a donkey is sterile but im sure they are delicious :)

not knowing the clutivar, its prob fine. sometimes in the breeding process they lose traits whilst gaining the one the breeder wants. i would assume its fine as food. and ur little prairie sounds nice. maybe a Panicum virgatum ÂShenandoah would be a nice selection next to the blue fall. shenandoah is a nice red. get a white grass in there and u could be a real patriot :)

froggy

ehem froggy...that is a mule is sterile, not the donkey LOL!!

As for flopping, were they getting too much water? How about the drainage? ....also, if you were fertilizing excess Nitrogen can cause lodging (flopping).

Vera

ill bet a mule is delicious too...

froggy

Sorry ,checked my source and it's only me "singing" the cultivar is just called "the Blues".
Froggy, you got me for a sec on the white grass but I'll pass on the mule. I worried about the seed because I purchased a aster,culivar unknown,beautiful dark purple flowers, not a bee came near. I gave it to a friend allergic to bees.
Vera , summer was dry and I watered that area little, drainage is fair-amended clay, fertilizer -only compost mulch and a little seaweed fish emulsion. I hadn't come across the term lodging before.
Pixie

I live in Prairie country. Have all kinds of native grasses in my meadow. Little Blue Stem stands stiff, almost fan-like with a little tuft of fine blades encircling its feet. It shouldn't be drooping over normally. Most prairie grasses will flop over when covered in ice or snow, but usually Little Blue Stem remains upright unless heavily encased in ice.
Here are some pics:

The rust-colored grass is Little Blue Stem in fall and winter color.

In fall, the feathery white seedheads are intact on the stem tops and the grass is very full. In the late afternoon sunlight through the white seeds glows and the stems are ablaze in terra cotta and purple.

By late winter, the wild birds have stript it of its seeds and the grass stands rather barren. It is still quite lovely.

In addition to the Little Blue Stem, I have the Side Oats Gramma, Prairie Dropseed, Indian Grass, Canada Wild Rye, Buffalo Grass (Love Grass), Cord Grass, Panic grass, June Grass, Virginia Wild Rye (?), and Switch Grass. There may be others, but I am still trying to ID them.

I am trying to preserve this tiny island of natural prairie as a wildlife preserve and habitat. The grasses, wildflowers and trees provide food, shelter and nesting places for songbirds, pheasants, ducks, Canadian geese, wild turkeys (see my photos), cottontail rabbits, turtles, lizards, snakes and many others critters. In early spring, it is also visited by inland Gulls and Terns.

Right now there is Heath Aster taking over the entire meadow. It has tiny, fragrant white to lilac daisy-like flowers that blooms from spring thru summer. It attracts bees and butterflies and is very pretty. The leaves when crushed smell like pine or camphor. Cattle & horses won't eat it. It spreads stolonoferously and just chokes out everything else. It cannot be hand dug. The roots go down 4-8 feet! I've got to get rid of it somehow. May have to resort to herbicide.

So, my Little Blue Stems are singing the blues, too!

~SweetAnnie4u

Ooops!
Sorry about my misspellings in the above post. Wish we could EDIT our posts for such things as that like on some other sites. Oh well. ~ Annie

SweetAnnie4u,
Ah, the real thing, a true prairie. The Little Blue Stem is lovely in a mass planting. My LBS does not stand straight like yours. Nice to see what it should look like. I have better luck with Switch Grass. I have a heath aster growing through the garden but it's sold here as a garden plant . I've never seen it listed on the invasive plant list. What is the latin name?
I've looked at your photos and read the latest posting introducing yourself to this forum. I can only say I am impressed with your dedication to bring a true bit of Prairie back against the odds. Good Luck .
Pixie

Here is the lovely culprit!

White Heath Aster - Aster ericoides L.
[=Symphyotrichum ericoides (L.) Nesom]

{{gwi:1155773}}

Here is a link that might be useful: This is the Heath Aster that is invading my meadow

I repeat...GAK to the Heath Aster. I'm gonna round-up the whole bunch of it as soon as it warms up..it's taking over.

Yuppers,
I have to get after it. It may take me all summer to kill it out. I walked it a couple of days ago and that crapp is all over the hill, except one strip near the crest. Man! It bet it will cost a bundle to spray all that! Needs to be done on a nice hot sunny day.

Because of the high amount of oils in Heath Aster, it creates a high fire danger, winter or summer, but especially in summer. You can throw a green branch of it on a burn pile and it explodes into flames that shoot up into the air!

Right now, Oklahoma is in a serious drought with statewide fire bans. Lakes drying up. Stock ponds completely dry and winter wheat seeds just laying on top on dry, cracked ground. What few areas have gotten a bit of moisture from two small snowstorms, you can see winter wheat growing, but the plants are stunted and sparsely growing up out of the hard dry ground. Farmers are having to haul in water for their livestock. Wheat prices will surely go up and we will seE it in the supermarkets. May no be any prairie hay to mow this year nor wheat straw either, so prices on that will shoot up, too. Many just took their cattle to market and sold them.

Conditions are bad right now here in Okie. The wildfires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres since November. There is one burning just southeast of me right now. I have my own water well that is not fed by groundwater. Ihave been able to water and keep my gardens going around the house, but not up on the meadow.

Up there, with all the cedars (juniper trees) and heath asters, plus all the tall, dry prairie grasses, it is a tender box. A lot of dead wood from trees dying from the drought. I started mowing up there this fall in early November and my tractor got two flat tires so I couldn't finish it - No mun, no fun.

The flats are actually punctures made by the Heath Asters. The H. aster's stem staubs are like sharp, armoured metal spikes, and when I was mowing they punctured the tractor tires! Just imagine what they could do to your feet? (Grrrrr! Eeee-vil plant!!) It just makes me want to kick it in its aster!
BTW, What is GAK? (Good Arse Kicking)?? My goodeness!

~SweetAnnie4u

Hey there, Pixie. I'm near to your location and I have an Indian grass that flops when it gets to full height. It gets lots of sun and is in dry soil so I can't explain it except that it started life in New Mexico. Could it be that your LBS never really adapted to its new conditions?

As for flopping,...

I flop all the time and I seem to get along just fine--walk kinda funny tho' nYuk, nYuK!! LOL

wet mesic,
My Indian grass flops later in the season, too. The switch grass Heavy Metal stays straight and tall, it even bounces back after a heavy snow. I think I'll just resite the LBS so it can gracefully fall open and be supported by neighboring plants, maybe penstemon Husker Red. mikelhs68
You must know froggy, something like flopping with lodging mules for dinner? lol
Pixie