Little Bluestem
Schizachyrium scoparium
A native bunchgrass and Perennial Plant of the Year with fine blue-green summer leaves that turn warm copper in fall and hold that colour all winter, with fluffy seed heads, lovely massed. It thrives in lean, dry, sunny ground, clay included, and deer leave it alone. Cut it back each late winter.
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- Mature size
- 3 × 2.5 ft
- 0.9 × 0.7 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
- Blooms
- Aug–Nov
- Fall color Sep–Nov
Little Bluestem at its mature size
A mature Little Bluestem grows 2 to 4 feet tall and 1.5 to 3 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Little Bluestem looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Feb
Faded russet-tan, still upright.
Below ground · Mar–Apr
Cut back; new shoots barely out of the ground.
In leaf · May–Aug
Narrow upright clump of blue-green leaves.
Fall · Sep–Nov
Coppery orange-bronze with fluffy silvery-white seed tufts.
Photos
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Growing Little Bluestem
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Plains and Mountain West.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Drought tolerant, deer resistant, fall color, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Little Bluestem, that’s about 2.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Little Bluestem in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other bluestems
Little Bluestem
Big BluestemAll drawn to the same scale.