Festuca ovina var. glauca

The Blue Fescue, in Latin Festuca glauca, is a small grass for dry soil, highly appreciated for its evergreen grey-blue foliage, which has been present in gardens for a long time. Compact, graphic and colorful, it forms beautiful blue hedgehogs topped with silver spikelets, gracefully trailing and highly decorative. This easy-to-grow perennial will make a small impact in rockeries and borders. It will also effectively cover the ground, especially in difficult, slightly arid areas where traditional lawns struggle.

Native to Central Europe, Blue Fescue has long been naturalized in various regions of the world because it is both undemanding in terms of soil, perfectly hardy and highly drought-resistant. Like many grasses, it belongs to the large family of poaceae. In nature, it grows in dry and poor terrain, in sandy, rocky soils and in full sun. This non-spreading perennial forms small, stiff, very dense, rounded hemispherical clumps, 20-25cm (8-10in) in height and width. Its evergreen foliage is composed of very fine, stiff, almost thread-like leaves, green-grey with a bluish sheen, covered with a waxy film responsible for its bluish appearance, also reflecting excellent adaptation to dry environments. Flowering occurs from the end of June. Very thin, blue-colored flower stems emerge from the center of the clump. They bear loose, silver-colored spikes at their tips. Over time, these inflorescences take on a more yellowish hue, indicating that its seeds are ripe. These seeds are dispersed by the wind, self-seeding here and there in light soils.

Blue Fescue, at ease everywhere, will easily find its place in a rockery, scree garden, slope, along a path, and can even be an alternative to lawn in dry, lightly trodden areas. Its light spike-like flowering gives the clump a pleasantly tousled appearance that softens its stiffness. It can be mixed, for example, with ground-covering plants such as lamb's ears (Stachys lanata or cretica), white wormwood, Montpellier soapwort, Erigeron karvinskianus, baby's breath, and many others. It also adapts very well to container gardening, allowing for lighter floral arrangements or filling the base of a small palm tree, a candle cactus, or an Adenium, for example.