‘Karl Foerster’ Feather Reed Grass
Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'
4 feet high x 2 feet wide
Zone 4
Full Sun to Part Sun
-This eastern native grass grows like a tower, the narrow dark green leaves topped with frothy wheat colored blooms in early summer. Who would ever guess that it had to go to Europe to be found and brought back as a sterile hybrid? No need to clip seed heads to prevent seedlings. Great for adding height to the garden!
Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:
These truly xeric plants can live with our 12 inches of natural annual precipitation and only need a winter watering during a multi-year drought, but they will thrive with a monthly watering. Overwatering will kill some of these. These plants are adapted to intermittent deep
watering with soil drying to a depth of a few inches between waterings. Watering frequency may be every couple of weeks during the active growing season and maybe only one winter watering for optimal care. These plants need regular watering somewhat like a bluegrass lawn so that
they never dry to depth in the root system during the active growing season, and need occasional winter watering to prevent root dessication and resultant plant
death. About sizes of our plants:
Sizes indicated with a # are roughly the equivalent in gallonage; so a #2 is about a 2 gallon pot size; b&b stands for balled and burlapped.