Grasses, Sedges & Rushes - Heirloom Garden Plants

Achnatherum calamagrostis Silver spike grass  Z 5-8
Gorgeous, graceful, tawny-silvery spikes on this clumping grass from June all summer

Size: 36" x 36"
Care: sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil
Native: Central & southern Europe

Collected before 1750

Boutelona gracilis            Blue gramma  Z 4-9
One sided, horizontal, purple tinged spikelets in July-September, very unusual.

Size:  2' x 12" 
Care:  sun in dry to moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant.         
Native:  Manitoba & all US except SE & Pacific NW, Wisconsin native
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies

For the Navajo this was a "life medicine" and an antidote to an overdose of "life medicine."  Also used to cure sore throats and cuts - chew on the root and blow on the cut.  Navajo girls carried it in the Squaw Dance.  Hopi made baskets from this grass.  Zuni made brooms & hairbrushes from it.  Several tribes ate this & made bedding for their animals from this.  1^st collected for horticulture by Humboldt & Bonpland.

Briza media   Quaking grass, Pearl grass, Didder, Totter, Dillies           Z 4-8
Elegant inflorescences with dangling oat-like spikelets in May.  Use for cut arrangements, fresh or dried

Size: 30” x 10” 
Care: full sun to part shade in any soil.  Deer resistant.    
Native: Eurasia.
  
In cultivation since at least mid 1700’s. 

Calamagrostis brachytricha  Diamond grass, Feather reed grass       Z 4-9
Arching foliage with gorgeous upright  pale pink plumes September to November     

Size: 4' x 2'  
Native: East Asia
Care:  Full sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant.

Collected before 1856.

Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘‘Karl Forester"   Feather reed grass Z 5-7
Completely, reliably erect grass - winner Perennial Plant of Year award 2001.

Size:  3-5' x 2'   
Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil.  Cut back in late winter.

This is a natural cross of Calamagrostis epigeos and Calamagrostis arundinacea, natives of Asia and Europe.  German nurseryman Karl Forester's (1874-1970) keen eye spotted this in the Hamburg Botanic Garden.   He listed this in his nursery catalog in 1939.  Under Nazi domination he risked it all by keeping Jewish friends & workers.  After WW II his nursery was the only perennial supplier in East Germany.  This grass sent from Denmark to the US in 1964.

Carex bebbii  Bebb's Sedge Z 2-7
Interesting inflorescence blooming green turning brown from April to July.

Size: 10-24" x 10" and spreading to form tussocks
Care: sun to part shade in wet to moist soil
Native: entire sub-Arctic No. America north of Virginia to California, Wisconsin native
Wildlife value: Important wildlife food source for wetlands. Sparrows, finches, songbirds, rails, grouse, snipe, black duck eat the seeds and moose eat the roots and leaves.

Collected by 1889 and named for naturalist who specialized in Willows, Michael Schuck Bebb (1833-1895).

Carex comosa    Longhair sedge, Bristly sedge Z 4-10
Ornamental dangling bottle brush spikes from May to October

Size: 2-4' x 2'    
Native: all of sub-Arctic No. America except western intermountain states and provinces and except Alaska, Wisconsin native. 
Care:  Sun to part shade in wet to moist soil
Wildlife value: Rhizomes stabilize shorelines while plants give ducks cover and the seeds provide food. 

Collected by 1845.

Carex davalliana  Bath’s sedge, Davall’s sedge   Z 4-8
Short hedge-hog like clump with white flowers turning to bronzy spiked seedheads May-June. Best for rock, railroad or fairy gardens – anyplace for a miniature, clumping grass.

Size: 6” x  12”   
Care: sun to light shade in moist soil
Native:  wet places in Europe and western No. America

Collected before 1798 by Edmund Davall who botanized in Switzerland.

Carex grayi     Gray's Sedge  Z 3-8
Flowers look like club-like maces in June to December.  This one will make your friends & neighbors ask "what the heck is it?"

Size: 30" x  24" 
Care:  Full sun to part shade in moist soil
Native:  Vermont west to Wisconsin, south to Georgia and Missouri

Collected before 1880.

Carex rosea  Rosy sedge, Stellate sedge, Curley-styled wood sedge, Golden star sedge  Z 3-9 
Graceful mound of paper-thin leaves topped by stems with star shaped seeds in May-June, evergreen. 

Size:  12" x 10"
Care: part shade and shade in moist to moist well-drained soil.  
Native: No. Dakota south to TX, east to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Wisconsin native.

Collected from the wild before 1811.

_{Carex stricta  Tussock sedge  Z 5-8
Mop-head like mounds of thinnest of thin leaves, sage green in color.}

Size: 2-3' x 2'   
Native: Eastern 2/3rds of No. America, Wisconsin native
Care: wet to moist soil
Wildlife value: Important wildlife plant.  Tussock sedge gives cover to frogs, toads and salamanders for breeding.  Ducks, sparrows, small herons & geese nest within and perch atop the mounds.  Cardinals, wild turkeys, mallards and wood ducks make nests from the leaves. Provides food for Caterpillars of Mulberry Wing, Eyed Brown and Black Dash butterflies.   

Collected by 1792. 

_{Carex stricta  Tussock sedge  Z 5-8
Mop-head like mounds of thinnest of thin leaves, sage green in color.}

Size: 2-3' x 2'   
Native: Eastern 2/3rds of No. America, Wisconsin native
Care: wet to moist soil
Wildlife value: Important wildlife plant.  Tussock sedge gives cover to frogs, toads and salamanders for breeding.  Ducks, sparrows, small herons & geese nest within and perch atop the mounds.  Cardinals, wild turkeys, mallards and wood ducks make nests from the leaves. Provides food for Caterpillars of Mulberry Wing, Eyed Brown and Black Dash butterflies.   

Collected by 1792. 

Chasmanthium latifolium syn. Uniola latifolia   Northern Sea oats  Z 5-9
In August - December Northern sea oats bear pendulous panicles of oat-like spikelets, emerging green and turning bronze. They hang on all winter. 

Size:  36" x 24" 
Care:  full sun to part shade in any soil       
Native:  Eastern U.S., New Jersey to Texas 
Wildlife value:  attracts butterflies

Introduced by Michaux (1746-1802) extraordinary French plant hunter, who searched much of eastern  No.America for plants. Indians ate the seeds for food. Used ornamentally since Victorian times for fresh and dried arrangements.

Deschampsia caespitosa  Hair grass  Z 4-9
Airy pink panicles like delicate billowing clouds of seed heads top clumps of arching slender leaves in mid summer persisting through winter.

Size: 2-4' x 18"
Care: moist well-drained to moist soil in sun to shade. 
Native: Europe, Asia & No. America
 
Deschampsia named for French botanist Deslongchamps (1774-1849).  This species found by the mid 1700's.

Deschampsia caespitosa  Hair grass  Z 4-9
Airy pink panicles like delicate billowing clouds of seed heads top clumps of arching slender leaves in mid summer persisting through winter.

Size: 2-4' x 18"
Care: moist well-drained to moist soil in sun to shade. 
Native: Europe, Asia & No. America
 
Deschampsia named for French botanist Deslongchamps (1774-1849).  This species found by the mid 1700's.

Eragrostis spectabilis   Purple Love grass  Z 5-9
This 2' tall grass bears graceful, profuse tiny purple paniclets in August and September.

Size:  2' x 18"
Care: Full sun in well-drained soil.  Deer resistant 
Native:  Maine west to Minnesota, south to Arizona, Wisconsin native

 Eragrostis is Greek meaning "love," and "grass," agrostis. This species first named by German botanist Frederick Pursh, author of Flora Americana Septronalis, 1814.

Eragrostis trichoides  Sand love grass, Plains love grass  Z 5-9
Amber leaves in fall with rose-purple flowers and showy amethyst seed heads.  Excellent in fresh or dried arrangements. 

Size:  12-24" x 18"   
Care:  sun in well-drained soil.  Deer resistant
Native:  WI to Nebraska, South to TX, Wisconson native      

Eragrostis is Greek meaning "love", (eros) and grass,  agrostis.   1^st collected by Englishman Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) who searched entire No. American continent, parts of Canada, from New England west to Oregon, the South, Midwest, the Plains, S.E. parts of the U.S., California & Hawaii finding thousands of new plants.  Grass of the Year award by Great Plants for the Great Plains, Nebraska State Arboretum.

See Special Heirloom plant section and Get 3 plants for only $17.95.  You get 3 for the price of 2, saving $8.95

Festuca ovina glauca  Blue fescue   Z 4-8
Spiky but graceful mound of thin blue gray foliage - early summer short spikes of blue-green flowers

Size:  12" x 10"
Care:  full sun, moist well-drained to well-drained soil
Native:  temperate areas thoughout the world  

Festuca is Latin meaning "grass stalk." American garden cultivation since 1800's.

See Special Heirloom plant section and Get 3 plants for only $17.95.  You get 3 for the price of 2, saving $8.95

Helictotrichon sempervirens   Blue oat grass   Z 4-9
June-July spikes rise above a magnificent rounded mound of thin, steel-blue leaves - one of the best.

Size:  4' x 2'     
Care:  full sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil         
Native:  Europe

Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden Great Plant Pick.  Named by Dominique Villars (1745-1814).  Liberty Hyde Bailey (1933) said that Blue oat grass "scarcely grown as ornamental subjects."
See Heriloom plant specials - get 3 plants for only $18.50

Imperata cylindrical  ‘Rubra'  Japanese bloodgrass     Z 4-9
Erect greenish red grass blades turn deep, blood red in August and persist through fall, 16-20" tall.   In northern zones will not flower.  In warmer areas flowers and creates seed where it will be invasive.

Size: 16-20" x 12" 
Care: Grow in full sun to light shade in moist well-drained soil. 
Native:  Japan 

Cultivated in Japanese gardens since 1800's.  First described in literature in1812.  Introduced to the US in 1911 near Mobile AL as packing material in a shipment of plants from Japan.