Sodded or easily grown from seed makes bluegrass the number one cover choice of the cool season grasses. Many varieties were further developed for tougher use in the athletic fields where the turf base needs to be impervious to damage. Since the varieties are quite extensive many blends have been chosen by the experts to produce the best lawn possible. This blending can cover many of the older problems related to bluegrass by choosing ones developed for better drought resistance, lower growth habit, fungus resistance and many more desirable traits. Rough Bluegrass also has a finer texture than many grasses but is coarser than the better Kentucky bluegrass variety.
Rough bluegrass can stay green through the winter in milder weather.
This grass specie is a lower maintenance grass than the Kentucky bluegrass and is often grown for this reason alone. In the northern climates this species is considered a perennial and is grown as a permanent lawn cover. In the warmer climates it is used as an annual cover for the wintertime and in overseeding the permanent warm grass lawns for winter while in their dormancy state. One of the better features of rough bluegrass is the adaptation for shadier areas where Kentucky will not grow as successfully. Rough bluegrass has better cold hardiness than Kentucky bluegrass growing farther north into Canada.