Andropogon gerardii 'Blackhawks' Big Bluestem

turns the corner the color starts at the leaf tips and works downward — first a flush of burgundy, then plum, and by September a deep purple so saturated it reads as black from across the yard. The stems, the leaves, and the flowers all go dark together. When the Chicago Botanic Garden grew it alongside other big bluestems in its twelve-year ornamental grass trial, it was the darkest selection in the planting and one of only twenty-two grasses, out of 75 rated, to earn a five-star score. The Perennial Plant Association named it the 2026 Perennial Plant of the Year®, making it one of the few ornamental grasses to receive the award. The flowers are part of the show. In August the stems carry the three-fingered seed heads that give the species its old name, turkeyfoot — each one splayed like a bird's track and dusted with small golden anthers against the dark burgundy. They hold on the plant well into winter, catching low light long after the foliage has finished. And the plant stands up. At roughly five feet tall and two feet wide, 'Blackhawks' is noticeably shorter and narrower than wild big bluestem, which can run to seven or eight feet and lean hard by fall. This is the size that fits a home border rather than a forty-acre restoration, and the stiff, vertical stems keep their shape through the late-season storms that lay flatter grasses down. Why the color matters in a garden: dark foliage is rare among hardy perennials, and near-black foliage that survives a Zone 5 winter is rarer still. For years the only answer to "I want that dark purple grass" was purple fountain grass, which is an annual in the Ohio Valley. 'Blackhawks' is the perennial answer, and it is native to boot. Set it behind the golds and oranges of fall — black-eyed Susans, goldenrods, asters, tall sedum — and it makes everything in front of it look brighter. Give it two seasons in the ground and it will be the reason people slow down on the road in October. 'Blackhawks' forms an upright, narrow, vase-to-columnar clump about 5' tall and 2' wide in flower, with the foliage mass itself sitting lower through early summer. Reported heights run from 4' to just over 5' depending on soil and climate; the Chicago Botanic Garden trial measured 62". Unlike the straight species, which can creep by short rhizomes and seed around freely, 'Blackhawks' behaves as a dense, well-mannered clump. It is a warm-season grass — it stays low and green through spring and early summer, puts on most of its height in the heat of July and August, and does not interfere with early-blooming perennials planted in front of it. The texture is medium-fine: linear blades and slender vertical stems that supply motion and line against the broad leaves of coneflowers, rosinweed, and sedums. Foliage emerges dark green, sometimes with a purple blush, in late spring. Purple-red tips appear by midsummer. As nights cool in late August and September the color deepens and spreads until stems, leaves, and seed heads are a uniform deep plum-purple, near black in full sun. One honest detail from the trial data: the lower basal leaves tend to go tan and dry by early autumn, while the stems and seed heads hold their dark color into early winter. The show is carried by the upright stems, not by a mound of foliage at the base. In winter the whole clump fades to a warm tan and stands through snow. Color is strongest in full sun and in climates with cool fall nights — Ohio Valley autumns deliver both. Flowering begins in August and carries into fall. Inflorescences are the classic three-parted turkeyfoot racemes of big bluestem, burgundy to near-black with small yellow anthers, held at the tops of the stems. They are wind-pollinated and ornamental rather than showy in the way a perennial flower is, and their real value is in the silhouette — they read beautifully backlit and remain on the plant through winter. Full sun, six hours minimum and preferably more; in shade the color is weaker and the stems stretch and lean. This is one of the most soil-tolerant plants in the catalog: it grows in clay, loam, or sand, from average-dry to moderately moist ground, and is highly drought tolerant once established thanks to a root system that runs many feet deep. What it does not want is rich, heavily fertilized, constantly wet soil — lush growth is soft growth, and it is the most common reason a big bluestem flops. Lean to average soil is not a compromise here; it is the ideal. Deer resistant, heat and humidity tolerant, and long-lived. Care difficulty is low. Hardy in USDA Zones 3–9. Use it as a vertical accent in the middle or back of a sunny border, as a dark screen along a property line, massed in a meadow or prairie planting, or as the tall element i