One of the medium-sized, very decorative cereals, involuntarily attracting the eye with its airiness. Leaves of a bluish tint, narrow, tough, 30-35 cm, form a hemispherical dense bush already in the second year after sowing with seeds. But it is faster to propagate it by dividing the bush.
Flowering and reproduction of fescue
During flowering in May-June, the blue fescue bushes are very similar to the upward streams of the fountain. It can beautify both sunny and shady areas of your garden. Spectacular blue fescue in a rocky garden, in rockeries, rock gardens, as a curb plant, can serve as a padding for conifers single landings, repeating groups.
Blue fescue is unpretentious, frost-hardy. It can be transplanted without any problems throughout the growing season. After flowering, the peduncles are removed and combed out with a hoe-three-armed.
Plant care
Gaultier's fescue forms a dense sod. One of the shortest fescues, only up to 10 cm. Leaves are bright green, thorny, tough, like a hedgehog. Feels best in the sun, prefers loose, drained soil.
Gaultier's fescue is very cold-resistant, unpretentious. Growing for many years in one place, it forms dense hummocks, moderately expanding in breadth. Blooms in rare panicles in May-June. Propagated by dividing the bush and seeds.
It is good in collaboration with blue fescue, especially planted with curtains against a background of colored or white pebbles. Looks great in rock gardens, rockeries.
Gray fescue (Kale Island) - highly decorative perennial the Zlakov family. The unusual color of the leaves-blades of grass and the rare unpretentiousness have won the hearts of gardeners who pay special attention to the design of their plots. Gray fescue is easy to plant and requires minimal maintenance, which increases its attractiveness.
Description and varietal characteristics
Gray fescue is a herbaceous bush-curtain up to 60 cm high. The narrow long leaves are painted in gray-blue, silvery-green, ashy colors, for which they are often given the appropriate names - ash fescue, blue fescue. It is noteworthy that the shade of the leaves often changes with weather conditions.
The narrow evergreen leaves of fescue have an unusual shape for cereals - they are thin tubes, which gives the bush an unconventional look and also saves moisture. Spherical bushes are dense, prone to overgrowth. Root system small size, formed by thick thin roots.
Calle's fescue blooms in the first half of summer. Although the flowers are small and inconspicuous, the whole plant looks spectacular: the inflorescences-spikelets seem to float in the air on thin stalks.
For the decoration of flower beds, varieties of fescue with gray from domestic seed producers are often used.
- Glacial titmouse- herbaceous bush about 40 cm high, blue-gray tubular leaves. Does not require special care, however, it is prone to freezing in snowless cold winters.
- Lapis lazuli is a compact dense bush, not exceeding 20 cm. The color of the leaves is steel, with a blue tint. Unpretentious, grown mainly in the middle lane as a ground cover plant.
- Golubaya Kochka is a tall spherical bush with azure-blue leaves. Ideal for poor and dry soils.
For planting on the site, they acquire varieties and forms of fescue, zoned for a given area. When choosing, they pay attention to the peculiarities of cultivating the variety, since there are also lovers of wet places (Azurit) and those who require frequent watering (Blaufuchs). This applies to varieties of European selection.
Planting methods
All fescue grows with pleasure in well-lit places. In the hottest, sun-dried areas, they feel great. This feature is used in the design of the southern and eastern slopes of alpine hills. But they are poorly adapted to the shade, they lose their exquisite color.
When choosing a site for planting, it is important to consider that the plant does not like piercing winds and drafts.
Fescue is also unusual in that it does not require fertile soil. Loose, with good air permeability, soil that dries quickly after rain is most suitable for the plant. To exclude stagnant water, which is detrimental to the roots, it is often necessary to put a drainage layer at the planting sites. Clay areas are easily structured by adding sand and rotted compost, but no more than 3 liters of mixture per square meter.
Preparing a site for planting fescue consists of digging up the soil and removing weeds.
Planting by seeds
When growing species forms, one of three options is used:
- direct sowing in open ground;
- seedling method;
- self-seeding transplant.
All options are equally good, seedlings easily take root in place, but with direct sowing, seedlings appear earlier.
The cultivation of varietal fescue from seeds, if they are harvested on their own, is not recommended, since the plant loses the qualities inherent in the variety, including resistance to frost.
Sowing seeds in open ground is carried out with the onset of stable warm weather in the spring or shortly before the onset of cold weather in the fall according to the following algorithm.
- Self-collected seeds are pickled in a solution of potassium permanganate. Those purchased in a specialized store do not need additional processing.
- Dig holes for sowing seeds 5 cm deep, the distance between them is at least 10 cm.
- Several seeds are placed in each hole (the lush shape of the bushes will form earlier with this sowing).
- The seeds are covered with earth, tamped, watered.
Sprouts appear in 2-3 weeks.
Seedlings are grown from the beginning of May according to the following technique.
- The substrate for germinating seeds is selected lightweight, with good moisture and air permeability.
- Seeds are laid out on the surface of the soil mixture, sprayed with water from a spray bottle.
- The seedling container is covered with foil and placed in a warm place with good lighting... In a greenhouse, seeds germinate in a few days.
- When shoots appear, the container is transferred to a cool windowsill. At a lower temperature, the seedlings will not stretch out and will not lie on the ground.
- After the formation of two true leaves, the seedlings dive. For growing, several of them are placed in separate containers.
In the first half of May, seedlings are planted on permanent place in the garden. The landing pattern can be any:
- dotted line - at a distance of half a meter between specimens;
- linearly (for the decoration of borders) or a continuous carpet - with an interval of 15-20 cm.
They treat the seedlings with utmost care: an excess of moisture, even the smallest, leads to decay of the root system.
Vegetative way
Vegetative propagation of fescue with glaucous is practiced for varietal plants. It is combined with transplanting or dividing overgrown bushes.
Optimal timing- early spring, before the start of sap flow, or autumn, when the plant is preparing for winter period rest.
Procedure for spring division of the bush:
- dig out bushes that are heavily overgrown or intended for transplantation;
- neatly sharp knife divide them into parts, trying to minimize the earthen lump;
- the delenki are planted in the designated places;
- the middle part of the bush, which violates the decorative effect of the plantings, is removed and is no longer used.
The optimum age for fescue fescue is at least two years.
If vegetative propagation scheduled for autumn, they operate according to a different algorithm, which allows preserving the winter hardiness of fescue.
- The mother bush is dug up with a clod of earth.
- It is placed in a container and determined for wintering in a cold place (2-5 ° C) with good lighting and low humidity - a cold veranda, a greenhouse that is empty in winter, etc.
- At the end of winter or early spring, the bush is divided, the cuttings are placed in containers with a substrate (garden soil, humus and sand in equal parts).
Disembarkations are planted in open ground at the end of May - beginning of June.
With any method of planting, it is preferable to plant several specimens of fescue in one hole so that young plants will not "get lost" next to their neighbors.
Blue fescue care
Fescue is so unassuming that it requires little or no maintenance.
Watering is very rare and sparse. Abundant watering is required only immediately after planting / transplanting. The expression “it is better to underfill than to pour” is applicable to fescue, so indifferently it tolerates drought. During the planting season, fescue is irrigated 2-3 times.
Mulching the soil next to the fescue bushes decorative materials additionally gives two positive results: moisture retention and weed control.
The ratio of fescue to feeding is the same - the less the better. Fertilizers are applied only when the plant slows down or stops development. In spring, they feed specimens growing in rocky areas. For feeding, use complex mineral fertilizers or organic.
When fertilizing under fescue, strictly follow the manufacturer's instructions. You cannot exceed the recommended dosage: an overly fertilized soil will immediately affect the decorative effect of the plant.
Pruning is carried out in the spring in order to restore the decorativeness of the curtains: dead, dried or frozen leaves are removed. The procedure is carried out manually or with the help of garden shears. You can use a rake - tough fescue leaves will not suffer from a rough "comb".
At the end of flowering, the peduncles are removed, preventing the seeds from ripening, if they are not interested in self-sowing. To collect their planting material, the largest spikelets are left, which are then cut and dried in a dry, shaded place.
The disadvantages of fescue include "baldness" of the central part of the curtains as they grow. When the first bald spots appear, the bushes are transplanted: they are dug out, divided into parts and re-seated. With extensive cereal plantings, this disadvantage turns into a significant difficulty. The optimal transplant period is every two to three years. 
Preparation for winter is determined by the variety and climatic conditions of the growing region. Plants of European selection and imported from warm regions are always covered. At high degree the likelihood of a harsh winter with a small amount of snow is also covered by hardy domestic varieties using straw or dry leaves.
Fescue has good immunity to major diseases garden plants and pest attacks. It is extremely rare that the grass can become infected with fungal diseases from plants growing in the immediate vicinity. The most dangerous of these diseases is helminthosporiosis, which manifests itself as spots on the leaves, rotting of the root system, and the color of the peduncles in a brown color. At the first signs of illness, plants are sprayed with fungicides - Fundazol, Topaz. If time is lost, diseased plants are dug up and burned, the soil is carefully treated with copper-containing preparations.
Fluffy clumps of gray fescue serve as an excellent background for flowering plants... It emphasizes especially large tapeworms, lawn borders and flower beds. As a ground cover, it is used to anchor loose rocky slopes.
Gray fescue is the dream of any gardener, lazy or overly busy with growing more capricious plants. The minimum of hassle associated with planting and caring for unusually colored cereals gives excellent long-lasting results.
The charming plant in the form of a hemispherical curtain looks unusual due to the color of the aboveground part. Gray fescue shines with a variety of metallic blue and gray-green shades. Narrow leaves- like a bunch of swords or rapiers. Let's find out what conditions are required for the plant to look spectacular.
Gray fescue: requirements for growing
The varieties derived from this species have gained particular popularity among landscape designers, gardeners and summer residents. Gray fescue differs from other representatives of the Cereals family in shape and texture, big amount use cases in landscape design.
Closely related species - filamentous fescue, Mayeri, amethyst and Valissa - have a bluish tint or green color... The "heroine" of our description and related plants are extremely resistant to drought and trampling, undemanding to care.
Landing in open ground
The height of gray fescue is from 25 to 60 cm. The plant forms a bush of almost ideal hemispherical shape. A bunch of slightly lodging narrow linear leaves and straight peduncles crowned with panicle inflorescences depart from the fibrous root.
Site and soil preparation
Gray fescue does not have any special requirements for the planting space as a whole. However, the selected area must receive enough light for the characteristic steel color of the plant to appear. Well-lit slopes and grounds in the garden, the southern and eastern sides of the rockery, rock garden are suitable. Before planting, it is enough to free the area from weeds and dig it up.
A piercing wind and damp air are harmful to fescue. Therefore, when choosing a location, areas protected from drafts are preferable.
Almost all cereal plants are undemanding to soil conditions. Dry to moderately dry, well-drained, breathable substrates are suitable for fescue. The plant behaves in a paradoxical way in relation to soil fertility. Light, free-flowing, low-nutrient soils are best suited.
Landing dates
A favorable time for planting and transplanting blue-gray fescue is April and October. Closed-root plants purchased from nurseries and garden centers are planted both in spring and throughout the warm season of the year.
Bluish curtain hedgehogs with spikelets on long stems - this is how gray fescue looks like. The ground cover plant winters well in open ground, does not require special receptions cultivation. The main care comes down to pruning and watering. Planting fescue leaves no chance for weeds. In flower beds and alpine coaster ornamental crop varieties are planted.
Description of fescue: species and varieties
The plant belongs to a large family of cereals. In total, the genus "fescue" includes more than six hundred species.
Sizaya... The most popular type in landscape design. Narrow leaves form a dense bush spherical as in the photo. The color, depending on the variety and lighting, varies in a greenish-blue range. The species does not grow on large area, but forms a neat rosette. Varieties:
- Azurit (prefers wet swampy soils, the color of the stems is gray-green, height up to 60 cm);
- Blaufuchs (can be bred on dry infertile soils subject to watering, low bushes with bluish-gray narrow foliage);
- Meerblau (blue leaves with an emerald green tint);
- Blue hummock, Lapis lazuli, Blue (domestic selection).
Furrowed... Distributed wild in steppe zones... It tolerates drought and severe frosts (up to 50 ° C). Propagated by seed, used mainly for lawns.
Sheep... It is resistant to drought and frost, does not tolerate waterlogging of the soil. A dense planting of plants will handle low mowing and regular foot trampling equally well. It is planted not only on the lawn, but also on flower beds and hills, as well as in decorative flowerpots.
Sheep fescue
Valisskaya or fescue... Highly decorative view with thin needle-like leaves. Growing up, the plants create a continuous dense "carpet". The color of the leaves is green with a matte bloom.
Mayeri... Mayeri's homeland is the Altai highlands. The stiff stems gracefully curve, giving the fescue the shape of a sphere. The surface of the leaves is glossy, the color is greenish-gray. Thin flower panicles adorn an already attractive plant.
Paniculata. Low-growing species with light green foliage. Growth is fast, in the third year it forms lush large mounds.
Fescue: how to propagate and plant an ornamental plant
For fescue, choose a bright place with well-drained soil. Slight partial shade is allowed. Do not plant fescue under tall trees and bushes, this will not allow her to develop fully.
Attention! Some species prefer more humid areas, such as the banks of water bodies.
It is preferable to choose loose sandy loam-humus soils. In one place, fescue can grow up to 10 years. To save decorative qualities, cereal crops are rejuvenated every 2-3 years. The plant is propagated vegetatively or by seed.
- Vegetative method. The best period early spring or late autumn is considered. Adult bushes are dug out completely, the old overgrown core is removed. The remaining pieces are neatly separated, keeping the leaves and root system... Delenki are seated in separate holes. Some gardeners prefer to keep the donor bush in a greenhouse until spring, and carry out the reproduction procedure in the spring. Children are seated in containers, transferring to open ground only at the beginning of summer.
- Seed method. Fescue seeds are highly germinating and self-seeding. Evidence of this is the young growth near the old bushes. Plants easily take root in a new place. You can collect the material yourself. For this, large ripe ears are selected, which are dried until the seeds are completely ejected. They are planted in open ground in the spring after the end of the frost, or in the fall before the onset of freezing temperatures. The holes are dug not deep 3–4 cm. 5–7 seeds are dipped into each one to obtain lush bush... The distance between the holes is arbitrary, depending on what you want to get.
Advice. Before sowing, be sure to pickle the seeds in a solution of manganese or special. drug.
Fescue care: fertilizing and watering
In the open field, the plant does not require special attention... On especially dry days, the fescue is watered. There is practically no need for weeding and loosening. Fertilization is treated with caution, as fescue does not tolerate excess nutrients. During the season, you do not need to make any additional fertilizing at all.
Fescue does not require special care
To maintain an attractive shape, get rid of the dead leaves of last year. Do this with the arrival of spring, cutting off excess stems and leaves. If the plant is not required to obtain seeds, then the peduncle is also broken out.
Advice. Purchase only varieties adapted to your area.
Snow-free frosty winters and spring floods are especially dangerous for fescue. To prevent the plants from dying, they are covered with straw or dry leaves. Placing fescues on higher ground and slopes will help prevent root rot.
If fescue is present in the lawn mixture, then it is looked after according to the instructions on the package.
Pests and diseases of fescue, combinations with other plants
The culture is resistant to diseases, rarely affected by pests. In cases of waterlogging in the open field, ofeobellosis (fungal stem rot) develops. The mycelium quickly spreads around the site and infects new plants. It is difficult to detect the disease at an early stage visually. Rot is detected most often when the leaves and stems turn black. As a preventive measure, it is useful to add ammonia-potassium complexes to the site and acidify the soil. The infected plants are burned.
The fungus also causes seed infections. A brown felt bloom appears on the spikelets. Such material is not suitable for planting and requires destruction.
Fescue in landscape design
Wild fescue is common in almost all climatic zones... The plant is found everywhere in the forests middle lane, in the subtropics and tropical mountain regions. It takes root well on poor rocky soils and in arid areas. Fescue is used as a pasture fodder crop. One more practical use- the sod holds back crumbling embankments. Decorative varieties decorate flower beds, rockeries, unusual "rock gardens".
Fescue blends with many plants. A classic is a partnership with conifers: juniper, cypress,
Want to decorate your landscape plot bright, a beautiful plant? Then you should definitely pay attention to gray fescue - a perennial, herbaceous shrub from the family of cereals. Today, many types of this culture are known, each of which differs in appearance and growing conditions. The topic of this article is - gray fescue: landing and care. From it you will learn how to decorate your territory with this exotic plant.
Gray fescue: planting and care
Gray fescue - what you need to know?
Gray fescue- the most famous type of this culture. He not only has an attractive appearance, but also differs in uncomplicated, easy care, which even novice summer residents will be able to perform. Fescue is unpretentious and can grow even on dry soils. The life span of a culture is more than 5 years, but if it is carefully looked after - more than 10 years.
How is gray fescue grown? For this, a high-quality planting material- seeds that are sown in early spring - April, May. The seeds can be bought at any specialized store, but before planting it is important to prepare them - to treat them with special substances, for example, a weak solution of potassium permanganate or an infusion of ash.
For successful landing with gray fescue, some rules must be observed:
- Germinate seeds in a special box... This will help the plant take root, take root and take root faster.
- Choose a suitable location... The plant loves a lot sunlight and grows very poorly in the shade. It is important to exclude the proximity to tall shrubs or trees. It is best to plant the fescue next to the undersized plants.
- Prepare the ground... The plant needs nutritious, loose soil. How do I get it? You need to mix a small amount of leafy earth with peat, humus and sand. You can also add a small amount of ash. Loose soil will help the root system take root faster and adapt to new conditions.
- Prepare the wells. You need to dig small holes and put 4 seeds in each of them. This method is the most effective, since it makes it possible to form a decorative hummock. After planting the fescue, the holes are sprinkled with soil, carefully tamped and watered abundantly with water.
Important! Gray fescue very poorly tolerates a large abundance of moisture, so you need to monitor the amount of watering. The constant presence of moisture will lead to rotting of the root system.
Fescue is a cold-resistant crop, so it is not afraid of harsh weather conditions... It does not need to be covered with a cloth or the root system needs to be dug out. It is enough just to cover the plant with straw or peat. The only nuance that is often observed in fescue is the rapid dying off of the center of the turf. To fix it aesthetic appearance plants, you need to often rejuvenate and separate the shrubs.
Gray fescue care
In order for the plant to quickly begin and begin to grow actively, it is important to observe absolutely uncomplicated conditions leaving:
- Regular cleaning of shrubs from dry branches, foliage. It is especially important to do this in the fall. You can use a rake or do the cleaning yourself.
- The plant begins to bloom every spring. Immediately after flowering, the inflorescences should be trimmed at the leaf level immediately after flowering.
How do gray fescue reproduce? Mostly in a vegetative way. It is best to divide the shrub in early spring or late autumn. The plant does not divide into several parts, while the dry part is removed.
So, gray fescue, planting and care which is easy to follow, will become great decoration your his . We hope you find our tips helpful.
