Cool Season Grasses
Cool season Grasses – Cool season grasses flourish in cooler temperature spots around the nation. They will grow and flower while the weather is still cool, in spring and early summer, and tend to go into summer dormancy as temperatures rise. They are best planted, not at the front of a bed or border, but a little further back where other plants and grasses can grow up and hide them while they are dormant. They usually look better in the summer if grown woodland or a cool, shaded part of the garden.
Typical Cool Season Grasses:
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Kentucky Blue Grass
- The blades of bluegrasses all have a characteristic boat shaped tip, with the edges curved up like the sides of a canoe. Most are relatively cold tolerant but need generous amounts of water and fertilizer. Kentucky bluegrass is the most popular; rough bluegrass is often added to shade mixtures.
- Kentucky bluegrass is true green like fine fescue, but turns brown easily during hot weather. Look for new cultivars of tall fescues noted for their reliable dark green even in summer, and perennial ryes that sprout bright green, then darken. See an old lawn with dead patches? Think bent grass, now popular only on golf courses because of its high maintenance requirements.
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Turf-Type Tall Fescue
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Tall Fescues
- Fescues come in many forms and are generally classified as fine or coarse. The fine-textured fescues described here are chewings, hard, and red fescue. Turf-type tall fescue has coarser blades but are more wear-tolerant than fine-textured fescues, and it does better in hotter areas.
- Tall fescue needs little additional irrigation and stands up to regular use as on heavy traffic areas such as a playground. Bluegrass needs regular irrigation to survive extended hot-dry periods and is more sensitive to heavy traffic.
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Fine Fescues
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Rye Grasses
- Ryegrasses tend to clump rather than form runners, as many other grasses do. They germinate and establish themselves quickly, and are used in low-cost mixtures to cover large areas.
- Rye and tall fescue sprout and take over quickly compared with bluegrass and fine fescue grasses. Most of the older fescues are likely to bunch up and form unsightly clumps over a period of years. However, new varieties of fescue are less likely to do this.
There are three major types of cool-season grasses: bluegrasses, fescues, and ryegrasses. Bentgrass is another type, but it requires more maintenance and is not as adaptable as the others are to various climate zones; it is used primarily on golf greens and in the Pacific Northwest.
On average, cool season areas have cold winters (with temperatures that fall below freezing and warm/hot summers.
Usually there are regular intervals of rain throughout the summer months, but grasses will tolerate some extended periods of drought by going dormant, or may require some lawn irrigation to remain green throughout extended periods without rain.
Durable cool-season grasses include the most popular – Kentucky bluegrass, perennial rye, tall and fine fescues. New blends of the turf-type tall fescues are also becoming more widespread.
Look at the grass’ texture to tell it from other types. Coarse tall fescue’s big blades and bunching characteristics look rougher than bluegrass and rye’s narrow, fine leaves. If your grass has thin, needle-like leaves it is probably a fine fescue.
Creeping grasses like bluegrass, Bermuda and most warm season grasses spread by runners, either above or below ground. Creeping grass varieties are more prone to thatch and extra precautions should be taken to avoid thatch build up such as regular aeration treatments.
Bunch grasses such as fescue and ryegrass spread from the crown or central part of the plant. Mowing high protects the crown that is more sensitive to being damaged if cutting is made too close to the center.
