Uses: Lawns, Athletic Fields, Commercial, Golf Course, High Maintenance. Ideal in Sun.
Identification: A dense, sod forming, long-lived, perennial cool season grass that is winter hardy. Plants spread by rhizomes. Leaf texture is boat shaped to the tip and has a folded leaf vernation (stem) with a smooth top side and a dull underside.
Establishment: Is slow to germinate and slow to establish. Aggressive to spread and fill in once established.
Alexa Kentucky Bluegrass
Midnight Type
First place in turf quality 2000 NTEP Kentucky Bluegrass trials.
Very dark green variety
Exellent winter-hardiness and persistence
Resistant to Leaf Spot, Summer Patch, Stripe Smut, Dollar Spot, and Fusarium Blight
Diva Kentucky Bluegrass
Compact Type
Best spring green-up rating across 25 U.S. locations
Strong disease resistance and winter survival
High stress and wear tolerance
Improved dark green color
Apollo Kentucky Bluegrass
America Type
Strong overall performance, top performer in Overall Quality in 1997 NTEP
Exceptional dark green color, excellent fall color retention
Fine leaf texture with excellent spring density
Strong drought tolerance
Persists under low height of cut
Dragon Kentucky Bluegrass
BVMG Type
Genetic dark green color excellent choice for mixtures
Excellent resistance to some of the major turf grass diseases–dollar spot, Crown rust, Snow mold
One of the highest scoring varieties in the 1997 NTEP trials for overall quality category.
Superior heat tolerance combined with fast establishment and strong wear tolerance make it an excellent choice for sport fields or other high traffic areas
Eagleton Kentucky Bluegrass
Mid-Atlantic Type
Deep, extensive roots and rhizomes
Genetic resistance to sod webworm
Great traffic and wear tolerance
Ginney Kentucky Bluegrass
Midnight Type
Extensive rhizome system and dark green color
Strong winter survival and quick spring green-up
Short plant height that tolerates very low mowing
Excellent high traffic and wear tolerance
Guinness Kentucky Bluegrass
Shamrock Type
Fast establishment
Best spring green-up of improved varieties
Resistant to stripe smut and leaf spot
Hunnington Kentucky Bluegrass
Mid-Atlantic Type
Deep, extensive roots and rhizomes
Genetic resistance to heat and stress
Newest "Mid-Atlantic type"
Resistant to stripe smut and leaf spot
Mystere Kentucky Bluegrass
America Type
Compact dwarf growth
Fine bladed, dark green
New and inproved "America Type"
Excellent spring green up for an improved "America Type"
Preakness Kentucky Bluegrass
Mid-Atlantic Type
Time honored and tested across the U.S. and Canada
Exhibits genetic resistance to heat and stress
Resistant to leat spot and summer patch
Princeton 105 Kentucky Bluegrass
Compact type
Highly aggressive, rapid recovery from wear
Low-growth habit allows for improved performance at lower mowing heights needed on sports fields and golf course fairways (to 1 inch).
Deep green color with medium blade width.
Award Kentucky Bluegrass
Midnight Type
High density at fairway clipping heights (under 1 inch)
Intense dark green color - darker green than other bluegrasses
Fine textured, upright leaves
Excellent leafspot resistance
Excellent spring and summer disease resistance
Rambo Bluegrass
America type
Rambo greens up quickly in the spring and develops a very dense turf. . .one of the densest varieties in spring, summer and fall.
Rambo performs well at all mowing heights and tolerates low mowing heights (0.5-1.0 in.) better than Midnight or Liberator. Truly one of the best “close cut” Bluegrasses available.
Rambo is a very fine textured, extremely dense, luxurious dark green Kentucky Bluegrass that ranked in the top 1/3 of the 1998 progress report.
Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass
Midnight type
A very dark blue-green color
Dwarf growth habit
Very high tiller density
Strong overall disease resistance
Good tolerance to low mowing
Atlantis Kentucky Bluegrass
BVMG & Shamrock type
Wide genetic base provides versatility under a wide range of soil and climactic conditions
Great choice for low maintenance situations
Very cold hardy with fast spring green-up
Excellent late spring and summer turf and color
Famous Kentucky Bluegrass
BVMG type
Outstanding winter hardiness with fast spring green-up
High disease resistance to leaf rust, leaf spot, fusarium patch and snow mold
Strong wear tolerance and performs well under low cut situations
Sonic Kentucky Bluegrass
Improved Common Type
The newest generation of fast establishing type Bluegrass
Fine leaf texture and strong disease package
Extensive rhizome system forms a well-knot, durable sod
Kentucky Bluegrass Descriptions
Aggressive Type
This group is recognized for its aggressive lateral growth habit and development of a turf with very high shoot density.Examples are limousine, Julius, P-104 and Touchdown.
America Type
Within the Compact Type a number of varieties exhibit growth and performance similar to America.These varieties have fine leaf texture and higher tiller density than other compact type varieties.America types in contrast to Midnight compact types have good resistance to powder mildew.
Bellevue Type
Turf with medium to low growth, medium to wide leaves and medium density.Excellent cool-season vigor exists in this group, which is evident by excellent color retention and turf quality during winter and early spring green-up.This group has good recovery to summer stress, good resistance to stripe smut disease but is highly susceptible to bill bug damage.
BVMG Type
Baron, Victa, Merit, Gnome types:This group has high seed yield potential and generally produces medium to good quality turf in the absence of stripe smut.The BVMG types generally are very stemmy in early spring.This group also has poor winter color, long winter dormancy and suffers from significant billbug damage.
CELA Type
Challenger, Eclipse, Liberty, Adelphi
Cheri Type
They will produce a turf of medium-low growth and medium density with medium wide leaves.These cultivars have moderate resistance to stripe smut and are moderately susceptible to dollar spot.Seed yield potential of these cultivars is relatively high.
Common Type
Generally erect growing types with narrow leaf blades.All common types are susceptible to leaf spot disease and may be extensively damaged by this disease during the cool, humid conditions of winter and spring.
Compact Type
Low compact growth and good leaf spot resistance.This group has long winter dormancy (except P-105) and good stripe smut resistance.Examples are:Diva, Moonlight, P-105, Blackstone, Apex, Glade & Alpine.
Julia Type
These cultivars are a high quality turf, but have moderate winter performance.They also exhibit good resistance to leaf spot but can be damaged significantly by brown patch.
Mid-Atlantic Type
This group forms vigorous turf of medium density with deep, extensive root and rhizome system.This group has moderate susceptibility to leaf spot, but has excellent ability to recover from leaf spot and other stress due to the deep extensive rhizomes system.This gourp has great tolerance to heat and summer stress. Examples: Eagleton, Preakness, and Livingston.
Midnight
Within the Compact Type family, this group has very long winter dormancy, late spring green-up, very dark green turf color, good heat tolerance, but are susceptible to powdery mildew. Examples are: Ginney, Alexa, Midnight, NuGlade, Quantum Leap, Total Eclipse, Award and others.
Shamrock Type
Similar to the BVMG types with high seed yield potential, but unlike the BVMG types, Shamrock types exhibit good resistance to stripe smut. Examples: Guinness, Champagne, Brooklawn.
