Fall Plant Sale Preview: 'Twilight Zone' little bluestem

Schizachyrium 'Twilight Zone'. Photo courtesy of Walters Garden Inc.

By Annie Yang

Schizachyrium ‘Twilight Zone’ stands out from other little bluestems by taking on a silvery purple color starting in midsummer instead of coloring up in the fall like its cousins. This prairie grass first comes out in striking pastel blue-green hues before intensifying into eerily purple tones and deepening into redder shades later in the season, providing a wonderful spectacle for months.

Schizachyrium 'Twilight Zone'.
Photo courtesy of Walters Garden Inc.

‘Twilight Zone’, a bit ironically, requires full sun and is both heat and humidity tolerant. It can grow in a range of soil moisture levels, though it prefers soils on the drier side, and it can grow in both acidic and alkaline soils. This sturdy plant does not require much fertilization either, and it can really thrive in places where other plants find it difficult to survive.

The strengths of Schizachyrium 'Twilight Zone’ are best showcased along borders or in a meadow garden. Like its other Schizachyrium relatives, ‘Twilight Zone’ supports pollinators like bees and butterflies and invites birds in with food, shelter and nesting material.

FALL PLANT SALE DETAILS:
Date: Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018
Time: 9 a.m.-noon
Member benefits: Duke Gardens members get 10% off all purchases, plus access to the members-only previews sale from 8-9 a.m., and a full list of plants in advance! Join online or on site beginning at 7:30 a.m.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted. Please see Duke Gardens' pets policy here.
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing the event on Facebook and inviting your friends.
Thank you!

Schizachyrium 'Twilight Zone'. Photo by Beth Hall.

Spring Plant Sale Preview: Little Bluestem

Schizachyrium scoparium 'The Blues', also known as little bluestem.

By Katherine Hale
Photos by Jason Holmes

Call it by its Latin name, Schizachyrium scoparium, or by the common name little bluestem – either way, this plant is a winner.

Native to the wide Midwestern prairies, little bluestem is right at home in sunny urban landscapes of North Carolina. In Duke Gardens, you can find this species growing in the Piedmont Prairie in the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants. We’ll be selling several cultivars at our Spring Plant Sale.

One cultivar, 'Prairie Blues', has blue-green spring foliage that turns reddish-purple by mid-summer, sporting tall stalks bedecked with tiny florets that dry into attractive curls. Another selection, ‘Smoke Signals’, has striking dark coloration that makes it stand out at a distance. Leave the frost-killed stalks up for wildlife shelter and winter interest, or cut it back to the base and use in dried flower arrangements—it will look great either way.

Schizachyrium scoparium

The design possibilities with little bluestem are endless. Beautiful in formal mass plantings and perennial borders, adding visual interest to parking strip buffers and rain gardens, or scattered among wildflowers in a meadow—you can’t go wrong. Upright and tidy, little bluestem thrives in heat and humidity as the ultimate low maintenance perennial. Rip out your lawn, never have to mow again and enjoy a continuous show year-round.

Formerly known as Andropogon scoparium, this species has been reclassified as the genus Schizachyrium. Whatever you opt to call it, look for it at our Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, April 1, from 8 a.m. to noon, or at the Gardens Member Preview Sale on March 31 from 4 to 6 p.m. See you there!

Blogger Katherine Hale is an intern in the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants at Duke Gardens and a graduate student in the Field Naturalist program at the University of Vermont.