Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium) Shining Star - Detailed Version, learn all about this AMAZING Grass

Hello and welcome to Over the Vest Nurseries. In this video we'll show you an exciting new variegated ornamental grass. We'll tell you where to plant it, how to grow it, how to look after it, and enjoy it in all sorts of ways. It's a beautiful day in mid-summer, yes it's a little on the toasty side, and this European buttercup is wilting a little bit in the heat and humidity, but as you can see our plants are doing beautifully. And I suppose that's not really surprising when you consider that the 2,000 odd varieties that we grow here on the nursery, that are available through a network of garden centers right throughout our region, are ones that have been especially selected for their performance right here in this area, that's the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states of the U.S. Now as you see we grow quite a few ornamental grasses, we're really very fond of them, they perform beautifully, give a long season of interest, and for the most part are very easy to grow. And amongst those are quite a few that have been developed from native species, and out of those we're particularly fond of the little blue stems, botanically pronounced as Schizocarium, Schizocarium or Schizocarium, I've heard various ways to pronounce the botanical name over the years, so I just take the easy way out and call them by their common name, the little blue stems. Now this is a very valuable species, inhabiting really pretty much most of the United States, perhaps over on the northwest coast, on coastal areas, you won't find too many, but go anywhere from Alberta through to Quebec in Canada, and then south down through to Arizona and into Florida, you'll find it there in places like open woodland, in fields and hillsides, and in the prairies of course, places where if it's given sun and a reasonable soil, will do very well, and in nature provides a valuable larval host for things like skipper butterflies, nesting material and food for things like songbirds, upland game birds, and mammals and so on too. But of course, here in the nursery and in our gardens, it's their ornamental qualities that we grow them for, and there's some really beautiful selections that do very well and give a long season of interest. But today, I want to show you something really exciting, so let me take you now and show you this beautiful selection, which is called the Little Bluestem or Skysacarium Shining Star. And here it is, just look at this fantastic variegated foliage. Plants that will grow about 15 to 18 inches high, perhaps once it's established and you've got a nice big plump growing, and it's flowering right to the tip, it might get to about two, two and a half foot high, but as you see, has this beautiful upright habit, arching foliage, and now in mid-summer, it's starting to produce its flowering trusses that come up here on these erect stems that move gently in the breeze, and later on in a few weeks time, will produce fluffy little white flowers that will add and keep the interest growing into the autumn. And that's the incredible thing about this variety, in that it gives, as I mentioned earlier, that very long season of interest. In springtime, when the young foliage emerges first, it's going to come out with a kind of creamy white color, with a kind of yellowish tint to it when you look from the distance. Then as we get into summertime, that creaminess develops into a white variegation with this green stripe down through the middle of each of the leaves, and all the time making this very elegant kind of arching habit. Then, as I just mentioned, when we get into summer, it will start to produce these upright flowering wands that come up here and then carry the little flowers on it. And then, when the days start getting shorter, and the autumn temperatures begin to kick in, you'll start to see it now starting to take on a little bit of pink coloration, and then it will go through to a purplish kind of burgundy color right through into the autumn time. And as I mentioned previously, that's incredible because here's a plant that gives all of those whole three seasons of interest, spring, summer and autumn. Really good, and then of course, got the hardiness, this is a Zone 4 plant, actually it might be a Zone 3, we tend to be a little conservative with our zoning rating. The original species is Zone 3, so this could be too, but it's certainly very hardy right throughout all of our region, and all at once is an average garden soil in a sunny location. In fact, it really doesn't need extra rich compost or rich conditions. With many of the plants we grow in the nursery, I'm telling you, good culture, dig in lots of organic matter, water them and feed them and so on, but with these plants, actually if you just kind of grow them in the natural average soil, they'll be a little stockier, a little sturdier, and be just as attractive, and probably a little longer lived too. So this is Little Bluestem, Shining Star, discovered by Paul Pabico and his team at Emerald Coast Nurseries in 2015. It's an exciting selection of our native Little Bluestem that has this wonderful long-lasting color. Now as far as looking after it is concerned, it's really easy, in that it really doesn't need that much, except perhaps giving it a little supplemental watering after you plant it out first. Once it gets established, you'll find that it will be remarkably drought tolerant. They put up with this sort of condition very amably, and in springtime, before new growth begins, you can go in with a pair of pruners and remove any of the old remaining foliage. That will make way for the new fresh growth to grow out, and that's about all that you need to worry about. Except there is one thing, and that is, like all variegated plants, there is a tendency sometimes for parts of them to turn green. It's called reversion, it happens pretty much to all variegated plants. But particularly with ones like this, it's not really going to revert so much, but when the seeds come off the tops of the plants, if you've got it established in the garden for a few years, you might notice like these two plants that are here, how there's some young growth that's green, starting at the base of the plant. This has probably occurred from seeds that were distributed from the original plant last year. The seedlings don't come up variegated, they'll come up green as you see, and that's why you need to keep a little bit of an eye out, and if you go in with a knife or a trowel or something like that, you can easily remove the little plants, and that will keep the beautiful variegated foliage going through. Let me show you in detail how you would do that. Now obviously if these were seedlings that were popping up in a flowerbed somewhere, you could take them out with a trowel or a spade or something like that. But since this is close to the plant, you'll see when I isolate it here, here's all the variegated foliage from the plant, and here is the little green seedling that's coming up from the side. So it's very easy if this is close to the plant, with a knife, to just quite literally go in and just cut away at the base of the plant, and with a tug, as you see, out it comes. This you might, if you wish, take and plant out somewhere else in the garden, you'll have a green little blue stem, and your beautiful variegated one is going to, as you see, stay nice and variegated and very colorful. Now as you can see by all of the plants here, it's really not a big issue, but keep an eye out, and if you notice any of the little green seedlings turning up, now you know what to do. The other thing you could do of course, is to go in, in late fall, and remove the tops of the plants, because that's where the seeds are going to be, you could take that away, still keep all of the variegated foliage, and eliminate any opportunity for little seedlings to turn up anywhere in the vicinity of your gorgeous variegated plants. And with its lovely upright habit, and the semi-pendulous effect, with the foliage spilling out onto the mulch here at the base of the plants, it makes a lovely item to put into a line in long narrow beds like this one, close to our handicap ramp. You could use mulch like we've got here, or for a really low maintenance effect, you could use some ornamental gravel, anything that will help to accentuate the lovely shape and variegated foliage. It would be a great plant to use in foundation plantings, or perhaps in little areas close to your home, on the side of rockeries and hillsides, to perhaps either side of a set of steps, all sorts of places where you'll be able to enjoy this lovely elegant habit, and beautiful variegated foliage. And as you see, it makes a beautiful item for putting into containers, makes a lovely centerpiece for putting into the center of a fairly large container. Here we're using it on an urn, but you could use it in virtually any type of planter, for your deck or patio, or even the balcony. What's neat about it of course is that it gives you plenty of interest from spring through summer and into the fall, and it contrasts very nicely with other items too, like this little ground covering Sedum here, that I'm using for spilling out over the sides. This is Sedum fireglow, or the German original name was Fuldaglut, comes out with this lovely green color and now at this time of year starts to take off reddish tones, which are then reflected of course in the foliage when this starts to turn going into the fall. What's really neat about this is that it needs very little attention, and so you'll be able to plant this, and if you're somebody who's going away, perhaps traveling from home, or going on vacation, or somebody that really just doesn't want to be spending a whole lot of time and effort looking after your plants on your deck, this might be something that you could employ, because once it gets established, this will survive with really very little watering, just enough to keep it alive and you'll find that it will do very well, and as you see also, it moves really very pretty in the wind and breeze. What's also neat about it is that because it's so hardy, zone 4, possibly zone 3, it might be something that would overwinter successfully in the container. My usual rule of thumb is to plant up two zones hardier than the zone I'm in, in my case zone 6, so therefore I find that if I plant zone 4 plants, they stand a good chance of getting through the winter. The one thing that's important with this is that it has to have good drainage, so when you plant your containers, put in a good layer of grit or gravel to ensure that the container does drain well. Thereafter, once it gets established, as I say, it really needs very little care and attention, except perhaps the odd bit of prettying up, if somehow or other little pieces get out of shape or out of sync. Other than that, I think you'll find that it will make a lovely item for growing in containers, bring you a lot of interest, bring you lots of color, without a whole lot of input and attention. This is David Wilson, enjoy your gardening, it's good for us, and it's very good for our environment too.