaced by new foliage adapted to growing under water.   It provides an excellent habitat for amphibians and other pond life.

Eleocharis helodes (growing in marshes) and charis (grace); acicularis needle like stems

Planting position: Submerged in depths up to 30cm deep

Form: 9cm in solid pots -please select size below

Recommended basket size min./ideal: 1 litre square/2.5 litre shallow square

(Recommended basket sizes are for potting up 9cm (0.5 litre) plants only as these are supplied in solid pots.  Larger sized plants are already in aquatic baskets so can go straight in the pond, however they may need potting up or splitting at some point)