GARDENING WITH NATURE

Article by Sigrie Kendrick

Create garden drama with eye-catching ornamental grasses

In an era of increasing water consciousness and changing climate, gardeners are discovering the remarkable beauty and resilience of xeric ornamental grasses.

These drought-adapted species offer a low-maintenance solution to challenging growing conditions while providing year-round visual interest.

Three standout varieties, Blue Grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis), Blue Oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens), and “Blaze” Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Blaze’) demonstrate how water-wise landscaping can be both sustainable and stunning.

Blue Grama Grass

Blue Grama represents the epitome of prairie toughness. This native North American species thrives in conditions that would challenge most ornamental plants, making it an invaluable addition to your drought-tolerant garden. The grass forms dense, low-growing clumps that rarely exceed 18 inches in height, creating a fine-textured ground cover perfect for naturalistic plantings.

The true charm of Blue Grama lies in its distinctive seed heads, which curve gracefully like eyelashes dancing in the breeze. These inflorescences appear in mid to late summer, adding movement and whimsy to the landscape.

The foliage transitions beautifully through the seasons, beginning spring with fresh blue-green colour, maintaining its appeal through summer’s heat, and finishing autumn with warm bronze tones that persist well into winter—while the seed heads transition to burgundy shades with the cooling weather.

From a practical standpoint, Blue Grama grass excels where other plants struggle. It tolerates extreme drought once established, requiring virtually no supplemental irrigation in most climates.

This grass also handles temperature fluctuations remarkably well, surviving both scorching summers and harsh winters. Its fibrous root system helps prevent soil erosion, making it an excellent choice for planting on slopes. Additionally, Blue Grama grass requires minimal maintenance, no fertilization, and is naturally resistant to most pests and diseases.

Blue Grama grass in the fall

Blue Oat Grass

Helictotrichon sempervirens brings a touch of Mediterranean sophistication to drought-tolerant gardens. This evergreen perennial forms striking architectural clumps of steel-blue foliage that maintain their colour throughout the year, providing consistent structure in the landscape. The narrow, arching leaves create perfect spherical mounds that can reach 2-3 feet in both height and width, offering a substantial presence without overwhelming smaller garden spaces.

The ornamental value of Blue Oat grass extends beyond its foliage. In early summer, tall, graceful flower stems emerge, carrying delicate oat-like seed heads that sway elegantly above the blue foliage.

These inflorescences begin with a subtle golden hue and gradually fade to warm tan, adding vertical interest and seasonal transition to the planting scheme. Blue Oat grass thrives in full sun and well-draining soils, demonstrating remarkable drought tolerance once established. Its Mediterranean origins make it particularly well-suited to regions with hot, dry summers and mild winters.

This grass requires excellent drainage and can suffer in heavy, clay soils. However, when properly sited, it proves nearly maintenance-free, requiring only annual cleanup of old foliage in late winter.

Blue Oat Grass in the Fall
Matt Lavin | Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Little Bluestem ‘Blaze’

Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Blaze’ represents the pinnacle of ornamental grass breeding, combining the toughness of native Little Bluestem with enhanced ornamental characteristics. This cultivar was specifically selected for its exceptional fall colour, living up to its name with blazing orange-red foliage that provides a spectacular autumn display.

During the growing season, ‘Blaze’ maintains attractive blue-green foliage in upright clumps reaching two to three feet tall. The grass develops a naturally vase-shaped habit that fits into both formal and informal garden designs. In late summer, delicate seed heads appear, creating a soft, hazy effect that adds textural interest without overwhelming the planting.

The true glory of ‘Blaze’ is apparent in autumn when the foliage transforms into brilliant shades of orange, red, and burgundy. This dramatic colour change occurs reliably each year, providing dependable seasonal interest that rivals any deciduous shrub or perennial. The colourful foliage persists well into winter, gradually fading to attractive golden-tan tones that provide structure and interest during the dormant season.

Like its native parent, ‘Blaze’ demonstrates exceptional drought tolerance and adaptability. It thrives in full sun and well-draining soils, handling both clay and sandy conditions with equal success. This grass requires virtually no maintenance once established and proves resistant to pests and diseases.

Little bluestem ‘Blaze’ in fall
Photo by Woodside Plants

These three grasses complement each other beautifully in drought-tolerant plantings. Blue Grama works well as a ground cover or in naturalistic drifts, while Blue Oat grass provides architectural structure and year-round colour. “Blaze” Little Bluestem adds seasonal drama and vertical interest.

Together, they create layered, textural plantings that celebrate the beauty of water-wise gardening while providing habitat for wildlife and reducing landscape maintenance requirements.

In our increasingly water-stressed valley, these xeric grasses prove that sustainable gardening doesn’t require sacrificing beauty but simply requires choosing plants perfectly adapted to our environment.

GARDENING WITH NATURE

Article by Sigrie Kendrick

Living with Deer in the Okanagan

Living in the beautiful Okanagan Valley comes with many perks, but for gardeners, there is one persistent challenge that stands out: marauding deer.

While deer may be lovely to observe from a distance, they can quickly transform a carefully-cultivated garden into their personal buffet. Understanding deer-resistant plants, particularly those suited to our semi-arid climate, can help you create a thriving landscape that both you and the local wildlife can appreciate—each in your own ways.

Deer are opportunistic feeders, but with surprisingly-discerning palates. They typically avoid plants with certain characteristics that make them either unpalatable or difficult to consume.

The most effective deer-resistant plants share common traits: strong fragrances, fuzzy or textured foliage, bitter or toxic compounds, thorny structures, or tough, leathery leaves.

Plants with high essential oil content, such as herbs and aromatics, are particularly unappealing to deer, as their sensitive noses find these scents overwhelming.

It’s important to emphasize that no plant is completely deer-proof. When food sources are scarce, particularly during harsh winters or drought conditions, deer will eat almost anything, a behavior that was especially obvious in West Kelowna gardens since the 2023 McDougall Creek Fire.

I have a client in Casa Loma who has gardened at her property for decades and accepted that the deer would munch on her Bergenia cordifolia flowers, but more recently, both flowers and foliage are missing.

Deer in an urban garden

Deer-Resistant Plants for a Semi-Arid Climate

The Okanagan’s semi-arid climate, characterized by hot, dry summers and relatively mild winters, makes it ideal for xeric plants, those adapted to dry conditions. These water-wise plants not only conserve our precious water resources but often possess natural deer-resistant qualities.

Many xeric plants have evolved tough, waxy, fuzzy or aromatic foliage as adaptations to conserve moisture—characteristics that coincidentally make them less appealing to browsing animals.

Check out the plant database on this website for examples of some plants we’ve found that normally deter deer.

Perennials: Okanagan deer-resistant, xeric perennials include Achillea cultivars (Yarrow), with its ferny foliage and flat-topped flowers in various colours, and Nepeta (Catmint), which produces spikes of blue flowers and aromatic foliage that deer find objectionable.

Lavender stands out as perhaps the perfect Okanagan deer-resistant plant. Its intense fragrance, drought tolerance, and beautiful purple flowers make it both functional and ornamental.

Similarly, Perovskia atriplifolia (Russian sage) offers aromatic silvery foliage and tall spikes of blue flowers while requiring minimal water once established. Both plants thrive in our alkaline soils and intense summer sun.

Ornamental grasses provide excellent deer resistance while adding movement and texture to the landscape. Helictotrichon sempervirens (Blue Oat Grass), Schizachyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem), and Pennisetum alopecuroides (Fountain Grass) all perform well in our climate, requiring little supplemental irrigation after their first year. Their thin, sharp-edged leaves are simply not appealing to deer.

Shrubs: consider Mahonia species, formally Berberis (Barberry) species, which combine drought tolerance with thorny branches that deer actively avoid.

Potentilla fruticosa (Shrubby Cinquefoil) offers bright flowers throughout the summer in shades of yellow, orange, pink, and white while requiring minimal care. Appreciated more for its foliage than its flowers, Sambucus racemosa “Lemony Lace” (Elderberry) offers yellow-green lace-like foliage with highly dissected leaves and, as of yet, has not been browsed by deer in our West Kelowna demonstration garden.

Annuals: Tagetes tenuifolia (Signet Marigolds), Zinnia elegans (Zinnias), and Antirrhinum majus (Snapdragon) provide bright blooms while being generally deer-resistant, though they’ll need a little regular watering in our dry climate.

Lavender

Designing a Water-Wise Garden with Deer-Resistant Plants

Our Plant Database features more than 500 plants tested and ideally suited for the unique challenges of gardening in the Okanagan’s extreme climate. Deer-resistant plants are included.

Sigrie Kendrick is a master gardener and executive-director of the non-profit Okanagan Xeriscape Association.

GARDENING WITH NATURE

Article by Sigrie Kendrick

Think outside the box when prepping for winter

As gardeners, let’s remember to switch up the traditional garden tasks and think in a different direction: perhaps a more environmentally friendly one, that also provides us with more winter garden interest.

For instance, fall is the time of year when ornamental grasses shine. Many are in bloom and at the peak of their beauty.

What poet within us wouldn’t be charmed by the gentle way their graceful seed heads sway in the breeze and dance on the long stalks they’ve been growing all season? Grasses really add movement to your garden—unless you chop them down prematurely.

I recently had the opportunity to consider the importance ornamental grasses hold in our gardens as I cut down literally hundreds of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, commonly known as Feather Reed grass, at a client’s property.

So often clients want their grasses razed to the ground before the onset of winter as they
perceive the standing grasses to be “messy” rather than graceful.

Often, land care providers such as landscapers are all too happy to oblige as that means one less task facing them in the spring.

Instead of this perverse desire to tidy in the fall why not take into consideration all the benefits of leaving ornamental grasses over the winter?

What about ecology?

From an ecological standpoint there also are many reasons to leave your ornamental grasses and your perennials standing over the winter. They provide needed habitat for birds and a myriad of other wildlife, as well as for beneficial insects to overwinter.

The seed heads of ornamental grasses and also annuals and perennials which have gone to seed, provide food for birds, who have to forage widely during the colder months, just to survive. They also provide great erosion prevention and slope stability, especially where wildfire has run through the previous season.

The time to shear your ornamental grasses is when you begin to see new growth at the base sometime in spring. Then, don’t toss out the cut grass. Instead, find a spot in your yard where it will be out of your way, but will provide valuable habitat for beneficial insects.

Perennials can also be pruned in early spring, when new growth begins to be visible, while annuals can be pulled out as soon as the ground softens in late winter or early spring.

Remember too that the fallen leaves from deciduous trees should also be left where they fall, rather than being neatly raked up and composted elsewhere in the fall. Those rotting leaves are like gold to a gardener and they provide habitat for insects and wildlife while they decompose over winter.

They also suppress weed growth and protect the roots of perennials over winter and what’s left can be gently dug into the soil come spring.

So, leave the leaves, don’t mow down the grasses and allow perennials and annuals to go to seed (unless they tend to be invasive!)

Article by Mark Godlewski photos from Bluestem Nursery

• Cool season grasses start growing early in the spring as soon as the ground has thawed and can reach their full height early in the summer.
• Warm season grasses need the soil temperature to get above 20 degrees C and they take until fall to reach full height. If cold weather comes early, they sometimes give up on flowering.

Fig. 1  Evergreen – Blue Oat Grass

Cool season grasses include:

Arrhenatherum – Bulbous oat grass
Calamagrostis – Feather reed grass
Chasmanthium – Northern Sea oats
Deschampsia – Tufted hair grass
Elymus – Wild rye
Koeleria – June grass
Molinia – Moor grass
Poa – Meadow grass
Sesleria – Moor grass
Stipa – Feather grass

The following is an excerpt from the Blue Stem website. This site was put together by Jim Brockmeyer and Muriel Neale as part of a nursery business they were running in Christina Lake, BC. Both have now retired, but their excellent website lives on with funding for the hosting provided by OXA.

Feeding Ornamental Grasses

Instructions regarding the feeding of ornamental grasses are really very simple – don’t do it. Well, actually that is a bit of an exaggeration, but grasses actually prefer to be grown on the lean side. They will be sturdier without the addition of the high-powered nutrients. You may think that fertilizers such as those used on lawns would be appropriate for grasses, however, have you noticed how quickly the lawn grows after fertilizing? Tall-growing ornamental grasses will bolt for the sky and with such rapid growth will be unable to hold themselves up. Result – floppy plants.

Just remember to go easy on organic fertilizers too. On the Garden Web Forum, I have read a tale by an experienced ornamental grass grower who worked a lot of compost into his planting hole. The grasses flopped badly. In comparison, his grasses planted without compost did fine.

The only exception to the rule is Miscanthus. It does better with some extra fertilizer and moisture. The solution to the potential flopping problem is to use organic fertilizers such as well-rotted manure, mushroom manure, compost, leaf mold, etc. What makes organic fertilizers acceptable is that they release their nutrients sloooowly.

I hope I have convinced you? Limit your fertilizing!

Miscanthus Malepartus