San Marcos Growers LogoSan Marcos Growers
Home Products Purchase Gardens About Us Resources Contact Us
Nursery Closure
Search Utilities
Plant Database
Search Plant Name
Detail Search Avanced Search Go Button
Search by size, origins,
details, cultural needs
Website Search Search Website GO button
Search for any word
Site Map
Retail Locator
Plant Listings

PLANT TYPE
PLANT GEOGRAPHY
PLANT INDEX
ALL PLANT LIST
PLANT IMAGE INDEX
PLANT INTROS
SPECIALTY CROPS
NEW  2026 PLANTS

LIVE AVAILABILITY
  for JUNE


Natives at San Marcos Growers
Succulents at San Marcos Growers
 Weather Station

 
Products > Festuca californica 'Willit's Giant'
 
Festuca californica 'Willit's Giant' - Giant California Fescue

Note: This plant is no longer in stock. This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  

 
Habit and Cultural Information
Category: Grass
Family: Poaceae (Gramineae) (Grasses)
Origin: California (U.S.A.)
California Native (Plant List): Yes
Evergreen: Yes
Flower Color: Pink
Bloomtime: Summer
Height: 2-3 feet
Width: 2-3 feet
Exposure: Sun or Shade
Summer Dry: Yes
Deer Tolerant: Yes
Irrigation (H2O Info): Low Water Needs
Winter Hardiness: 0-10° F
Festuca californica 'Willit's Giant' (Giant California Fescue) - Evergreen clumping grass forms a 3 foot tall and wide mound of blue-green leaves. In summer appear the elegant flower stalks rising to 5 to 6 feet tall holding dangling spikelets of pink-tinged flowers on arching stems in an open inflorescence. Plant in full sun to light shade and irrigate occasionally, infrequently to not at all. It is tolerant of a wide variety of soil types and is drought tolerant, particularly in shade plantings but looks best with an occasional watering, particularly in dry winter rainfall years. For the coast it is evergreen and in colder areas it is considered root hardy to around 0° F and useful down to USDA Zone 8. California fescues are noted to be pretty resistant to deer predation and great for massed plantings, slope stabilization and for planting as an understory for oak trees. The species is native to Oregon and California, where is grows throughout the state with concentrations in the Coastal Ranges from Santa Barbara county north and in the Sierra and Cascade Ranges. This robust selection grows about twice the height of typical Festuca californica. It was introduced by Cal Flora Nursery in Fulton, California and was a selection they made from a nursery crop grown from seed collected near Willits in Mendocino County. We thank John Greenlee for providing us with our first plants of this great native grass. 

Information displayed on this page about Festuca californica 'Willit's Giant' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.

 
San Marcos Growers closed for regular business at the end of 2025 as the property is being developed for affordable housing.
While our gates remain closed, we will open them by appointment so we can liquidate remaining plants, supplies and equipment. The plants remaining in the field are listed on our Live Inventory Page.
 
  [MORE INFO]