Blue fescue is also very drought tolerant, making it a great choice for rock gardens. Is there a proper time to trim back the plant, or do you trim the grass at all? Ornamental grasses are fairly new to the landscape scene—they've increased in popularity in the past couple decades. Spring Pruning: Blue Fescue Grass. There are hundreds of varieties of ornamental grass. Roger Higgins holding Blue Fescue Ornamental Grass. Festuca glauca (blue fescue) and Helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass) are great performers, and don’t need to be cut back very often, but should be glove-combed out periodically to keep them looking good. Recently Duston and I traveled to Roger’s Backyard Nursery in Cranesville, Pa, only about a 37 mile drive for us and took a tour of Roger’s Backyard Nursery. Top: Getting the brown blades out of blue oat grass Bottom: Mexican feather grass before, a month after, and three months after pruning These little charmers are some of the easiest plants to tuck into your garden, because they fit almost anywhere, have year-round good looks, and need little care. Examples include any of the many Miscanthus varieties, blue fescue (Festuca glauca), and Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima).. A few are evergreen in the southernmost parts of the United States. Here is a freshly pruned evergreen grass called Elijah Blue Fescue, planted with evergreen Lithodora: Here is the same scene six weeks later, with the grass having grown back and the Lithodora spreading nicely. Pruning Maiden Grass During the growing season, maiden grass height reaches 4 to 9 feet tall, and the plant spreads 3 to 6 feet wide. These plants are particularly attractive when grown in groups. Blue fescue is a small, mounded, cool season grass grown for its compact size and blue foliage. The blue fescue plants die out in the middle, and you should divide the plants every two to three years to keep the grass clump growing. It is a non-native, clumping grass. A great fescue that I recently discovered is Festuca mairie (Atlas Fescue… The blue coloration can vary, so it is best to buy named cultvars for uniformity of color. Is known by several other botanical names, including Festuca ovina var. glauca, Festuca ovina 'Glauca', and Festuca cinerea. A truly versatile perennial grass, blue fescue has an eye-catching blue hue that lasts all year. It grows only twelve inches tall but the foliage is a striking blue-green color. Although many choose cut back their grasses in the fall, ornamental grasses are a wonderful plant to leave up through at least the early winter months. Prune evergreen grasses and deciduous grasses the same way. Do not cut back the grass in the fall or winter. So that leads us to winter pruning. In regions experiencing drought, native and ornamental grasses are a smart and show-stopping part of the landscape. Blue fescue is an ornamental grass variety used in flower gardens for landscape design in USDA growing zones 4 through 8 where the summers are mild and not overly wet. If you live in an area with frigid winter temperatures, your ornamental grasses likely look similar to the Blue Fescue grass above. Festuca glauca ( Festuca cinerea) Festuca ovina glauca - Common Blue Fescue is a low, fine bladed evergreen grass with a distinctive silvery blue foliage. ‘Elijah Blue’ is a common cultivar. Blue Fescue: before. Pruning Grasses In The Winter. It can be used as an accent plant, in mass plantings, containers, and crevices. Early Spring is the time to cut back all your ornamental grasses. With its clump-forming habit, blue fescue forms uniform balls of foliage topped with feathery straw bloom stalks in the summer. 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