Sand Fescue Seeds (Festuca ammobia)

A beautiful blue/green/grey low maintenance turf and ornamental grass.

Native to the Pacific Coast (from British Columbia to Mexico), sand fescue is a fine textured and long-lived ground cover that is a useful and charming grass for wild lawns, vineyards and orchards, pet areas, septic drainfields, xeriscaping and rock gardens – and for incorporating into meadows to add visually striking texture.

Spreading slowly from rhizomes, this is a loose, tufting grass with highly variable color – ranging from deep pure green to a blue-grey (dependent upon the individual plant and environmental factors such as dryness and shade). As the “sand” part of its common name suggests, this species establishes excellently in sharply drained sites (consisting of sand and gravel), but it also has good tolerance for clay and silt soils, and for low soil fertility.

As a fine-leaved fescue, this grass combines well with similar species (red fescue, Molate native red fescue, Roemer’s fescue, western fescue, hard fescue, etc.), and with various other species suitable for creating mowable “wild lawn” type plantings: seashore bentgrass, poverty oatgrass, prairie junegrass, meadowfoam, yaak yarrow, self heal, Chamisso sedge, blue eyed grass, golden-eyed grass, creeping thyme, wild blue flax, and various clover species.

This grass is a caterpillar host plant for various skipper butterflies, including the sandhill skipper (Polites sabuleti), Sonora skipper (Polites sonora), Lindsey’s skipper (Hesperia lindseyi), western banded skipper (Hesperia colorado), and woodland skipper (Ochlodes sylvanoides).

Seeding Rates: 14-grams (approx. 3000 to 6000 seeds) can form a solid turf on about 100 to 200 square feet when mixed with an inert bulking material and evenly spread across bare soil. In combination with other the seed of other grass and wildflower species in new plantings, sow at a total rate of 60 to 100 seeds per square foot for best effect.

Packet Size: 14 grams (Approximately 3000 to 6000 seeds).