Festuca Grasses
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Festuca (Fescue)
Festuca are delightful compact, densely tufted, low maintenance, hardy evergreen grasses. Ideal for cutting down maintenance between larger plants and filling in areas to add evergreen interest in the garden. They can look wonderful as part of an architectural planting scheme, in a gravel or Mediterranean style garden, in rockeries, a centrepiece in a large courtyard garden, or planted in swathes along a sunny border adding gentle elegance to your planting schemes. Plant with other ornamental grasses, with wildflowers such as Rudbeckia and Verbena for a natural look, or around the base of specimen trees.
These super little plants have finely textured ‘rolled’ evergreen foliage ranging from ice blue to greens and browns, often topped in early Summer with attractive ornamental seed heads or flowers on long stems. Easy to grow, Festuca (Fescue) grasses will develop into a weed supressing mat.
For best results with Festuca grasses, plant them in full sun in fertile, moist, but well drained soil, though they will tolerate drier soils once established. Cut and comb out the last year’s flower stems and dead leaves in late winter or early spring. Divide congested plants in Spring.
As a rough guide when planting Festuca – 4 plants per square metre is adequate with a little patience, 6 will give better coverage, and 9-12 will make a weed supressing carpet very quickly.
How to grow Festuca
Position: Full sun
Foliage: Evergreen
Soil and site: Best in moist, fertile, well drained soil
Flowering time: Summer to Autumn
Growth rate: Moderate/fast
Ultimate height and spread: Height to 50cm, spread to approximately 50cm
Hardiness: Hardy once established
Aftercare: . Cut and comb out the last year’s flower stems and dead leaves in late Winter or early Spring. Divide overcrowded plants in Spring every few years.
