I am getting the gardening bug big time and decided to look around GW. I saw your post and it made to curious because I thought most if not all grasses had to be bought as plants because the seeds are either near sterile or don't grow true. I have also never heard of the grass liners you wrote about. Can you tell me more about those? Thanks!

Chey

Growers sell grasses as plugs (small seedlings or divisions) for nurseries. I bought my plugs/liners from perennialmarket.com in Ambler, PA. PM was recommended in threads here at the GW.

PC

I love to garden for wildlife (birds, pollinators, toads, insects, etc.), and so naturally became interested in native wildflowers and grasses. I started winter-sowing this year for the first time so I could start lots of species from seed (cheaper and fun). I'll be planting them in the gardens, woodland, and in a small meadow area in the back of my lot.

Late March/early April I'll winter-sow the following grasses:

Androgopon gerardii - Big bluestem
Bouteloua curtipendula - Side oats Grama
Chasmanthium latifolium - Northern sea oats
Lagurus ovatus - Bunny tails
Schizochyrium scoparium - Little bluestem
Sorghastrum nutans - Indian grass

Anybody have any tips on winter-sowing grasses? I have searched through past posts and been hoping that Donn would show up. I was planning to sow plugs of grasses in soda bottles, using a little hunk of seeds in each.

Dear Terrene,

I have a shade section in my garden - it's native plants including native shade grasses and sedges.

Bottlebrush Grass
Canadian Wild Rye
Woodland Brome

These three (especially the Brome) wintersow very easily. The Rye and Brome do need a decent area to spread about but they are all beautiful and graceful in a way that the Asian grasses can't compete with. Absolutely beautiful to watch on a breezy day.

I too also have lots of the N. Sea Oats.

The native Burr Sedge (Carex grayii) has large seed heads and will often self-seed as well over the winter. I just cut back the sedge in Jan to early March and scatter the seedheads. It will take part shade to full sun.