Grasses
Using Ornamental Grasses: Blue Fescue
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Apr 18, 2005 - 1:27:00 PM

Ornamental grasses can be a welcome addition to your garden if you haven’t experimented with them before. They are great for an accent of color planted directly in your garden, and also make handsome container plants. Fescues are a cool season grass and will often retain their color through the winter. Blue Fescue is a semi-evergreen perennial with unusual bluish-gray foliage and small plumes that will appear during the summer.

Large Blue Fescue (Festuca amethystina) and the common Blue Fescue (Festuca ovinia var. glauca) are two varieties of Blue Fescue that have become quite popular. Blue Fescue is a relatively small grass which will form clumps and fit right into your rock garden. It will also look great planted in baskets and other containers. It will rarely get higher than 10”. It also works well as an edging plant if you have brick or concrete walkways or sidewalks that you’d like to accent.

This grass will do well in zones 4 to 9. Blue Fescue likes full sun to partial shade and will tolerate dry conditions when planted in a well-drained soil. If you notice that the center of your plant is dying out, you may want to add some sand to your soil to improve drainage. If you have particularly hot and dry summers, you’ll want to give this plant a good drink every now and again until things cool off. Extreme heat may cause Blue Fescue to dry out. When planting, you should space your plants about 18 inches apart. Blue Fescue is easy to transplant, so you won’t have to worry too much about crowding. Another great aspect of the Blue Fescue is that it is relatively pest free. Among other grasses, it highly recommended as a xeric grass species for the desert southwest.

As with any gardening, you’ll want to prepare your soil before planting your Blue Fescue. Preparing your soil in the fall is the best way to ensure a healthy environmental for your ornamental grasses. Till your soil and add plenty of organic compost. You can actually plant your Blue Fescue in the fall, but planting it in the spring will have the advantage of allowing the plant to develop a good deep root system. A good bark mulch will help your plant maintain moisture.

For more information of the Blue Fescue, check out this website from the University of Vermont




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