Tropical Style

Great Design Plant: Blue Oat Grass

While vibrant spring and summer colours lighten landscapes, and fiery autumn color is a seasonal scene, occasionally you just have to cool down. Let’s cool down with blue — blue oat grass, a must-know low-maintenance pick for calming shade yearlong.

San Marcos Growers

Botanical name: Helictotrichon sempervirens
Common title: Blue oat grass
USDA zones:4 to 2 ; hardy to less than 0 degrees Fahrenheit (find your zone)
Water requirement: Occasional; drought tolerant
moderate requirement: Full sun to light shade
Mature size: 2 feet tall and broad
Benefits and tolerances: Drought tolerant; deer resistant; can manage air pollution
Seasonal attention: Evergreen in temperate climates; flowers in summer
When to plant: Plant or split in early spring

Missouri Botanical Garden

Distinguishing traits. Blue oat grass is spiky, spunky and blue — characteristics that invite comparisons to blue fescue.

From afar, its large clumps and projected flowers are controlling and regal, but up close they bend and sway in a gentle manner, with extended blue-gray blades radiating from the center.

A cool-season bud, blue oat grass flourishes in temperatures that are mild but produces its strongest color in full sun. A towering crown of bluish-brown flowers projects about a foot above the foliage in summer, aging to a gold oat color in autumn. And while the flowers create a spectacular show in summer, the pretty foliage is welcome at the garden all year.

Lankford Associates Landscape Architects

The best way to utilize it. This particular bud is a joy when massed, utilized at a container or utilized as an accent plant. The soft, fine evergreen foliage also makes a soft and soothing base for companion flowers.

Missouri Botanical Garden

Planting notes. With a little maintenance, well-draining dirt and heavy, infrequent waterings, you need to be able to grow blue oat grass easily. It produces its color when it’s planted in full sun. In colour, the grass clump may flop over.

Blue oat grass is considered evergreen, but in more extreme climates it might be considered semievergreen.

Each spring and autumn, pull out dead growth together with your palms or comb it out using a metal rake. In harsher climates a late-winter or spring trim can help to keep your blue oat grass looking its best.

Do you utilize blue oat grass on your landscape? We would love to see your photo in the Remarks below.

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