Fescue: 7 ideas for successful plant pairings

In dry rockery

You can mix fescue, for example, with groundcover plants such as the Stachys byzantina, the Senecio cineraria, Artemisia alba, lavender, rosemary, Montpellier soapwort, Erigeron karvinskianus, the Stipa pennata, Thymus capitatus and Gypsophila repense, attractive low-growing plants that enjoy the same warm, sunny conditions and also tolerate summer drought. A golden, luminous variety such as Festuca glauca ‘Golden Toupee’ will be perfect in a rockery to create foliage contrast.

Festuca ‘Golden Toupee’, lavender, rosemary, Thymus capitatus and Stachys byzantina

Naturalistic planting

Plant for dry, sunny sites par excellence, Fescue surrounds itself with equally undemanding plants that prefer well-draining soil such as Eryngium, armoises, Agastache, Lavender. Festuca mairei forming a large clump up to 70 cm high will easily find its place in a border. Festuca amethystina, with its pretty bluish tint and lightness, will also bring a very natural feel to borders. Both adapt perfectly to natural-style gardens, alongside yellow achilleas with which they contrast. You can mix fescues with Gauras and Buenos Aires verbenas, a fairly classic but effective combination in a small border. If you have more space, add other grasses such as its elegant cousin, Stipa pennata or Pennisetums.

Planted in small groups, fescues provide a setting for colourful summer flowering of Echinaceas, Heleniums or Kniphofia, offering contrast or tempering overly bright hues.

With their superb metallic-blue foliage, Festuca glauca plants combine beautifully with pastel shades — mauve, pink, white — and look striking planted at base of roses, or surrounded by gypsophilas.

Festuca glauca, Verbena bonariensis, Gaura, Pennisetum, Eryngium

At the edge

Choose compact varieties, such as Festuca valesiaca ‘Glaucantha’ or Festuca ‘Elijah Blue’, their slightly bristly, mat-forming habit making them particularly suited to this use. They form small, very dense, rounded tufts in shades of grey-green to steel-blue. In a border, mix them with fountain grass, Sedum spathulifolium ‘Cape Blanco’, santoline, Dianthus plumarius, Corsican euphorbias (Euphorbia myrsinites). They also form a magnificent pairing with Elymus magellanicus and Stipa tenuifolia and Stipa pennata.

Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Cassian’, Santoline, Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’, Euphorbia myrsinites, Dianthus plumarius

In a mineral or dry garden

Fescues fit easily into a dry, mineral-dominated Mediterranean garden. The metallic sheen of their leaves allows blue fescues to be paired with other plants bearing bluish-grey or silvery leaves such as the Stachys byzantina, Senecio cineraria, Cynara cardunculus, santolina, Echinops and Salvia argentea. Also consider creeping rosemary and thymes, laying pale gravel or pumice around your plants. In a scree garden, for a more restrained composition, simply surround them with other grasses such as the Canche flexueuse, Pennisetum and Stipa gigantea.

Thymus, Cynara cardunculus, Festuca valesiaca ‘Glaucantha’, Salvia argentea, Echinops

In a contemporary garden

In a very contemporary spirit, you can create small, very graphic scenes with other plants from dry mediums such as Agaves of medium size, a Helictotrichon sempervirens ‘Pendula’, opuntias, columnar cacti, Stipa barbata and Stipa pennata ssp pulcherrima. For a modern, exotic look, you can also pair it with succulent plants such as Cylindropuntia imbricata. In a contemporary garden, surround the composition with a sea of white pebbles.

Helictotrichon, Cylindropuntia imbricata, Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’, Agave havardiana, Stipa barbata

Groundcover

Planted in large drifts, some fescues also make good groundcover. Festuca gautieri in particular can even provide an alternative to lawn on dry soil in areas not too heavily trodden, forming pretty little emerald‑green cushions. In solid drifts it forms a thick, dense tapetum, green all year round, limiting proliferation of adventive plants. It can be paired with other vigorous mat‑forming plants such as Achillea crithmifolia, Erigeron karvinskianus, Nepeta x faassenii, Thymus (hirsutus, ciliatus).

Erigerons karvinskianus, Thymus hirsutus, Festuca gautieri, Nepeta faassenii, Achillea crithmifolia

Potted

In pots, a few clumps of fescues help lighten certain flower compositions when paired with small lavenders, penstemons, a sowing of Californian poppies, or better with Osteospermums and Sedum cauticola ‘Lidakense’. A clump of fescue can fill the base of a small palm such as Chamaerops humilis ‘Compacta’ (var. compacta) or Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera with bluish foliage, or even a Vatricania guentheri or candelabra cactus.

Penstemons, Californian poppy, Festuca valesiaca ‘Glaucantha’, lavender, Osteospermums