Texas Gardening: Gardening with Texas Native plants @ Wildflowers. Part 3., 1 by krazyrabbit

krazyrabbit wrote:
John, I have just done some major research on Buffalo Grass. B grass needs full sun, at least 7-8 hours, not shade tolerant at all. There are several varieties, (609, Legacy & Prestige), that have been developed by the University of Nebraska that are premium turf grass. These apparently stay green longer in the fall, and green up earlier in the spring.

I got some a few answers about growing Buffalo grass from my native plants instructor at SMU:

Growing from seed. His answer: Pretty slow to fill in and you will get the male plants with the taller heads. If you don't mind the way the male plants look and are patient, this is the most affordable way to grow this grass.

I asked this question to an employee at Todd Valley Farms, one of the distributors of University of Nebraska buffalo grass: What is the difference between Legacy and Prestige?

Her answer: Legacy was developed for the Northern 2/3 of the United States for its cold hardiness, but will still grow very well in the South. The Prestige is more resistant to chinch bugs and that is a bigger problem in the South, so therefore the Prestige would be better for the Southern climate. As far as looks, they are almost exact matches. Both of these grasses are all female, so no male seed heads, and they are only available as plugs or sod.

Last weekend I visited a house in Dallas that was featured in Fine Gardening this month for the xeriscape landscaping. They have 609 buffalograss planted in the front, it is very pretty. I’m trying to link a picture, so we’ll see how it works.

So, I’ve decided to try the Prestige variety in my front yard, in the berm area. I will let anyone know how it goes if you are interested!

Karen