- Wonderful Metallic-Blue Color
- Colorful Semi-Evergreen Foliage
- Showy Seed Heads in Fall and Winter
- Not Invasive
- Clump-Forming
- Easy Care
- Urban Tolerant
- Deer Don’t Prefer the Taste
- Waterwise Choice for Xeriscape Design
- Controls Erosion
At once airy and sturdy, Blue Oat Grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens) grows in neat, densely rounded clumps of metallic, silvery-blue foliage. This reliable mid-sized ornamental grass is often used in garden design and landscaping to polish the edge or as a mass planting.
Vibrant coloration combines with handsome form and delivers a big impact. Rely on this eye-catching ornamental grass to create an elegant accent day in and day out.
As summer long panicles are tipped with blue-green blooms. Over time, these develop into showy, golden oat-like seed heads that arch up and away from the mounded foliage.
In warmer climates, the fountain of iced blue blades stays evergreen over the winter. Famously low-maintenance Blue Oat Grass requires very little care.
Like other Grasses, Blue Oat brings a wonderful sense of motion to your space. The slender blue blades loft and sway in the breeze for a relaxing effect.
Install this dramatic Ornamental Grass in your space…then kick back and relax.
How to Use Blue Oat Grass in the Landscape
Blue Oat Grass delivers style, movement and reliable structure. This is a wonderful accent in rock gardens and low-maintenance plantings.
It combines well with other, larger grasses for an easy-care visual impact. Place Blue Oat Grass in front of other, larger grasses; or use behind some of our smaller Blue Fescue cultivars.
Because these cool weather grasses need good air circulation, we recommend setting your plants three feet apart. Measure from the center of one to the center of the next.
Blue Oat Grasses are an excellent choice for color and form. Use in outdoor containers on rented balconies for a high impact, urban tolerant look.
Place these versatile grasses in the ground to solve a variety of landscape challenges. Use a mass planting on a slope to stabilize the soil; it will be far safer than trying to mow turf.
Tuck them in front of boulders to soften their appeal. It only takes a season of growth for Blue Oat Grass to ground the look of your newly installed hardscape.
Place them on hard to reach terraces to create a Xeriscape Garden. Blue Oat Grass requires minimal care, and it is both a forgiving and hardy grass.
Plant them in a geometric pattern to create a thoroughly modern foundation planting. Then, style your planting bed with mulch that coordinates with your home’s exterior.
Tips for Care
Blue Oat Grass prefers fertile soils, but will tolerate less fertile conditions, as well as sandy or heavy-clay soil as long as it drains well. The more sun you can give it, the better the performance will be for you.
Once their roots are established in the ground, Blue Oat becomes blissfully waterwise. Apply a consistent amount of water on a regular basis for the first year to support their root system.
Nature Hills Root Booster is a life-long symbiotic partner for these investment plants. Follow directions during planting to help the tiniest feeder roots access micronutrients from the soil.
Give Blue Oat Grass the right conditions, and they should last for many years with minimal care. In the coldest zones, trim back most of the foliage in the late winter or early spring each year.
If it remained evergreen over the winter in your climate, gently rake out any debris at that time. Enjoy a fresh start to your new growing season.