Chionochloa: Planting, Growing and Caring

Botany and description

The genus Chionochloa comprises 25 species native to the mountains of New Zealand and southeastern Australia. This genus belongs to the Poaceae family and the Danthonioideae subfamily. The name “Chionochloa” derives from Greek: from Chionos (snow) and Chloa (grass), referring to the natural montane habitat of these grasses. Some authors occasionally classify Chionochloa species within the genus Danthonia, which appears botanically very similar.

Chionochloa conspicua, botanical plate 1876

Chionochloas are perennial grasses. They form large, stiff, dense clumps of fine, tender evergreen leaves. The leaves are typically green but may take on a bronze-green hue with silvery reflections, as seen in Chionochloa rubra.

The summer flowering produces panicles of long-pedunculate spikelets, more or less silky, sometimes reaching up to 2 m in height, as with Chionochloa conspicua or Chionochloa flavicans. The dried inflorescences can be used in dried flower arrangements.

Chionochloas thrive in gardens, dry rockeries, borders of dry beds, or within slightly wild meadows with an Australasian inspiration.

Our most beautiful varieties

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Planting Chionochloas

Where to plant?

Chionochloa is a hardy grass that thrives in full sun, in porous, stony, well-drained soil without lime.

Chionochloas are relatively hardy: they can withstand frosts down to -10°C in very well-drained soil. They particularly dislike waterlogged soil in winter. Ensure you provide well-drained soil or improve drainage by adding gravel or clay pebbles, or by planting on a mound.

When to plant?

Planting is best done in spring, from March to May.

Chionochloa conspicua ©Peganum

How to plant?

• Loosen the soil thoroughly to a depth of about 20 centimetres;
• Remove the plant from its pot;
• Dig a hole roughly twice the size of the root ball;
• Chionochloas require very well-drained soil: feel free to mix some gravel or clay pebbles with the soil used to fill the hole;
• Place the root ball in the centre of the hole;
• Backfill with the excavated soil (optionally mixed with gravel if the soil is too heavy) and gently firm around the clump with your fingers;
• Water thoroughly to eliminate any air pockets between the soil and roots.

Note: space your clumps 60 cm apart to allow for proper growth. A planting density of 5 clumps per square metre is recommended.

Maintenance

Maintenance is very limited: pruning is not necessary. At most, you can cut back the dried flower spikes in late winter.

Diseases and Pests

Chionochloas are not affected by any diseases or pests.

Propagation

Dividing Clumps

Dividing old clumps can be done between April and June. Lift the clump from the ground using a digging fork. Divide the clump with a knife or the edge of a spade. However, this propagation method is not the best: indeed, dividing the clump disrupts the ball-like effect of this grass. It’s better to opt for sowing.

Sowing

If the plant thrives in your garden, it’s likely that some self-sown seedlings will develop near the parent plants. You can choose to leave them in place for a natural look or move them in spring to your desired location.

You can also sow Chionochloa seeds yourself. Harvest the seeds in autumn (October-November) for indoor sowing in a warm environment (18-20°C) using buckets filled with a very light substrate (half sowing compost, half river sand) at the end of winter. You can transplant the young Chionochloas into the garden in April.

Chionochloa rubra seeds (© Margaret Donald)

Association

Chionochloas thrive in sunny spots with very well-drained soil. We’ll create a small “meadow-style” planting scheme by selecting plants that enjoy these growing conditions.

Let’s start with some clumps of Chionochloa rubra: the foliage is green-bronze and the flowering, though subtle, is bronze-brown in colour. The idea will be to complement these with other grasses and flowering perennials in yellow-orange tones to maintain a warm colour palette.

Achillea filipendulina ‘Cloth of Gold’ offers bright yellow flowers from July to September with flower spikes that can exceed one metre in height, all supported by grey-green foliage. Staying with yellow flowers, the St John’s Chamomile is a very hardy plant with a natural appearance, ideal for rockeries or dry meadows.

A meadow primarily consists of grasses. To accompany our Chionochloa rubra, we could plant some Deschampsia flexuosa ‘Tatra Gold’, an evergreen and very resilient grass with striking acid yellow-green foliage that will add some pep to the display. Let’s add one or two Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’ whose blue-green leaf tips turn burgundy-red from July onwards, all enhanced by remarkably colourful cloud-like inflorescences in summer and autumn.

Warm colours are lovely, but they lack some contrast. What if we added some blue flowers? Eryngium zabelii ‘Big Blue’ would be perfect for this role with its sturdy silver stems and conical grey-purple inflorescences crowned with steely blue spiny bracts. Be careful not to overdo it though – one or two eryngos will be quite enough to catch the eye.

Centred is Chionochloa rubra in a meadow scene with Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’, Anthemis ‘Sancti Johannis’, some Eryngium zabelii ‘Big Blue’, Achillea filipendulina ‘Cloth of Gold’ and a few Deschampsia flexuosa ‘Tatra Gold’