8 fescues for groundcover or border edging
To install in your garden
Contents
Surprising ornamental perennials, fescues are grasses that thrive in sunny, dry soils. Charming, they form rounded, bristly bushes of varying heights, available in different colours, from green to blue, including grey and gold. They flourish in rockeries, border plantings, and can even be used, particularly the more compact varieties, as stunning groundcover. With their slender, stiff, evergreen leaves, they add volume and natural elegance to flowering scenes. They also provide a subtle flowering reminiscent of fine spikes, occurring between May and October. Discover our selection of fescues to install as groundcover or in border plantings in your garden.
The capillary leaf fescue, from soft green to golden
The capillary fescue or Festuca filiformis forms lovely little bristly bushes of light green, turning golden in autumn. At a height of 25 cm, it thrives naturally in France in heathland and poor soils. Particularly well adapted to drought, it can be planted in challenging areas such as dry slopes and is also used as groundcover. From August to September, delicate blue flower spikes emerge among the leaf clusters, turning bronze and gold in autumn.
Highly decorative, capillary fescue pairs well with other blue fescues, as well as field daisies, toadflaxes, scabious, and Love-in-a-mist to create beautiful, light naturalistic compositions in a sunny border.
Gautier's fescue, an alternative to lawn
The Gautier fescue – Festuca gautieri is a compact young plant, reaching 15 cm in height, that forms dense, plump cushions made up of fine leaves in a lovely soft green, turning to emerald. As a spreading plant, it offers an interesting alternative to lawn in dry and challenging soils. It is also used as groundcover in borders and flower beds. From May to June, it blooms, producing small green spikes that turn golden, standing tall above the clumps of foliage.
It looks delightful in a rockery alongside white gravel, which highlights the beautiful green of its leaves. It also elegantly accompanies spring bulbs, such as the blue Glory of the Snow, the Ipheion uniflorum with its charming star-shaped flowers, or the small bucolic clusters of blue-violet Muscari armeniacum.
Discover other Fescue grass
View all →
Available in 1 sizes
Available in 3 sizes
Available in 2 sizes
Available in 2 sizes
Available in 2 sizes
Available in 2 sizes
Available in 1 sizes
Available in 2 sizes
Available in 1 sizes
Available in 2 sizes
Blue fescue - Festuca glauca, an elegant grass.
The blue fescue – Festuca glauca makes a statement with the elegance of its hemispherical bush-like silhouette and its rare bluish-grey colour. Standing at 25 cm, it is compact and highly graphic. Valued in gardens, it bears small silver flower spikes in June and July. It thrives in rockeries, borders, scree gardens, and slopes, and can also be used as a lawn, provided it is not overly trampled.
If you love blue and grey harmonies, the blue fescue will delight you. It pairs beautifully with the sea cineraria, which is also silver, with delicately sculpted foliage. Plant alongside delicate horned violets – Viola cornuta ‘Sorbet Xp F1 Marina’ in refined pastel blue, as well as sparkling Viola cornuta ‘Sorbet XP Coconut Swirl’ white with deep black-blue edges.
Read also
Fescue: planting and careBlue fescue - Festuca 'Intense Blue', for even more intensity
The Festuca ‘Intense Blue’ is a blue fescue, forming small clumps that reach a height and width of 30 cm, with an intense grey-blue colour that offers original metallic reflections. It is perfect for creating stunning graphic scenes in a contemporary garden. In June and July, fine silver spikes emerge from the small clumps, turning yellow later on.
In a rockery or at the edge of borders, pair the fescue ‘Intense Blue’ with yellow flowers to create beautiful contrasts, such as santolina, or white flowers to bring light, like the everlasting Helipterum roseum Pierrot. You can also add plants with silver foliage, such as Bear’s Ear and silver wormwood, as well as clumps of true lavender and groundcover rosemary to add a lovely purple tone to the ensemble.
The blue fescue 'Elijah Blue', a beautiful steel blue
The blue fescue ‘Elijah Blue’ – Festuca glauca forms dense clumps that resemble small hedgehogs. Reaching a height of 30 cm, its fine leaves are adorned with steel-blue hues that catch the eye. In June and July, delicate green spikes followed by silver and golden ones emerge, further enhancing its uniqueness. Graphical and decorative, it fits beautifully into a rockery, a flowerbed border, or serves as groundcover.
Use it to adorn the base of a small palm tree or a candelabra cactus. You can also pair it in a flowerbed border with creeping white gypsophila, Erigeron karvinskianus, as well as Montpellier soapwort and meadow sage.
Valais fescue, elegant hues
The Valais fescue – Festuca valesiaca Glaucantha is a small grass forming bristly little bushes, standing at a height of 20 cm and a spread of 25 cm, with lovely grey-green and silver-blue hues. Native to the Swiss Alps, it brings a certain brightness to a garden. In May and July, it adorns itself with small floral spikes in shades of silver-grey, green, purple, and blonde, offering a whole range of elegant nuances. Due to its small size, it fits well in a rockery or a border and can also be used as groundcover.
In a border, pair it with yellow Rudbeckia fulgida Goldsturm, golden alyssum, and golden tansy, which thrive under the same growing conditions. To achieve bright contrasts, you can add blue Cape asters, as well as beautiful airy bouquets of Perovskias.
Amethyst fescue, to lighten a border
Growing up to a height of 40 cm, the amethyst fescue – Festuca amethystina adds grace and lightness to borders filled with taller plants. It features a bushy habit with a spread of 40 cm formed of fine blue-green leaves, which take on lovely purple hues thanks to a flowering spike that appears in May and June.
These grasses, swaying in the breeze, lend a beautiful elegance to taller borders. Pair it with Sedum (Hylotelephium) Thunderhead – Autumn Stonecrop in purple, Achillea millefolium Pomegranate in garnet tones, and Heuchera Beaujolais, with its beautiful decorative pink-purple foliage.
The Festuca amethystina through the seasons
The fescue 'Golden Toupee', from blue to yellow
The fescue – Festuca glauca ‘Golden Toupee’ forms small bristly cushions of fine blue leaves that turn straw yellow. Its flowering, featuring yellow and silver spikes in June and July, enhances this golden and sunny tone, perfect for brightening and uplifting the garden. Standing at 20 cm, it can be used as groundcover or as an edge for borders in full sun.
In a border or rockery, play with the contrast between blue and yellow, and pair the fescue ‘Golden Toupee’ with flowers in similar tones that thrive in dry, sunny conditions. For example, choose a blue thistle like the Eryngium Lapis Blue – Sea Holly, a Agapanthus Charlotte, or a Shrubby Sage ‘Blue Note’ – Salvia microphylla. Add a touch of exoticism with the Madeiran Viper’s Bugloss – Echium fastuosum (candicans) and you will create a lovely seaside flowerbed. For yellow hues, consider Santolines, which are also suited to dry soils and sunny exposures, as well as Achillea Moonshine.
- Subscribe!
- Contents
Comments