Bermuda – Planting with Zoysia

Q: I have a spot where bermuda doesn’t grow so I want to put Emerald zoysia there. How it will look having two different grasses growing next to each other?

A: Both of these grasses are fine-bladed and look very similar in summer. The only visible difference will be in spring and fall: zoysiagrass will green up before bermudagrass and bermudagrass will go dormant before the zoysiagrass does.

Note from Clint Waltz:  Typically zoysiagrass is more cold tolerant than bermudagrass and will hold green color deeper into the late fall or early winter. In fact, there are some cultivars – Emerald is not the case – that will hold a tinge of green all winter long in Griffin. Similarly, zoysiagrass will typically start to green earlier than bermudagrass and from my experience green shoots from Emerald zoysiagrass may be observed as much as two to three weeks ahead of hybrid bermudagrass, no two years are the same however. I’ve observed, and I believe documented, Emerald zoysiagrass starting to green-up in late February and definitely early March. It’s more common to see the first hints of bermudagrass green-up late-March.