When Marvel Comic's Stan Lee and Jack Kirby named the Silver Surfer, I think their original intention was to dub him "The Glaucus Surfer", as an off-shoot from the entity 'Galactus' with whom the surfer first bargained with on the planet Zenn-la. But that didn't have quite the right punch. "Blue Surfer" made him sound like some Hawaiian shirt wearing beach bum with gorgeous wind-swept hair. And "Shiny Surfer" was just stupid. So they settled on Silver Surfer, which I suppose is a good name considering he is entire body is colored silver. And indeed, he's a very well developed character; cool headed, hard and handsome, un-needing of water, able to survive in environments like hyper space and black holes, and able to detect and manipulate energy and matter at a sub-atomic particle scale. But it turns out Stan and Jack could have saved themselves a whole lotta trouble creating such a character, because one already exists. It is cool colored, hard abd handsome, needs very little water, able to survive in desolate environments in the suburbs AND the city, and is... able to detect and manipulate... sub-atomic... hmm.
Well its everything else on the list, and I think that's pretty good. Prepare a spot for the new Silver Surfer; Festuca glauca, the Blue Fescue.
Now I admit Blue Fescue is really a pretty common plant for the designed landscape because its list of features is so extensive, and since I have a tendency to choose weirder, more peculiar horticultural oddities, you may think I'm just getting lazy. But riddle me this: how many grasses are compact and clumpy, great looking year round, require very little water, can be planted anywhere, even in rock gardens, and have a cool blue coloring? This selection is the real deal, so get off the high horse and let's talk fescue. Now you should be aware, there are a great many "fescues", many of which are used as turf grasses because they are tough and tolerant cool season grasses. This isn't one of those fescues. The tall blue spikes of Blue Fescue grow in a clump or mounding habit rather than sprawling across a bowling green. The species name "Glauca" comes from the grey-blue powder that forms on the foliage, a condition called "Glaucus" in Latin. As a landscape color, use this to your advantage to create and punctuate a soft or cool color palette of other whites and silvers. Dark foliaged ground covers can also look excellent growing under fescue clumps.
Height wise, Festuca glauca should reach about a foot in height, and to maintain vibrancy of its glaucus color would prefer to get sun every day. Another plant selected for xeriscaping, Blue Fescue has a low water dependency and can survive all year without ever seeing a sprinkler. Many folks find the first year of a fescue planting to be extraordinarily rewarding visually, and assume that every year will remain just as handsome. They then find that the dead foliage from the year before is seemingly impaled and unmoving from the clump, leaving a dead jumbly mess. Make sure to sheer the dead out of your fescue clumps annually to ensure consistent results. Think of it as a trade off from watering. Inflorescence wise, the seed heads of this particular grass are not great to look at, and can actually detract from the effect most clumps are planted to achieve. Feel free to lop these off at your leisure. These will remain hardy in Zones 4-8, but should not be planted in areas where they will become or remain very wet regardless of Zone.
There's very little, save the ability to detect and manipulate energy and matter at a sub-atomic particle scale, to seperate Festuca glauca from the Silver Surfer. Don't get me wrong, in a battle I still definitely choose Silver Surfer. But why would he fight a plant? The very idea is ludicrous unless it's that man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors. In the garden, every time I'd choose Blue Fescue, every time. Every time.
photo credit:
1] http://wemadethis.typepad.com/we_made_this/images/silversurfer.jpg
2] http://edenmakersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/footpath.jpg
3] http://www.thompson-morgan.com/medias/sys_tandm/8796381577246.jpg
4] http://edenmakersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/footpath.jpg
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