I love it when I discover a new plant species. Walking through the back of a large Maple Ridge, British Columbia site recently, my task was to prune off any willow branches encroaching on residences. That was straight forward. But as I moved from one yard to the next my eyes noticed a blue grass.
Automatically my brain booted up blue oat grass. But wait. No, this was something else. So I quickly snapped a photo.
Then I noticed a pile of plastic pots on the patio and discreetly looked them over without triggering a 911 call. Bingo. There it was, a plant tag. The owner-planted grass was Blue Wheatgrass (Elymus magellanicus). This was my first look at this South American native grass.
Bluest grass
It’s hard to see from my humble iPhone5 picture but the Blue Wheatgrass is the bluest of all grasses. You have to see it in the garden to appreciate it. I’m sure the owners were blown away by the colour at the nursery.
The grass produces bluish-green flower spikes which mature to tan as the seeds ripen.
It’s a perennial, clump forming grass so you can plant it as ground cover or mass planting. In the picture above the owners planted it in a row next to boxwoods and nearby pampas grass.
Other suitable partner plants could be roses, Bergenias, daylilies and plants with purple foliage.
The Blue Wheatgrass is drought tolerant which helps considering our changing climate. It also requires little care other than watering. You can cut it back in early spring, if you so desire. According to the plant tag, without pruning you can expect your grass to reach a mature size of 46 cm or 18″.
As for sun exposure, it prefers full sun to partial shade.
I love ornamental grasses because they don’t need much attention and mostly tolerate drought. This bluest grass of all is stunning. Now I want one for my pot.
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