Wyoming Plant Company

Grasses

Whether you are creating a little patch of Western prairie, adding accents to a contemporary garden or creating a bold billowing landscape, grasses need to be part of your design. The role of grass in western home landscapes is powerful; it creates a sense of place by echoing the textures and colors in the prairie beyond our towns. Grasses thrive under sun and wind and preserve through our dry open winters.

Native and adapted grasses don’t tax our water supply, are one of the most effective erosion control plantings and even provide food via their seeds for songbirds in winter. From the shortest tussock, looking like a sea urchin on land, to the tallest clump of blades and seed heads billowing in the wind, there are grasses to fit the bill.

For all the boldness of the texture and form, many gardeners really enjoy seeing subtle details of color and texture when the plants come into bloom and we all have noticed the continued year-round statement made by decorative grasses. Its hard to imagine an environmentally sustainable landscape without grasses.

Boulder Blue Fescue (Festuca glauca 'Boulder Blue')

This intense silver-blue grass is more upright than most Fescues and adds texture, and motion to a flower bed or a mixed prairie planting. Try mixing different blue fescues and Blue Avena Grass for an interesting range of sizes in a monochromatic color scheme! 15” tall and 12” wide.

	Zone 4	+ to -	Full sun to part sun
	Size: Quart		FGBB-Q	Cost: $5.60

Little Blue Stem 'Blaze' (Schizachyrium scoparium)

A drought tolerant warm season native grass that blooms from summer to fall. A foundation grass in the Great and High Plains. Form is a basal cluster of short blades followed by an 18 inch to 3 ft tower depending upon water amount. Fluffy russet seed heads ripen in fall above foliage that also takes on burgundy color through winter. Blaze is greener in summer and more russet red in winter than the species. Height is 2-3 foot.

Zone 4	+	Full sun
Size: 2.5" pot		BLAZE-G	Cost: $2.75
Size: Quart		BLAZE-G	Cost: $6.25

Saphirprudel Blue Oat or Avena Grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens)

This cool season grass forms a beautiful blue-gray spraying mound
of foliage that contrasts nicely with Blue Fescues in size while echoing them in color. The shape of this plant reminds us of fireworks spraying out from the ground. We feature this cultivar because the blades are a little wider and show off the color better than the species plant. Does well in clay soils. Height: 12-18” inches.

	Zone 4	-	Full sun to part sun
	Size: Gallon		HSBO-G	Cost: $11.50

Feather Reed Grass ‘Karl Foerster’ (Calamagrostis x acutiflora)

This eastern native grows like a tower, the narrow dark green leaves are topped with frothy wheat colored blooms in early summer. Who would ever guess that it had to go to Europe to be found and brought back as a sterile hybrid. No need to clip seed heads to prevent seedlings. Great for adding height to the garden! 4’ tall, 24” wide. Windbreak.

Zone 4	-	Sun to part sun
Size: Quart		CAKF-Q	Cost: $5.60
Size: Gallon		CAKF-G	Cost: $8.50

Switch Grass ‘Shenandoah’ (Panicum virgatum)

Foliage emerges green with the ends tipped in red in spring on this cultivar of the warm season native grass. In summer reddish-pink seed heads form above reddish foliage that turns dark black purple in Fall, this selection is striking! Topping out at 3’.

Zone 4	-	Full to partial sun
Size: Quart		PVSH-G	Cost: $5.60
Size: Gallon			Cost: $11.50

New! Switch Grass ‘Heavy Metal’ (Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’)

Blue-gray blades form a dense upright clump topped by airy panicles 12” to 16” above the foliage in July. In fall the foliage turns yellow to red and the panicles become creamy tan. Expect to see this display through much of winter even with snow and wind. Tolerance of a wide range of soils and moisture levels make this warm season grass a great garden accent today. Originally, switch grasses grew in what are now nearly extinct remnants of tall grass prairie. Height: 3’-3.5’ Width: 2’. Windbreak.

Zone 4	+	Full sun
Size: Quart		PVHM-G	Cost: $5.60
Size: Gallon			Cost: $17.50

Switch Grass ‘Prairie Sky’ (Panicum virgatum v. ‘Prairie Sky’)

Bluest, hardiest, strongest and quickest growing switch grass! As a warm season grass, growth takes off in summer followed by wonderful soft pink panicles topping the 3—5 ft plants. Clumps mature to be as wide as tall. Tolerates clay well. Windbreak.

Zone 4	-	Full sun
Size: Quart		PVPS-Q	Cost: $5.60
Size: Gallon		PVPS-G	Cost: $11.50

New! Switch Grass ‘North Wind’ (Panicum v. ‘North Wind’)

Considered by some to be the best landscape panicum, we will have to see if it exceeds Prairie Sky’s performance and vigor. Height is 4’ to 5’ and Width is 2’to3’ by 3 ft. Substantial greenish-blue grass blades become a lovely blue in summer then turn golden yellow for fall and winter. Windbreak.

	Zone 2	-	Full sun
	Size: Gallon		PVNW-G	Cost: $11.50

New! Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans)

Great Plants^® 2004 This is the western answer to Karl Foerster. A stalwart warm season plant: wide green to blue-green blades stand upright below golden plume-like seed heads that show bright pollen grains in late summer. (These really walk away from Farmer’s Market!) Height: 4’-5’ and Width: 1’-2’.

Zone 3	+	Full sun
Size: Quart		SNIG-Q	Cost: $5.60
Size: Gallon		SNIG-G	Cost: $17.00

Giant Sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii)

Plant Select^® 2006 Think Big and Bold with this blue-green mounding fountain of a grass to add to your xeriscape garden or a well drained regular flower bed! At maturity the grass blades alone will be 3’ - 4’ tall and width to about 3’ and the pinkish blooms maturing into white seed heads extending to 7’! Use as an accent, backdrop or even windbreak to show off this beauty!

Zone 4	Full sun to part shade
Size: Quart	SWGS-Q	Cost: $5.60
Size: Gallon	SWGS-G	Cost: $18.00

Windbreak.

'Silver Sunrise' Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii 'Silver Sunrise')

Great Plants^® 2006 This selection of tall grass prairie species Big Bluestem was University of Nebraska evaluated and introduced due to its excellent color. The showy blue basal foliage turns rich purple in fall and wide golden bands in the flowering culms provide striking contrast. Height: 5' Width: 2'. Windbreak.

	Zone 4	-	Full sun
	Size: Quart		AGSS-Q	Cost: $7.00

‘Avalanche’ Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Avalanche’)

This variegated form of Karl Foerster has a wide white center stripe on each leaf blade. The feathery, golden seed plumes rise to about 3’ tall in Casper in early summer and the overall shape of the 1-2’ wide clump rounds out a bit more than the very vertical towering form of K. F. Like its sibling, it is a cool season grass that greens up early and will stay green through summer heat with supplemental watering. Plant in full sun to part sun. Occasionally water deeply in spring and fall, more often during summer heat.

	Zone 4		Full sun to part shade
	Size: Quart		CAAF-G	Cost: $5.60

Two very divergent growth patterns characterize grasses: Cool season forms “green up” early in the growing season and come into bloom by mid summer. Depending upon moisture levels and temperature of air and soil these may go dormant in the hottest part of summer and will exhibit dried seed heads before fall. Some cool season grasses, especially turf-type will grow new blades in the cooler weather of early fall, others won’t. In spring, warm season grasses sometimes get mistaken for dead by impatient gardeners because the plants need the warmth of late spring to get growing. Once they get going they are gorgeous and usually stand through winter. Of the cool season species only Karl Foerster can hold its own display intact for winter!

Plant Select^® is a cooperative research program of the Denver Botanical Garden, the horticulture industry and Colorado State University. The goal is to evaluate and introduce plants that are suited to the Rocky Mountain West. They are found either in the wild or in regional experimental stations like at Cheyenne. We value this research and are proud to offer Plant Select.

Great Plants^® is the prairie plant selection program of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln that features natives and adapted plants with great characteristics for Great Plains gardens. Some are also high plains appropriate - for here!

Decorative Annual Grasses

Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’)

36-40” tall by 24” wide burgundy-purple blades and golden tinged burgundy-red bloom spikes to add WOW to the later summer and fall garden and larger planters. This warm season grass is a clump forming classic but not xeric so it grows strongly in well-watered large mixed planters. Plant in sun and do not expect this Zone 9 perennial to over-winter here.

	Zone 9		Full Sun
	Size: Quart		PSPF-G	Cost: $5.60

Grass care is simple! Clip or use a string trimmer to remove the old growth in March before green-up. This is vital for clump formers otherwise new growth will be choked out by old, dead foliage and an ugly mix of dried blades and new growth will result as well as setting the stage for the plant to go into decline. In the natural setting, a balance exists with in-situ recycling of plant material and no other fertilization is required. We advocate little if any fertilization.

Rain Gauge

Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:

These plants need regular watering somewhat like a bluegrass lawn so that they never dry to depth in the root system during the active growing season and need occasional winter watering to prevent root dessication and resultant plant death.

These plants are adapted to intermittent deep watering with soil drying to a depth of a few inches between waterings. Watering frequency may be every couple of weeks during the active growing season and maybe only one winter watering for optimal care.

These truly xeric plants can live with our 12 inches of natural precipitation and only need a winter watering during a multi-year drought but they will thrive with a monthly watering. Overwatering will kill some of these.