Kurt Bluemel: King of Grasses
Grower Focus – Kurt Bluemel, Inc.
“If I could rename every day of the year, I would look out at my gardens and choose something that was blooming, something beautiful, something rich and full of color that appeared on that very day. You can do that, you know. A well-planned garden never fails to offer inspiration and beauty every day of the year. That is the calendar by which I would like to live my life.”
— Kurt Bluemel (1933 – 2014)
Last week, we took a pilgrimage to Kurt Bluemel, Inc. nursery. Kurt Bluemel’s impact on the American garden runs deep and we wanted to share a little more about his story and the plants we are proud to carry.
Shop plants from Kurt Bluemel
Click for our selection of Ornamental Grasses
Before Kurt Bluemel, American suburban landscapes were dominated by expanses of lawn, clipped shrubs and relatively static foundation plantings. Bluemel, who was born in what is now the Czech Republic and came to Maryland in 1960 after years living in Germany and Switzerland. Once he arrived, he found the typical American suburban garden dull and lifeless. Kurt came from a European horticultural tradition that saw far more possibility in the landscape: grasses and perennials woven together in great sweeps and offering beauty throughout the seasons.
He started his own nursery in 1964. Working alongside fellow German plantsman Wolfgang Oehme, he began growing ornamental grasses and perennials that were nearly impossible to find in the U.S. at the time. Oehme later partnered with landscape architect James van Sweden to pioneer the New American Garden style — and much of what made those bold, sweeping designs possible came from Bluemel’s nursery: the plants, the propagation know-how, the sheer range of grasses and perennials.
The idea was simple but radical for its time: replace lonely specimen plants with broad drifts. Replace lawns with grasses. Let perennials billow and mingle instead of standing at attention. Bluemel had a name for the old style of foundation shrubs ringing a house — he called them “prayer beads around the house.” He wanted gardens with movement, not just gardens with rules.
For decades, Bluemel traveled the world collecting and championing grasses, introducing hundreds of varieties to American horticulture, and earning him the moniker Der Gras König, King of Grasses.
It’s hard now to picture a garden without grasses: switchgrass, bluestem, fountain grass, miscanthus. They’re everywhere — home borders, public parks, meadows, commercial landscapes. The layered, grasses-and-perennials look that feels so current today… Bluemel was doing it decades ago.
Kurt Bluemel died in 2014 at age 81, and the nursery bearing his name continues under the direction of his family, still growing wonderfully wild and unique grasses and perennials for us in the trade to share with you.
Now it’s time to go outside. Look at your garden, and do the same again tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow. Watch what the grasses do after rain, how they look in late afternoon sun, or their movement on a windy November morning. Notice the plants that remain beautiful long after their flowers have disappeared. And then think about Bluemel’s calendar.
Perhaps today is Little Bluestem Turning Copper Day.
Perhaps August 30th is First Aster Flower Day.
Later there will be a Echinacea Seedhead in the Frost Day and a Carex Peeking out under the Snow Day.
A garden capable of giving us something to notice every day of the year – that was Kurt Bluemel’s idea of a life well lived and we think that’s a pretty wonderful calendar to follow. Summer is a great time for planting, so come by and pick out some of Kurt’s favorite grasses and perennials today.
Shop our Kurt Bluemel Collection
Click for our selection of Ornamental Grasses
For those interested, further reading here:
New York Times – Nature in the Thick of Great Grasses
Human Flower Project – All the Glory of Grass
Garden Rant – Tribute to Kurt Bluemel
