Turn your yard into a grassland

Clumping grasses are used much the same way as accenting shrubs or ground covers, depending on the height of the grass you select.

Low-growing types such as blue grama grass reach no more than 5 or 6 inches in height. These low types are ideal for use as ground covers.

Tall-growing types like pampas grass can reach a height of 10 feet, with equal spread. They are better suited for use as single specimen plants.

Several grass plants can be placed together to create large "meadowy" drifts in the landscape.

Many types of ornamental grasses can be grown successfully here in Tucson. Here are some you may wish to try:

● Blue grama is a small grass with blue-green leaves that reach a height of 6 inches. Clumps are 10 inches wide and spread by creeping underground stems. Attractive, fox-tail-like seed heads develop on 2-foot-tall flower stalks in July and persist until October. As the seed heads dry, they curl into an interesting semicircle. Although drought tolerant, blue grama will respond to supplemental watering in the summer with abundant production of ornamental seed heads. Use blue grama as a ground cover to provide a "natural meadow" effect.

● Bamboo muhly is a large clumping grass native to Southern Arizona and northern Mexico. It grows to a height of 4 to 6 feet and has larger than normal stems and small, rather inconspicuous, leaves, providing a "bamboolike" appearance. Wispy, branching seed heads about 1 foot long are produced in the upper half of the clump. Seed heads are produced from January to May. Water periodically for best appearance.

● Pink muhly is a clumping grass with showy pink flower plumes that appear in late summer into fall. This cloud of flower spikes gives the appearance of a pink mist hovering above the leaves. A medium-size grass, clumps of pink muhly grow to a height and spread of 3 to 4 feet. Regal mist is an improved flowering selection of this grass.

● Zebra grass is variegated grass, but in a very unusual way. Unlike other variegated plants, the golden yellow bands of zebra grass run horizontally across the medium-green leaf blade rather than around the edges. This irregular "zebra" striping pattern makes the grass easy to remember. This clumping grass spreads by short rhizomes, growing to a height and spread of 4 to 6 feet with a lush, arching form. Although zebra grass tolerates mildly alkaline soils, it's best grown in a large pot of improved soil where it attains a manageable size of 3 feet tall and wide. Plant in full sun or light shade and keep soil moist for best results.

● Pampas grass is the largest of the ornamental grasses and in many ways the most striking. Saw-toothed leaves shoot up and out in a fountain effect, 10 feet high with equal spread. Above the leaves rise large flowering stalks, which open into strikingly beautiful seed-head plumes. Each plume is 1 to 3 feet long and creamy white to pale pink in color. Plumes form in late summer and persist through the winter. Pampas grass is native to subtropical regions of South America. It grows well in Tucson with moderate watering.

● John P. Begeman is the urban horticulture agent for the University of Arizona-Pima County Cooperative Extension. If you have questions, call 626-5161 to reach a master gardener.

Gardening

Advice by John P. Begeman