Blue-Eyed Grass

I planted five little blue-eyed “grass” plants yesterday. Turns out this perennial is NOT a grass, but a form of iris.

I saw what I think is this plant in the rotary planting area of a Rifle Range road rotary near me. It’s low, and the little blue-violet blooms are so sweet. I’m pretty sure it is a variant of blue-eyed grass, but I am not dead sure. It turns out there ARE various forms of it. And if “they” are planting it in a rotary center, it’s hardy. Plus, it will spread. The “leaves” look like mondo grass–spiky and short. Turns out mondo grass is a lily relative, not a true grass either.

BUT, I couldn’t find any blue-eyed grass plants locally, so I ordered 5 little plants from Amazon to try them out–and planted them in the round curve of the bed border on the left side of the front of the house–where the bed turns to go along the long side of the house where I’ve planted so many plants now. (Those plants are blooming and filling in that bed beautifully now, and I may bore you with pics soon.)

Who knew Amazon sold plants? Son Michael says he’s been ordering plants from Amazon for some time. And I can tell you they came BEAUTIFULLY packed and were really healthy.

Here’s a description of blue-eyed “grass”–and there are pictures of this perennial at this site:

“Despite its common name, blue-eyed grass is not a grass. The genus Sisyrinchium is a large group of annuals and perennials in the iris family (Iridaceae). But many species are low growing with narrow leaves that appear grass-like and many grow in grasslands. All are native to North or South America. Most are not well known and only a few are used as ornamentals. The taxonomy of the group is quite confused, so the number of species varies from 50 to 150, depending on which classification system is used. Some species have many natural variants that were likely mis-named as species – so more research is needed to figure out the true relationships.” (From Wisconsin Horticulture web site: https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/blue-eyed-grass-sisyrinchium/ )

And here are some images of various forms of this plant:

The plant I ordered is the “Lucerne” variant. The one in the rotary has flowers that are low to the ground and don’t seem to have the higher stem that Lucerne has. It is probably a variant.

Maybe someday I’ll get a better picture of the plants in the rotary–when there is no traffic.

Fat chance of that though!

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium