Blue Fescue
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Blue fescue is the small ornamental grass that brings a steel blue colour to the front of a bed, the gaps of a rockery or the rim of a pot. Festuca glauca forms a neat tuft of fine blue leaves 25cm to 30cm tall that stays evergreen through frost and drought, and the selected Elijah Blue is bluer still. It is a plant for sun, sharp drainage and cool to warm temperate gardens.
Which size? How many?
Size ladder: what each pot looks like on arrivalHedge calculator: plants per metre, pricedHeights on arrival sit under every size on the product page. Freight is quoted with multiple freight companies and passed on at cost.
3 sizes, 100mm to 200mm
42% offFrom $7.49$12.99per plant, packs of 10Unit price /Unavailable-
Blue Fescue Grass Festuca ‘Elijah Blue’
3 sizes, Tube to 140mm
41% offFrom $15.95$26.95Unit price /Unavailable -
Blue Fescue Grass Festuca glauca
4 sizes, Tube to 200mm
39% offFrom $15.95$25.95Unit price /Unavailable
More information
How to choose a blue fescue
Blue Fescue Grass is the species, a fine blue grey tuft to about 30cm, the reliable choice for edging and mass planting. Elijah Blue is the selected form with a brighter, more silver blue leaf that holds its colour through summer, and the one to choose for a feature pot or a gravel garden where the colour is the point. Blue Fescue in the larger pot gives an established clump for an instant edge.
The trade-off is colour against vigour: Elijah Blue is bluer, the species is slightly tougher and quicker to bulk up.
Where blue fescue works
Blue fescue grows in full sun in any free draining soil, and it is at its best in cool and warm temperate gardens with dry summers: Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, inland New South Wales and the ranges. It takes frost and drought without complaint. In the humid subtropics it is short lived, because the fine foliage rots in warm wet weather, so plant it there in raised beds or pots with sharp drainage and treat it as a two year plant. Use it as an edge along a path, in groups among rocks and gravel, as a blue ribbon in front of purple or silver shrubs, or in a pot on a sunny step. See the rockery plants and the drought tolerant range for companions that want the same conditions.
Planting and spacing
Plant 25cm to 30cm apart for an edge or a mass; the tufts stay separate rather than knitting, which is part of the look. Plant level with the soil into ground with added grit or coarse sand if it is heavy, water in and mulch with gravel rather than bark. In pots use a free draining mix.
Care basics
Water in the first weeks, then only in long dry spells. Feed lightly in spring; too much fertiliser turns the leaves green. In early spring comb the old brown leaves out with gloved fingers or trim the clump by a third. Clumps thin in the centre after two or three years: lift them in spring, pull them into pieces and replant the vigorous outer sections. Blue fescue sits with the other grasses for landscaping and is among the hardiest of the frost tolerant plants for Australian gardens.
Common questions
Does blue fescue stay blue all year?
Yes in a cool dry climate. The colour is strongest in spring and autumn and a little greener in humid summer weather.
Why is my blue fescue dying in the middle?
Age. Clumps thin at the centre after two or three years. Lift, divide and replant the outer pieces in spring.
Is blue fescue frost tolerant?
Very. It is evergreen through hard frost and snow.
Can blue fescue grow in Brisbane or Sydney?
Sydney and the cooler Sydney suburbs, yes, with drainage. On the humid Queensland coast it is a short lived plant best grown in pots.
