Festuca glauca

Plant Characteristics

Habit		grass
Height:	⇕	12 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 12.
Width:	⇔	10 in"in" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 10.
Bloom:	❀	early summer, mid summer, late summer

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Features:	✓	flowers, ground cover, fire resistant
USDA Zones:		4 to 10
Flower features:	❀	white

Scientific Names

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Festuca glauca, commonly known as blue fescue, is a species of plant in the grass family, Poaceae. It is a commonly cultivated evergreen or semi-evergreen herbaceous perennial.

Taxonomy

Common names include Blue Fescue, Blue Mountain Grass, and Grey Fescue. Originally described by French naturalist Dominique Villars, its scientific name glauca is derived from the Latin adjective glaucus "pale blue-grey".

Clump-forming ornamental grass noted for its glaucous, finely-textured, blue-gray foliage. Foliage forms a dome-shaped, porcupine-like tuft of erect to arching, needle-like blades radiating upward and outward to a length of 140-180 mm. Light green flowers with a purple tinge appear in terminal panicles atop stems rising above the foliage in late spring to early summer, but inflorescences are not very showy. Flowers give way to puffy wheat like seed heads.

In cultivation it can reach a height of 140-180 mm (inflorescences typically bring total clump height to 200-250 mm). It does best in well drained soil as plants will not grow well in wet soils. Tolerates dry and low nutrient soils. Plant in a full sun for best foliage colour. Will also grow in lightly shaded position. Will tolerate drought, neglect and lack of nutrients but prefers regular watering. If plant has a large amount of dead leaves, prune back to 40mm from ground level. This is to be done in winter. Lift and divide clumps if needed (also to be done in winter). Division of established clumps in winter is the easiest method although, plants can be grown from seed.

Plants require frequent division as clumps tend to die out in the center and need to be divided, replanted or replaced every 2-3 years. Plant foliage may decline considerably in very hot, humid summers. Weeds often build up amongst the clumps when used as a ground cover and need to be removed by hand.

Large areas can be removed by hand or sprayed with Glyphosate herbicide.

Read about Festuca glauca in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Festuca glauca, Lam. (F. ovina var. glauca, Hack.). Blue Fescue. Resembles F. ovina but has silvery blue, or glaucous foliage. Eu.—Used for borders. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Festuca glauca. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Festuca glauca QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)