Festuca gautieri

Festuca gautieri
bearskin fescue

SIZE/TYPE	low perennial
USUAL HEIGHT	0.2-0.2m
USUAL WIDTH	0.2-0.3m
LEAVES	evergreen broadleaf
COLOUR OF LEAVES	green
FLOWERS	insignificant or non-blooming
LOCATION	full sun
USDA zone (lowest)	4 (down to -34°C)
WINTER PROTECTION
FOR ZONE 5+6
FOR ZONE 7
BELONGS TO CATEGORIES	Bamboos and grasses Evergreen broadleaf

Bearskin fescue or spiky fescue is a lovely perennial with bright green, narrowly linear, inward inrolled leaves that look spiky but are very soft and nice to touch indeed. The plant naturally forms small mounds and spreads very slowly. Its name bearskin fescue may sound just right if you imagine a bear with somewhat overgrown fur painted green for a fancy dress party.

This fescue was formerly known as festuca eskia or festuca scoparia. Nowadays festuca gautieri is considered the preferred name.

Bearskin fescue is not as easy to grow as it might look. It is very picky about soil pH structure – it needs to be free draining, preferably poor and neutral or acidic rather than alkaline. Wind or hard frosts don’t matter if the ground is dry in winter. Place it in full sun and divide older clumps in early spring to avoid dying off from the centre. Under ideal conditions it is hardy to about -34°C (USDA zone 4).

Last update 28-01-2014

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GLOSSARY

STANDARD QUALITY - Plants of this group are 1st class quality with number of branches and overall density adequate to their size and age, considering they were container grown.
DE LUXE QUALITY - This label guarantees a luxurious quality of manually selected plants that, compared to their height and age, are exceptionally dense and beautiful.
EXTRA - These plants are usually mature and bigger specimens with exceptional overall appearance.
STANDARD (as described in the plant form) means a tree with a trunk of 190-210 cm and a crown at the top, unless specified differently. The commercial size for trees is their girth measured in the height of 1m from ground.
HOBBY - These plants are of the same quality as our standard-quality plants but younger and therefore cheaper.
SHRUB - a woody plant with branches growing bushy from the ground level.
HALF-STANDARD or MINI-STANDARD - a small tree with shorter trunk, its size is usually specified.
FEATHERED - These are trees with branches growing already from the base of the trunk and up along the stem.
GRASSES and PERENNIALS - Sizes given usually read the diameter of the pot or the clump, as specified.