Festuca gigantea Seeds | Giant Fescue
LATIN NAME: Festuca gigantea
COMMON NAME: Giant Fescue
Plant Profile
A distinctive member of its genus, Giant Fescue (Festuca gigantea) is a tall, tufted, perennial in the grass family (Poaceae). Over time it grows a compact, rounded bush, to about twelve metres. Full sun suits it best, with ordinary, well-drained ground. Together these qualities explain its long-standing appeal to gardeners.
Science & Biotechnology
As part of the grass family, Festuca gigantea contributes to research on plant classification and adaptation, while nurseries and gardeners continue to trial it for cultivation. Giant fescue has a real and distinguished place in the research. Raising it from seed today is a matter of ordinary good practice rather than specialist skill.
Uses & Benefits
Giant Fescue brings genuine presence to the garden and earns its keep across the growing season. Ecologically, giant fescue is a generous grass of the garden. Its tall, upright, open, nodding heads of small spikelets feed seed-eating birds, and its fine, tufted, leafy growth gives a fine, green cover to shaded bank and wild garden. It is a grass of shaded, gentle kind. After the first season it asks for very little beyond a place that suits it.
Fescues are the backbone of fine lawns and upland pasture, and their roots host the alkaloid chemistry that makes endophyte research a whole field of forage science.
Growing from Seed
Giant Fescue grows readily from seed. Sow the seed evenly over the surface and cover lightly, using a loose, well-drained seed compost, and keep it just moist in full sun until the seedlings are well up. Move strong seedlings into individual pots, keep them in good light, and set them out when the weather and their size agree.
Our Take
Giant Fescue repays a little patience at sowing time with plenty of garden presence later.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Giant Fescue often pair it with these related subjects: