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Ornamental Grasses

Little bluestem in container?

17 years ago

Today I bought Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)in my local nursery. At home, I realised that there's not a single suitable sunny spot left in my garden for this terrific grass. One option would be to use it as a container specimen, but I've never seen it recommended for that purpose. Is there any reason not to grow Little Bluestem in a container? Does anyone have experience with this?

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Comments (6)

donn_
17 years ago
No experience here, but I checked my favorite grass information source, Bluestem. The have a list of a few dozen grasses for containers, and, although they sell Little Bluestem, it is not on the list.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bluestem Container Grasses
donn_
17 years ago
This is from the floridata database:

"Some of the fine roots grow laterally, but most of them plunge straight down to depths of 4-5 ft (1.2-1.5 m)."

Using Bluestem's criteria for successful container grasses, this kind of root depth would preclude most containers. I do, however, know where you can get a lovely container that is over 5' deep.

{{gwi:40804}}
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Big Bluestem is not a scourge in my book. BUT in this conversation , many things are called Bluestem and they are not even of the same family as each other. Big bluestem is Androgon gerardi which is different from Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). They are totally different from KR bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum var. songarica is in the same family as Silver bluestem )Botriochia laguroides ssp.torreyana and Botriochloa barbinodis. These grasses don't look a like and come from different continents. It is confusing because there are many many bluestem varieties within the various species. It gets mind boggling. I do a lot of walking around and looking in fields and gardens. TXranger is much better at grass IDing than me. God luck. Right now, I am trying to tell the difference in the field between Silver Bluestem and Cane Bluestem. They are both blooming and look similar in the pics online. I am trying to collect seed and want the cane bluestem. I do not want to be seeding non native purposely by accident . If you know what I mean. How do I tell them apart. I go to google and type in their names and pull up images. Ladybird Johnson wildflower center data base is a good place to go . So is Santa Rosa Garden Gardens has a bunch of bluestem.
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dutch_rondo
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks again Donn for answering my question so quickly. As I said, none of my sources (about a dozen books on OG's) mentions Little Bluestem as a suitable container specimen, so I suspected there had to be a good reason and that root system must be it. I guess I have to look for an alternative spot in my garden, because I've got the feeling that this grass could well become one of my favorites.

Ron
achnatherum
17 years ago
ron,
Give your little bluestem the crummiest soil and the most sun you have and it will be HAPPY!
A.
dutch_rondo
Original Author
17 years ago
Given these two options...I've decided to do both. Some little bluestems have found a nice spot (I just created one by removing a few grasses)in the soil, and I've put one in an ordinary medium-sized container (by far not as big as the ones suggeted above!) and filled it with the poorest soil I could find. Now, I'll just see what happens with all of them. Maybe I should grab a beer now....

Ron
donn_
17 years ago
"Maybe I should grab a beer now...."

Absolutely, but don't waste it on the grass. Keep it for yourself.

FWIW, my family came from The Netherlands. They lived in Meppel, Drenth (spelling unsure).

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