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Identifying warm season grasses

Take a look at the most popular warm-season grasses. All of them including hybrid Bermuda grass, Zoysia, Centipede grass or St. Augustine grass, deliver a beautiful lawn everywhere except in deep shaded areas.

In identifying a particular grass, look at the texture of the lawn grass. Narrow leaves deliver fine texture; wide blades produce a coarser look. Fine hybrid Bermuda and Zoysia lawns make less impact visually, whereas Centipede grass and St. Augustine grass, with their coarse texture, make a bolder statement.

Use the combination of color and texture to tell the major grasses apart. If the lawn is a light green with coarse texture, think St. Augustine. Darker green but still coarse, it's probably Centipede. Contrast those with the fine-textured grasses: hybrid Bermuda grows a truer green than the emerald shades of Zoysia.

Look at the grass's habit, or how it grows - each creeps across the landscape differently. Find thick mats of Bermuda and Zoysia where foot traffic is heavy, but see that centipede and St. Augustine can thrive with less sun.

See how the grass is planted. Faster growth means seeding is sensible for Bermuda but very slow for Centipede. Zoysia and St. Augustine are planted by sod or stolons to maintain their genetic strengths.

When looking for warm-season grass seed at garden centers, make sure it's dated for the current season. Buy sod and stolons as close to the grower as you can; visit the sod farm if possible to check on variety and health.