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Idaho Fescue 'Siskiyou Blue' (Festuca idahoensis)

from $2.99

Botanical name: Festuca idahoensis‍ ‍ • Bloom season: Late spring to summer‍ ‍ • Grass color: Tan plumes over blue foliage ‍ • Host plant (elsewhere in North America): Hesperia lindseyi, Polites sabuleti, Polites sonora

A tight, upright tuft of fine silver-blue foliage that holds its color through the season. Tan flowering plumes rise above it in early summer. Bunchgrass clumps are where native bees and butterfly pupae overwinter.

Botanical name: Festuca idahoensis‍ ‍ • Bloom season: Late spring to summer‍ ‍ • Grass color: Tan plumes over blue foliage ‍ • Host plant (elsewhere in North America): Hesperia lindseyi, Polites sabuleti, Polites sonora

A tight, upright tuft of fine silver-blue foliage that holds its color through the season. Tan flowering plumes rise above it in early summer. Bunchgrass clumps are where native bees and butterfly pupae overwinter.

Size:

Plant Characteristics

Botanical Name: Festuca idahoensis

Cultivar: 'Siskiyou Blue'

Common Name: Idaho Fescue

Native: Cultivar

Sun: Full Sun to Part Sun

Water: Low

Bloom Time: Late spring to summer

Grass Color: Tan plumes

Mature Size: W 1'-1.5' x H 1'-2'

Soil: Well-drained; lean soil

Plant Type: Perennial bunchgrass

USDA Zones: 4 to 9

Spread Habit: Clumping bunchgrass

Available As: Live plant

Native Region: Great Basin (northern); Columbia Plateau; Northern Rockies; Middle/Central Rockies; Cascade Range; Pacific Northwest

Host Plant (Elsewhere in North America): Hesperia lindseyi, Polites sabuleti, Polites sonora

Growing Notes

Full sun and well-drained ground; it thrives in lean, alkaline soil. Space about 12 inches apart, or plant it densely as a low no-mow alternative to lawn, which is one of its best uses in the Great Basin climate. It is warm-season, so it greens up later than the cool-season natives and holds color through the heat when they have gone dormant.

  • Water: Low

  • Sun: Full Sun

  • Soil: Well-drained; tolerates lean, alkaline soil

  • Mature size: W 12"-18" x H 12"-18"

Maintenance

Cut back or comb out the old growth in early spring, before new growth starts, and leave it standing all winter for seed heads and insect cover. It needs no fertilizer and no division. If you use it as a lawn substitute, mow once in early spring rather than repeatedly throughout the season.