Grow Blue Grama Grass (Bouteloua gracilis)

Add texture, motion, and drought tolerance to your landscape with Blue Grama Grass.  Native to 27 states, it is adaptable to a variety of settings.

The thin green leaves add nice texture to the garden. Slender spikes of fringed flowers appear mid-summer. They are held at right angles to the stems, inspiring the common name eyelash grass.

This plant grows 15 inches tall while Blonde Ambition, a readily available variety, grows up to 3 feet in height. Blue Grama was heavily grazed upon by bison and now by cattle and sheep. This tolerance to heavy grazing makes it usable as turf grass for droughty climates.

Long-lived and hardy in zones 3 to 10 it also makes a nice addition to gardens and mixed borders as well. It combines nicely with euphorbias, penstemons, iris, and sedum.

A bit more information: Blue Grama grass can form roots six feet deep in loose loamy soils, making it very drought tolerant once established. It will not tolerate wet soils that can lead to root and crown rot.