grass named ‘Blue Steel’

Latin botanical classification:

Variety denomination: ‘Blue Steel’.

The first offer for sale was privately made to Prides Corner Farm and Overdevest Nurseries, L.P. by Walters Gardens, Inc. on Oct. 15, 2024. Walters Gardens, Inc. obtained the plant and all information relating thereto from the inventor. No plants of‘Blue Steel’ have been sold in this country or anywhere in the world. The offer for sale was within one year from the filing of this application.

‘Blue Steel’, hereinafter also referred to just by the cultivar name ‘Blue Steel’ and the “new plant” is a new and distinct cultivar of Big Bluestem Grass.

The new plant originated as a cross by the inventor of the proprietary unnamed hybrid referenced only by the breeder code ‘20-3-4’ (not patented) with the proprietary unnamed hybrid referenced only by the breeder code 20-42-1 (not patented) at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Michigan in the summer of 2021. The seed was collected in the autumn of 2021 and sown the following spring. The individual seedling was initially selected from among many for further observation in the summer and fall of 2021 at which time it was assigned the breeder code 21-17-17 before assigning the new plant a cultivar name.

The new plant has been successfully asexually propagated by division since late fall of 2022 at the same wholesale perennial plant nursery in Zeeland, MI, and found to produce stable and identical plants that maintain the unique characteristics of the original plant. The plant is stable and reproduces true-to-type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.

‘Blue Steel’ differs from the female parent and male parent in that the new plant is smaller and not as caespitose as either.

The nearest comparison varieties known to the inventor are: ‘Big Daddy’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,162, ‘Blackhawks’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 27,949, and ‘Indian Warrior’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,999.

‘Big Daddy’ is significantly taller and broader in habit. ‘Blackhawks’ has a slightly taller more columnar and tighter rhizomatous habit and the foliage turns a more complete purplish-grey earlier in the season with more greyish-purple panicles. ‘Indian Warrior’ has a taller habit and the summer foliage is darker green and less bluish-green.

The new plant is shorter and more broadly rhizomatous than either of these known comparison cultivars.

The following traits of‘Blue Steel’, in combination, have been repeatedly observed in multiple generations of asexually propagated plants and distinguish the new plant from all other Big Bluestem Grass plants known to the inventor:

The following descriptions and color references are based on the 2015 edition of The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart except where common dictionary terms are used. The new plant, ‘Blue Steel’, has not been observed in all possible environments. The phenotype may vary slightly with different environmental conditions, such as temperature, light, fertility, moisture, and maturity levels, but without any change in the genotype. The following observations and descriptions are of a four-year-old plant in a loamy-sand trial garden of a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Michigan, USA, grown in full sun with supplemental water and fertilizer as needed.