Sesleria 'Greenlee' - 3 Greenlee Moor Grasses Planted in Front - October 2023

Fall Planting 2023 will go down as a big moment in our garden.  That is...as long as everything that I'm putting in makes it through the Winter.  I'm getting to this stuff pretty late in the growing season, so I a little bit of hesitancy in proclaiming that all of these will make it.  Last year, with the huge mass of Autumn Ferns that I planted late and didn't come back have scarred me a bit. 

That fear didn't stop me from adding three more new (to me) plants on the same trip to The Growing Place.  I was wandering around the grass area and came across these small quart-sized grasses you see above.  Short in nature.  Nice seed heads.  I pulled out the plant tag and see this below from Hocus Pocus Groundcovers:  Sesleria 'Greenlee Hybrid' - Greenlee's Moor Grass.

Thanks to the Front Porch bed exploration from earlier this year, I was somewhat familar with some Seslerias and ended up buying and planting a number of Seslaria Autumnalis from Northwind.  They've done REALLY well, so I was naturally drawn to see what the story with these Greenlee Seslarias were about.  

Here, below, is the container showing an $8 price.  50% off, makes these just four bucks - a deal worth looking at, in my mind.

Like with most new (to me) plants, I went to look at Roy Diblik's "Appropriate Plant List" and sure enough...Greenlee Seslaria is on his list.   A look at some listings online - like this one from Hoffman Nursery - tell the story of this small grass.  From Hoffman Nursery:

The foliage has the blue-green cast of S. heufleriana. It grows in a small mound that is taller than S. caerulea, but shorter and denser than S. autumnalis. Delicate blooms rise above the foliage in midsummer. ‘Greenlee Hybrid’ tolerates light shade and even appreciates cover during the hottest part of the day.

These are easy to find a home in our garden - due to their small size.  The fact that they're marketed by a groundcover company is a nice little tell, too - as the back of the tag reads; "They cover like Magic!".  

I opted to put these in a row, right next to the recently planted Stachys Hummelo that I put in front of the Little Henry Sweetspire.  These are planted to the south of those and start to wrap around that bed - and (now) front the tiny Saratoga Ginkgo tree that is tucked in there, too.

Below is a photo showing both the Greenlee Moor Grasses and the pair of Stachys Origininalis 'Hummelo' that are right up next to the driveway.  By tucking them in front of these shrubs, I'm hoping that they'll get a little bit of shade during the hottest part of the day - once the sun moves backwards in the afternoon. 

This bed is just getting started and being full sun...opens up a whole world of possibilities for 2024 and beyond.  

My 2023 Fall Planting List - so far - includes a number of new and divided plants.

Now up to 28 new plants.  3 new via division.  31 total for 2023 #FallPlanting.

• Five divided Everillo Sedges - Carex Everillo - from one sedge with Center rot in the backyard.
• A Sempervivum ‘Hopewell’ - a succulent-looking Chicks and Hens planted down by the sidewalk - IB2DWs. 
• Two Sedum spurium 'Voodoo' - IB2DWs - to attempt to outcompete the Creeping Jenny.
• Split three Elijah Blue Fescue clumps into six - IB2DWs along the driveway.
• A single Burgundy Glow Ajuga along the driveway IB2DWs.  Lots of groundcover IB2DWs, this Fall.
• Eight Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' planted - five in the island bed.  Three along south front porch bed border. 
• A Cardoon - IB2DWs - that I'm not sure is going to make it.  I'm going to mulch it in VERY heavily this Winter. 
• Two Silver Mound Artemisias planted IB2DWs - close to the current planted bed. 
• A dwarf, fern-like shrub:  Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea planted in the front porch bed. 
• Three Pentsemon 'Midnight Masquerade' dark foliage perennials planted in the new/extended IB2DWs bed.  
• Two Stachys monieri 'Hummelo' plants, in the front yard by the Sweetspire. 
• Three Greenlee Moor Grasses - Sesleria Greenlee Hybrid in front of the Sweetspire shrubs in front.