Schizachryium WorryFree® Chameleon (Little Bluestem) / Magnificent, Easy to Grow, NEW garden Grass😊

Well good morning and welcome to Over the Vest Nurseries. It's a very pleasant day in the middle of summer. There's a nice breeze blowing and that's helping to cool things down a little bit. And as you see here in this section of the nursery, we have all of our ornamental grasses potted now. They're busy growing and we're going to have lots of nice, big, healthy, well-formed plants for sale in the independent garden centers right throughout our region, that's the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. And if you'd like to find out more about them, I'd suggest that you think about subscribing to our channel, and then each time as we publish new videos, you'll find they'll turn up automatically in your feed. And if you've been scrolling through our videos, you may have come across a few where we've featured some of the Blue Stems, both the Big Blue Stem Andropogon and the Little Blue Stem. Fantastic selections of native species that are outstanding and we found really do very well right here in this region. And if you haven't checked them out, now might be a good time to do so, because I think you'll really enjoy growing them in your garden. But today, here in the nursery, I've got something rather special to show you. A variegated form of the Little Blue Stem that's called Chameleon. And here it is! Really remarkable, it's taken all the hardiness, reliability, and adaptability of a native species, and now with this variegated foliage, takes that into a whole new era of giving an extended, very ornamental period, all the way from spring through summertime, to mid-summer now, and then going into the fall. Just a fantastic revelation that really I think is going to have tremendous benefits for us in our gardens. And the fabulous thing about this, is that this is a hardy Zone 3 plant, so it will grow anywhere in our region. Add to that the fact that it only grows about 18 inches to about 2 foot, or maybe at it's absolute highest, 2.5 foot high when it's firing, and you can see that this is a plant that you could use in a wide variety of places in your garden. Whether you just put in a single specimen like this one, grow it on its own, perhaps amongst ground cover, things like little sedums spreading out underneath it, but look what happens when you take it and put it into bolder, bigger drifts. Then you get the combined effect of all of this wonderful color. It's a great plant for low maintenance places too, things like gravel gardens and rockeries and hillsides. You could plant this out, and with its architectural quality, this upright growth habit that it has, and then these arching leaves that come out over the side, you can see that not only is it very colorful, but it also has a very pleasing, elegant shape. And if our friends at Rutgers University, where they do extensive trials with deer-prone plants, they find that the little blue stems there at least, are not being eaten by deer, so if you've got deer problems in the garden, this might be something that would be worth your while trialing too. And also, I would suggest that you think about putting this into containers, because with something this attractive, you would have something there that will take your interest right through the whole of the outdoor season, and because it's so hardy, a Zone 3 plant, that means that it has a good chance of surviving during the winter time, to come back again in the same pot in the spring time. One of the things that's very important about this, is that you don't over-fertilize it. Remember, this is a prairie plant, this is a plant that grows in nature, out in average garden soils that aren't particularly nutritious. If you give it a lot of molly-cuddling, give it a lot of water and extra fertilizer, it's going to grow, but it might get a little too lush, and then begin to flop over, or lodge, as we say. So it actually is a plant that doesn't need a whole lot of nutrition, and what's very important, and that's what set my head thinking when I was talking about container gardens, and that is that if you're putting it into a container, make sure to put plenty of gravel and grit in the base of the container so that you get good drainage, and that goes for your garden too, because it really doesn't do that well in damp, wet sites. It will tolerate clay, but it will do much better if it's out in a reasonably sunny place and has nice, well-drained soil. As I mentioned, it's really low-maintenance, it doesn't need a whole lot of care, the only thing I would suggest is that in spring time, after the winter has passed, that you go in and you trim off all of the old foliage at the base, that makes way for the new fresh growth that's going to come out and start a whole new gardening season. And, you should water it after you plant it, to make sure that it gets established. But after that, you'll find that it really doesn't need a whole lot of watering, because once it gets established, it's remarkably drought-tolerant. And as you see now, it's starting to put on its flowering stems. First in spring time, it comes out with this bright white, crisp, variegated and green foliage. Then as it goes through the season, you'll start to see it take on a kind of pink, flushed appearance. And then as we get into mid-summer, it starts now to produce these flowering stems that carry fluffy little flowers on the tops of them, and they're nice, but really not that attractive compared to the foliage. And then, as we get into shorter days and cooler nights, you'll see that it starts to really then take on some light purple shades, and eventually as we get into the colder part of the fall, early winter, you'll see the whole plant starting to take on burgundy shades too. So that's why it's always changing, and that's why it's called Chameleon. Now it is true, they are plants that require very little maintenance, really very easy to look after, don't need a whole lot of fussing and caring about, and for that matter, once they get established, they don't even need a whole lot of watering either. But there is one little thing I wanted to tell you about, it's not really such a big deal, but it's worth knowing about, and that is that all variegated plants have a tendency at some point or other to revert, that suddenly throw a piece of green that will usually be faster growing than the variegated foliage, and if you don't do something about it, might actually take over. So I wanted to show you that with this little grass here, if you see any green parts like this part here, and also on this plant you'll see that it's starting to happen here, then it's very easy really when you see it, to go in with a knife or a trowel and just remove that part. You can get in, isolate all the green stems, and as you see what I'm doing here is really just pulling them together so that I get all of the green parts here, and then coming in at the other side and just slicing down with a knife so that then with a good tug, you get the green part out, you remove it, and the plant then will continue to grow on. Now it's natural for all variegated plants to occasionally throw a green shoot, like that. Also it's important to tell you that sometimes with variegated grasses like this, if there's seed at the top and that falls onto the ground, and perhaps you're not putting down a lot of mulch, then sometimes those seedlings will start to grow, and they are likely to come up green too. And it might be in close to the side or the middle of the clump, so you could think that it's reversion when it's actually a new generation of seedlings. Whichever it is, just keep an eye out, and if it happens, as I say it's not really such a big deal, but if it happens, a little bit of treatment like this will make sure that you're able to keep all of this gorgeous variegated foliage and a lovely show going. Now you might be interested to know that this is a plant that occurred first way up in the northern part of France, up near the Belgian border, is a nursery that's run by a great plantsman, Thierry Dvalibois. And he, together with his wife Sandrine, are well known for specializing in all sorts of really good choice plants. And one day when he was working in his nursery, and walking through an area where he'd planted out some little bluestem varieties of the variety called the Blues, which was introduced by Kurt Plummel, a famous grass nursery in Maryland some years ago. Anyway, as Thierry was walking through, he noticed that amongst it was a variegated seedling. He grew it on, he nurtured it, and then one day our good friend, and like myself a crazy plant lover, Peter von Reissen from Concept Plants, happened to be visiting. And there he noticed this variegated form. He knew immediately that this was a plant that had tremendous possibilities, especially here in North America where it luxuriates in our climate. And that was the beginning of that plant, for then we got hold of some little plants to do some trials about three years or so ago. And since then we've been testing and trialing it, and today as you see, this is the result. A beautiful crop of very even plants, lush and luxuriant, very colorful, and poised to make a magnificent contribution to our gardens. That's why I'm so excited about this variety, and why it's really great to be able to tell you about it too. This is David Wilson. Enjoy your gardening. It's good for us, and it's very good for our environment too.