Lakeshore Garden Centres Plant Finder

Other Names:  Uniola latifolia

Description:

This dwarf cultivar is known for its lovely bamboo-like foliage and showy seed heads that mature to a purple-bronze color; a nice accent when left on through the winter; drought tolerant once established; use for flower arrangements

Ornamental Features

Little Tickler Dwarf Northern Sea Oats is primarily grown for its highly ornamental fruit. It produces abundant clusters of coppery-bronze hop-like fruit from late summer to late fall. It attractive grassy leaves are light green in colour. As an added bonus, the foliage turns a gorgeous coppery-bronze in the fall. The brick red stems can be quite attractive.

Landscape Attributes

Little Tickler Dwarf Northern Sea Oats is an herbaceous perennial grass with a shapely form and gracefully arching stems. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Little Tickler Dwarf Northern Sea Oats is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Little Tickler Dwarf Northern Sea Oats will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity extending to 24 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It is quite adaptable, prefering to grow in average to wet conditions, and will even tolerate some standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selection of a native North American species.

Little Tickler Dwarf Northern Sea Oats is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It can be used either as 'filler' or as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, depending on the height and form of the other plants used in the container planting. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden. Be aware that in our climate, most plants cannot be expected to survive the winter if left in containers outdoors, and this plant is no exception. Contact our experts for more information on how to protect it over the winter months.

This plant is not reliably hardy in our region, and certain restrictions may apply; contact the store for more information.