Want something green, grassy, perhaps able to tolerate moderate foot traffic, that may not need much water and whose name changes every so years when some botanist realizes they made a mistake? Sedges could be your dream come true!
Every time I’ve had to transplant a sedge, the roots have gone down farther than I was willing to dig. This might explain why these plants can look so lush and green on a relatively small amount of water. Some also reseed, but they’re easy to pull out where you don’t want them – or let grow in where you do.
California Field Sedge (aka Clustered Field Sedge, aka C. praegracilis aka C. pansa)
This is our main meadow sedge for the rain garden area. It likes some irrigation, although presumably less than lawn. The best way to plant is from plugs from liner pots in the fall. They won’t do much until their growth period in spring, but since they’ll already be established they’ll fill in quickly. This species also spreads by rhizomes, sending up shoots and spreading to cover bare areas. We haven’t tried mowing it yet, but it supposedly supports lawnification rather well.
Toffee Twist Sedge (C. flagellifera ‘Toffee Twist’)
Native to New Zealand, where it no doubt plays with the kiwis that it resembles. This sedge prefers regular water, although since it’s never green it’s hard to tell when it’s thirsty. It makes a nice accent among greener sedges in an irrigated meadow, or as an accent/massing in an artistic garden.
Dune Sedge (Carex pansa)
One grower indicates that this plant only grows in dunes. Certainly not in Sacramento. The plants however, never read their web site and have been happily growing here for at least six years. The plant, whatever it is, resembles C. divulsa but is a bit more compact with thicker leaves, and does not reseed as readily, as far as we can tell. These are now planted in the rain garden to give another texture and compliment the C. praegracillis.
European Grey Sedge (C. divulsa). a.k.a. C. tumulicola, Berkeley Sedge
Lush tufts of arching green leaves in spring, about 14″ tall grow in sun or shade. If watered, they’ll stay green. If not, they’ll go dormant in late summer. If you walk on them, they’ll perhaps get less tall if you pass frequently enough. They can be sheared or mowed to become more lawnlike. Unlike the original claims, they’re not native to California. This plant will reseed wherever there is disturbed soil.
Working with sedges is like playing a shell game. Since they’re similar, it seems that they’re more prone to confusion than just about any other plant. Take Berkeley Sedge (C. tumulicola), a low-growing native sedge that does very well here and loves gardens. Except that it’s not from Berkeley, not native and not C. tumulicola. It does grow very well, however. Then there was C. pansa, that turned out to in fact be C. praegracilis, like C. tumulicola turned out to be C. divulsa (although the real C. tumulicola does exist out there in the California wilds). I’m afraid that a lot of this may have to do with a certain nursery who collected a lot of plants from virtually everywhere but whose labeling and tracking systems were somewhat chaotic. Luckily there are a lot of other nurseries with rigorous botanists tracking down these things and correcting them, to the glory of Science and confusion of gardeners.
Final note: Due to the fluid nature of ornamental sedge identification, my captions are accurate assuming that everyone in every nursery who participated in the propagation of our plants ensured that they were correctly identified, tagged and potted. Using today’s names. Tomorrow’s may differ.