A charming plant in the form of a hemispherical curtain looks unusual due to the coloring of the aerial part. Gray fescue shines with a variety of metallic blue and gray-green hues. Narrow leaves - like a bunch of swords or rapiers. We will find out what conditions are required in order for the plant to look spectacular.
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Gray fescue: growing requirements
Varieties originating from this species have gained particular popularity among landscape designers, landscapers and summer residents. Gray fescue differs from other representatives of the Zlaki family in shape and texture, a large number of options for use in landscape design.
Closely related species - filigree fescue, Mayeri, amethyst and Valis - 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.
Outdoor landing
The height of gray fescue is from 25 to 60 cm. The plant forms a bush of almost perfect 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 impose special requirements on the seat as a whole. However, the selected area should receive enough light to show the characteristic steel color of the plant. Well-lit slopes and platforms 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.
The piercing wind, damp air is harmful to fescue. Therefore, when choosing a place, sections protected from drafts are preferable.
Almost all cereal plants are undemanding to soil conditions. Dry and moderately dry, well-drained, breathable substrates are suitable for fescue. The plant behaves in relation to soil fertility paradoxically. Light, loose, nutritious soils are best suited.
Landing time
Favorable time for the planting and transplanting of fescue with blues is April and October. Plants with a closed root system, acquired in nurseries and garden centers, are planted both in spring and throughout the warm season of the year.
The nuances of the landing
One bush can visually “get lost” among other plants, therefore, several copies are placed on the site at once. An important condition for the survivability of the curtain is the absence of stagnation of moisture. It is recommended to prepare drainage material in damp areas and to fill before landing on the bottom of the hole.
Gray fescue: open field care
The requirements of the plant are minimal, but they must be taken into account for a longer preservation of decorativeness. Usually, caring for fescue blues consists in cleansing the curtain of dry leaves and damaged parts, timely rejuvenation by the method of dividing the bush. You can prune flower stalks after flowering is complete.
Watering schedule
Plants are abundantly watered immediately after planting or transplanting. A sign that rooting has completed successfully is the growth of young leaves. Fescue, which adapted to the new conditions, require rare irrigation - 2 or 3 irrigation per summer. Even in drought, cereal curtains need less water than more hygrophilous plants. A signal for irrigation is the drying of the upper soil layer around the bushes.
Fertilizer and fertilizing
This ornamental cereal plant manages the minimum supply of nutrients that are present in the soil. Humus and fertilizers are only added to the most infertile substrate when planting. Also, rare top dressing in the spring is carried out only on sandy and rocky soils.
Transplant Nuances
Often with an excess of moisture or lack of light, with a combination of a number of adverse factors, the middle part of the curtain dries up, "bald". Fescue due to the death of the center needs to be updated in 2-3 years. Division and transplantation are the best options for rejuvenating old plants.
One of the methods for growing fescue involves the separation of the uterine plant:
- An adult, completely healthy bush is dug out of the soil and transplanted into a pot.
- The plant is kept in winter in a cool, light place at an air temperature of not lower than 3 and not higher than 5 ° C.
- They divide the bush in February into 2-3 parts with roots and growth buds.
- Delenki planted in containers or boxes, placed in the light.
Seedlings are tempered, for which, on warm days, they take them out into the street. In the spring, delenki are planted in a permanent place.
Winter preparations
The winter hardiness of gray fescue depends on the variety and climate in the growing area. The danger is severe frosts and lack of snow on the site. Under powerful snow "caps" can begin to rot the curtain. Acclimatized varieties easily winter. New western selection hybrids will need shelter in winter.
Reproduction of gray fescue
If there is not a single plant instance on the site, then you can buy seeds or seedlings. In the future, the uterine bushes will be supplied with planting material. Vegetative propagation of gray fescue fescue allows you to quickly get beautiful curtains already in the first year of cultivation, as the delenki take root quickly.
Reproduction by dividing the bush:
- In early spring, they carefully dig out turfs from the soil.
- Each bush is cut with a sharp knife into 2-3 parts.
- Separate and discard the dry center and damaged areas.
- Selected for planting delenki with developed roots.
- Planted on a new site at least 3-5 copies of fescue.
Seeds are purchased in specialized stores or collected from fescue, already growing on the site. With this method of propagation, inflorescences are not cut. Self-seeding is possible, then they simply dig up the finished seedlings around an adult plant and plant them in a new place.
How to get rid of pests and diseases?
The cereal plant is little susceptible to disease. On the leaves of the blue fescue almost no pests attack. The most dangerous fungal diseases, in particular helminthosporiasis. This fungus affects many cereals, which is manifested in leaf spotting, rotting of roots, bore stalks. Pathogens can be found in the soil, spread from other garden plants. When symptoms of infection appear, leaves are sprayed with Topaz or Fundazole fungicides.
Dry leaves should be removed, as they can be the source of the spread of infection to a healthy part of the plant.
Disease care is also dangerous. The plant in conditions uncomfortable for him begins to dry or rot. In order to prevent, it is necessary to observe the irrigation regime, to avoid excessive moisture of the curtain, not to overfeed the plants with fertilizers.
Use in landscape design
The high decorativeness of gray fescue allows this herbaceous perennial to “shine” in the composition of various compositions. It is limitedly used as a tapeworm, but it is better to combine with other plants.
Gray fescue is great for rock gardens, rockeries, dry slopes, flower beds in a natural style. Among the emerald green curtains look great, casting shades of blue and silver. If the fescue grows in the shade, then it gradually loses its decorative appearance, turns into an ordinary green bush.
This plant is used to create borders along paths and around lawns. Fescue and other ornamental cereals are successfully combined with roses and other flowering plants. As part of the "blue" and "silver" flower beds, curtains with a metallic tint complement lavender, hosta, wormwood.
Gray fescue gives any composition a bewitching look. The original plant is able to decorate a summer cottage, a well-lit flowerbed, the southern part of a rocky garden. The absence of difficulties in caring for elegant curtains attracts the attention of beginners and experienced gardeners to cereal.
Fescue is a botanical genus that combines different species. Many of them are introduced into the culture, serve as material for breeding work. The most beautiful and unpretentious are increasingly used in landscape design. Red fescue is sown on the lawns. Low-growing species with blue, gray, gray-green leaves are planted in flower beds. Tall - form lush bumps, with their help create a two-level design of the site.
