Schizachyrium scoparium Colorado

Schizachyrium scoparium 'Colorado' is an elegant and colourful perennial grass, with an upright habit and changing foliage, which deserves to be discovered and planted more in gardens. Afflicted with an unpronounceable Latin name, this prairie grass from Colorado is one of the most beautiful among North American grasses. This medium-sized grass is beautifully coloured. The lovely foliage changes from a springtime blue-grey to different shades of orange, copper, red, and violet, which are incredibly beautiful at the end of the season. The autumnal flowering emerges among this foliage with colours of dawn, in delicate translucent inflorescences. Superb in a modern or naturalistic setting, perfect in perennial borders. It withstands both cold and drought. 

Schizachyrium scoparium, also known as Little Bluestem, is a grass native to the Great Plains of North America, a highly competitive environment where many species of Poaceae (the scientific name for the grass family) coexist. It is still sometimes found under the name Andropogon scoparius. Vigorous, extremely robust, accustomed to the harsh competition with other plants and adapted to difficult conditions, it withstands cold and drought, and prefers somewhat poor soils. This grass has been chosen to officially represent the states of Nebraska and Kansas.

Schizachyrium 'Colorado' has recently been selected in Colorado. It is a variety with a vertical habit and a more pronounced colour at the end of the season. The plant forms a clump 75cm (30in) tall when in flower, and 40cm (16in) wide, slowly spreading to form an imposing clump. It consists of a low rosette of flexible, linear leaves, and upright stems among which appear delicate inflorescences in late summer or autumn (in September-October). These are narrow clusters, measuring 3 to 15cm (1 to 6in) long, bearing tapering spikelets maturing to a bluish, ashy-silvery hue. By mid-September, the entire plant takes on orange, copper, and red colours, intensifying until November, and then turning violet before fading into a beige tone. This colouration is even more pronounced in regions experiencing large temperature variations in autumn.

Schizachyrium scoparium has the enormous advantage, shared with many other grasses, of remaining upright, which allows it to remain decorative until the heart of winter. It withstands almost everything except heavy and waterlogged soils, in both winter and summer. As such, it is very useful in ornamental dry gardens or in poor, infertile, or sandy soils. It pairs well with perovskias, nepetas, shrubby salvias, echinaceas, kniphofias, and shrubby artemisias such as Artemisia alba 'Canescens', for example. To play with contrasting forms, it can be paired with hybrid mulleins or hollyhocks.