The 2012 ASHS Annual Conference

Although native and ornamental grasses provide year-long beauty and interest to landscapes in a wide range of growing conditions and require little maintenance, many homeowners and grounds managers in North Dakota hesitate to use them because of a misconception that they cannot survive our harsh winter conditions.  In July, 2010, sixty seven ornamental grass species and cultivars were planted in field trials in Fargo in Fargo silty clay and Mandan in sandy loam to evaluate their cold hardiness in zone 4a.  Grasses were arranged in a complete randomized block design with three replications and planted in blocks of small, medium and large according to mature height to avoid shading of smaller plants.  After two growing seasons and one winter, data revealed significant growth, quality and vigor differences within year, species, year x species, location, location x species, and rep (location x year).