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Gardening

Blue-eyed grass looks spectacular, grows well

By JANE WEBER
Published February 19, 2007

The trouble with common names for plants is they often coerce the gardener into misleading information. For example, native blue-eyed grass is an iris in no way related to grass. Armed with this bit of trivia, any green thumb can delve into the Internet or a good plant book to discover the proper care and feeding of irises.

Of first concern is the fact that Sisyrinchium seem to self-destruct after a season of heavy blooming (March to April in Central Florida). The spent flower simply kills off the leaf stem from which it sprouts.

The remedy is to pull off the spent flower stem or pick some flowers for the vase or harvest seed to sow in the wildflower meadow.

Every two to three years you should dig up and divide the clumps in late summer. Use the separated plants to edge a pathway or garden bed.

Sisyrinchium is a genus of some 90 frost-hardy perennials and annuals native to North and South America. The roots are rhizomatous, as are some grasses. New seed shoots are often mistaken for grass seedlings. Look closely, as the seedlings are tiny copies of the flat adult leaves.

Botanists in other parts of the world refer to our Florida native as Sisyrinchium graminoides, after the Danish botanist Rolf Dahlgren, but local nurseries still prefer the long-used scientific binomial S. angustifolium.

By any name, blue-eyed grass is most spectacular when in bloom with masses of blue to purple, half-inch flowers with yellow throats. They remind me of a carpet of forget-me-nots, which we cannot grow here with Florida's hot, wet summers.

A white flowering species, S. albidum, is native further west and commonly available in the nursery trade. This white-eyed grass has longer leaves that splay outward from the center rather than stand erect. Small plants in 4-inch pots cost about a dollar; a 6-inch pot is a little more.

Both blue- and white-eyed grass are trouble-free when it comes to pests. Neither care whether the soil is slightly acid or alkaline, so long as there is some composted vegetable humus in the soil.

As the humus absorbs and retains moisture between rainfalls to dole out to the plants as they need it, supplemental irrigation is not necessary once the plants are established. Fertilizer is also unnecessary for most native plants.

I often intersperse native rain lilies, Zephyranthes atamasco, among these irises as the rain lilies are a deciduous corm that can easily get forgotten when dormant in winter. The contrast of the blue-eyed grass and the bright white, 3- to 4-inch trumpet of the rain lily makes a smashing contrast in the flower border in early spring.

A few clumps of Aztec grass with its variegated silver and green leaves and white flowers also make good companion plants.

A gardener may sometimes discover seedlings planted by bird droppings far out in the bush, especially where leaf litter has enriched the soil. By any name these wildflowers taste as sweet to nectaring butterflies and hummingbirds and enhance the springtime garden.

This weekly article is provided by Jane Weber, professional gardener, grower, consultant, designer and environmentalist. Visit her Certified Florida Yard and Backyard Wildlife Habitat, 5019 W Stargazer Lane, Dunnellon. Call (352) 465-0649.

[Last modified February 19, 2007, 06:26:36]