Helictotrichon sempervirens, Blue Oat Grass

Powdery blue-gray narrow blades are topped with buff-yellow 2-foot tall seed heads late in the season. An ever-blue-gray presence for the winter landscape with a strong rounded form, this one keeps its shape. Whereas fescues (another blue-gray rounded grass) might be used en masse as a texture, Blue Oat Grass, larger and with a more solid form, is more likely to be used as one would use a shrub—as an accent, a rhythmic device in the garden, or a sculptural form.

Minimum temperature: -30° F