Sesleria Grasses Mass Planted at New Riverside Plaza Riverwalk Garden - Chicago Loop - March 2025

On my walk back to the train at Union Station, I wandered through the riverwalk plaza at Riverside Plaza.  There are a pair of companion buildings at 10 and 120 S. Riverside Plaza that have been going through a renovation of both their interiors (I think) and their exterior/outside plaza spaces.  The riverwalk portion appears to have wrapped up last Fall and was planted before Winter.  

The space is a series of linear, raised beds.  And certainly feels like they've taken some inspiration from places like the Highline - that have a more linear nature.  

The beds don't have any trees (unlike the Highline), but are multi-level raised beds full of perennials.  I'm pretty sure this area gets full mid-day sun, but due to the tall buildings all around, is probably in the shade in the morning and later in the afternoon.

What jumped out to me this week were the dormant grasses in the bed.  There were A LOT of them.  Planted in a mass.  And....They looked familiar.  

See below for a couple photos showing two different beds along the riverwalk:

Those sure look like Autumn Moor Grasses.  Sesleria Autumnalis.  The very same grasses that I have planted in our front porch beds.  Here's a post showing them earlier this Spring - in the same dormant shape.  

I've posted recently about how I've fallen for these grasses.  Here's what they looked like last year - when their seed heads flushed out.  Here's what they looked like late last Fall - right as I started to divide them.  

This month - as part of my 'priority area' series, I created a series of posts showing the extension of the island bed in our front yard.   I started with a layout post - where I sketched in a mass planting of this very grass - Autumn Moor Grass.  I subsequently posted about some of the actual extensions - via lazy lasagna bed making here and here. 

Perhaps this is a case of "frequency illusion" - I'm only noticing these Seslerias because I'm looking for them (and thinking about them), or....perhaps my gut is right:  when planted in mass, they work well.  After all...that's the conclusion that Site Design Group - a really incredible landscape design firm - who was tasked with this job -  came to in these raised beds along the riverwalk.

Looking at the photos, they've planted these grasses in a staggered pattern that has flares at the edges.  The planting tapers back at the edges of the mass - something to think about.  

In my initial sketch-up post, I called for sixteen (16) grasses planted in a row of two (staggered) across the front of both sides of the island bed.  Looking at the images above, I count like thirty (30!!) grasses in each of the runs of beds.  Thirty!  

Maybe a three-deep staggered planting is right for my island bed, too?  It certainly would give more of that 'mass planting' show, wouldn't it?  If I can get quart-sized containers up at Northwind Perennial Garden, maybe I buy 25 instead of 16.