We’re always on the search for new ornamental grasses, and especially those with good blue foliage, since many of the more cold loving grasses aren’t exactly thrilled with our summers. Well, back in 2003, we were botanizing in Liberty County, Florida…just west of Tallahassee, when we ran across this grass growing in a sandy roadside ditch. Despite fantastic performance in our trials, it took us 15 years to finally get around to dividing it for propagation, and christening it Andropogon glaucopsis ‘Liberty Blue’. This little-known species ranges in the wild from North Carolina to East Texas. For us, the foliage of Andropogon ‘Liberty Blue’ reaches 18″ tall x 30″ wide, while the late summer flower stalks reach 42″. We’ve rated it as hardy to Zone 7b, because we’re not aware of anyone whose tried it in colder zone yet, but we hope you’ll give it a try.
I love this. Will it grow well in Emerald Isle, NC?
Absolutely
Great…I just ordered it!
I would be willing to trial it in my 6b – 7a garden here in the Blue Ridge. I really like it’s growth form, the spikey blue leaves are striking. Are they stiff, would they hold themselves up in a heavy rain or wind? They would look kind of strange if they were flattened out on the ground.
That’s what we like is the good weather durability
How cold a zone will it take – seeing it was found in FL?
We’ve had no issues at 7 F, but north of that, no one knows. Some plants growing nearby in the wild are fine in zone 5b
Does this self seed or is it sterile? I love the color but don’t want anything that’s too promiscuous in the garden. Thank you!
It should be fertile, but in 15 years, we’ve yet to have a single seedling