Blue Grama

Name: Blue Grama
Brand: Outdoor Dream Builders

Bouteloua gracilis

A fast-growing native grass with charming eyelash-shaped seedheads, ideal for meadow-style plantings.

One of the hardiest native grasses, thriving in USDA zones 3-10; it goes winter-dormant with frost and greens with warmth, tolerating both hard cold and extreme low-desert heat and drought.

AMWUA Notes

A premier very low-water native turf alternative; a single late-winter cutback is essentially all the care it needs.

Care Guide

💧Watering

Water every 2-3 weeks in summer once established; extremely drought tolerant and needs almost no supplemental water outside the warm season.

✂️Pruning

Mow or shear the stand back to a few inches in late winter to clear old dormant blades before spring green-up; if used as a meadow lawn it can be mowed high a few times a season.

🌱Fertilizing

Requires no fertilizer in native soils; heavy feeding is unnecessary and unwanted.

🛡️Pests

Essentially pest-free; the pollen is a mild seasonal allergen.

☀️Seasonal Notes

Charming eyelash- or comb-shaped seedheads held horizontally appear in summer, then the warm-season grass turns tan and dormant over winter, greening again in spring.

Soil, Feeding & Propagation

🪨Soil

Grows in lean, well-drained sandy, rocky, or clay-loam soils; very tolerant of poor and alkaline desert ground.

💧Drainage

Needs well-drained soil.

🌱Nutrient Needs

None — thrives in lean desert soil without fertilizer.

🌰Propagation

Seed, or division of clumps in spring.

📐Spacing

1-1.5 ft on center, closer as a native lawn alternative (2 ft mature width)

🌳Roots & Placement

Non-invasive clumping and sod-forming roots; a well-behaved native turf substitute.

Placement Tips

•Space 12-18 in apart, or plant densely as a low-water native lawn alternative that needs little mowing.
•Use in meadow masses and prairie-style plantings mixed with desert wildflowers.
•Ideal for unirrigated buffer zones where a conventional lawn would be wasteful.
•Give full sun; cut back once in late winter before new growth emerges.