feature plants in the midst of a lawn?

[illumnae]

I'm thinking of using a jap hairgrass foreground lawn in my upcoming nano tank project. however, i'm thinking that just having a lawn might be a little too boring, and was thinking of having 2-3 "feature plants" standing out in the middle of the lawn kind of like how bushes appear in the middle of a field. the plants i have in mind are either downoi or eriocaulon cinerum.

would this be ok to do if i plant both the hairgrass and the feature plants from the start and give enough leeway away from the feature, or would the hairgrass overgrow the feature and choke them to death?

[illumnae]

48 views and noone has even an opinion?

[Jungle-mania]

The problem might rise is that the hairgrass will grow faster than your feature plants and as a result overshadow the plants. Personally, I have tried and failed to get the aesthetics of such effect. The best effect I have seen is to use a medium size tiger lily, trim it over time to get the right shape and height and you will have the ideal effect you are looking for.

[illumnae]

thanks for the suggestion jungle-mania. i'm doing a nano tank though, and my limited experience with tiger lotus has it growing palm sized...abit too large for me =)

[Sogyal]

you can try a few nana or fern..just choose a bit bigger one so that the hairgrass won't over cover the plant

[ranmasatome]

actually if you leave enough space between the grass and your feature plant.. it will give the feature plant enough time to get a hold before the lawn plants invade. To maintain it though... you will need to constantly trim the grass away from the feature plant. Another thing you can do is to use hydrocotyle as a feature plant... there are a few types of hydrocotyle out there and their growth patterns differ quite substantially...so depending on what you want to acheive...pick wisely.