Reveille... 
a new hybrid bluegrass for the arid Southern U.S.

Barefoot soft and green the year round...
Looks like Kentucky but acts like Texas...
Thrives under heat stress and hot sun...
Tolerates cold weather...
Uses less water...
Resists insects and disease...

Reveille is a multi-use cool season grass for semi-arid regions of the Southern United States. It adapts well to golf courses, home lawns, commercial and industrial parks. Certified sod is available from Gardener Turfgrass.

Reveille makes an ideal home lawn. It needs less water, an important factor in cities when water restrictions are imposed. Low water use lawns become more important when drought occurs.

Reveille is an F1 hybrid between Texas bluegrass, Poa arachnifera, and Kentucky bluegrass, Poa pratensis. Shade tolerance will be conducted in the summer of 1999. Dr. James Read developed the successful cross in 1990 after 12 years of research.

 

Special Properties:

  • Medium-texture

  • Appealing green color

  • Resistant to powdery mildew

  • Resistant to fall armyworm

  • Moderate resistance to rust and white grub

 Reveille...

  • A brand new hybrid, turfgrass, crosses native Texas bluegrass and Kentucky bluegrass.

  • Cool season benefits never before available.

  • Thrives where Kentucky bluegrass can’t survive the heat and sun.

  • And creates the first year-round green lawns for southern climates where Kentucky bluegrass won’t grow.

  • Especially suited to Central Texas and Southern Oklahoma.

Reveille in a shaded rough of a golf course

Reveille in a home lawn in full sun

Reveille in a home lawn in shade

Comparison of root systems of
Reveille and Kentucky bluegrass.
Picture by Mary Suplick.

Enjoy a dark green lawn, with medium-texture, heat and full sun tolerance, cold hardiness, and insect and disease resistance. 

Look for it in... Corporate and retail complexes too...well suited to corporate and industrial complexes for a green landscape, winter and summer without labor-intensive seasonal changes from one turf to another.

Plant:
  • easily established with sod all year, except the coldest parts of December and January.
Water:
  • Needs one long drink, not many short ones. Compare to common bermudagrass water needs. (1/3 pan evaporation)
  • Hates wet feet.  Don’t water  frequently. For healthy roots, this bluegrass needs a dry down period between watering.
Fertilize:
  • Requires four to six pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet annually, depending on soil.
Management:
  • Use a rotary mower.
  • Cut to a height of 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 inches.
Considerations:
  • Susceptible to brown patch.
  • Avoid saline conditions.

Reveille hybrid bluegrass developed by:

James Read, Ph.D, Professor Plant Breeding, Forage and Turfgrass

Co-authors:

Phillip Colbaugh, Ph.D.
William Knoop, Ph.D.
James Reinert, Ph.D.

PVP Pending (Plant Variety Protection)

Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
Texas A&M Research and Extension Center
Dallas, Texas

Research funded in part by a grant from Gardner Turfgrass, Inc. Mention of a trademark or a proprietary product does not constitute a guarantee or a warranty of the product by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that also may be suitable.

All programs and information of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station are available to everyone without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, handicap or national origin.

Copyright © 2004 Texas A&M University / Sean Pease. All rights reserved.
Revised: August 16, 2004 .