Posts

Showing posts with the label carex

Everillo Sedges Destroyed By Rabbits - February 2024

Image
This Winter has been brutal on our garden thanks to the (dang) rabbits.  The pests apparently set up shop in our beds and feasted on everything they could find.  Including the Oakleaf Hydrangeas .  And all three of our Gold Cone Junipers .  Those two things had material that was well above the snow cover.  But, they were also pretty active BEFORE the snow came.  How do I know?  Have a look at the Everillo Carex that are planted in our backyard.  Sheared right off at the ground: The same thing happened in previous seasons - these same Carex Everillos were eaten by rabbits in Fall 2022 .  At that I time, I posted the photos with a little surprise - as most sources on the Web say that rabbits will stay away from Sedges.   Not so fast, my friend.  What does all of this tell me?  I have to go back to being more proactive with chicken wire cages in Fall 2024.  

Dividing Everillo Sedge - With Center Rot - October 2023

Image
The original (to our garden) sedges - Everillo Sedges - have been in the ground since the Fall of 2020 .  They're bright grasses in a dark, shade garden.  But, I don't think that I've been using them in the right ways - as I've planted them in a colony together with very little matrix-planting around them/interplanted with them.   They've been mostly neglected and suffered a bit from rabbits .  Below is a look at the 'pre-dividing' planting of these sedges: A closer look at the one on the top of that photo shows that there's some 'center rot' going on and there are a number of smaller, independent sedges.  This is just like what is going on with the Elijah Blue Fescue grass IB2DWs .  Below is a look at the carex in question that I decided to divide: There's a small buckthorn seedling coming up in there that is (obviously) due for removal.  But, It is easy to see a number of sedges here.  I opted for dividing this clump into five.  Three *real

Carex Albicans - One Year From Planting Plugs - October 2023

Image
I've mentioned over the years that plantsman and gardener Roy Diblik up in Wisconsin has turned me on to a variety of plants - but mostly sedges.  ( Insert Voiceover from Sam Eagle:  "A salute to all plants, but mostly Carex." ) Via ImgFlip - Sam Eagle Muppets - A Salute To All Nations Meme The photo at the top of this post is a trio of Carex Albicans that are planted on the border of our firepit area that is mostly full shade and pretty dry.  They are performing REALLY well in this spot and one of them (the one on the left) is the largest of the three. Looking back at the post when I planted these in August of 2022, they were just 'plugs' and small at the time .   They were purchased at Roy Diblik's nursery:  Northwind Perennial Farm where they had this sign describing Carex Albicans: You'll note that I described the site for these (by the firepit) as mostly full shade and dry.  What's the sign say?  "An excellent selection for dry, shaded sites

Carex Montana From Northwind Planted - July 2023

Image
I've been all-in on Team Carex thanks to Roy Diblik and his Northwind Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin.  He introduced me to sedges (Carex) and talked about how he uses them in his plantings.  Over the years, I've bought a number of different sedges from Northwind including: Bromoides and Little Midge , Albicans and Pensylvanica .   Now, I can add another one to the list:  Carex Montana.  The photo at the top of this post shows three Carex Montana plugs that I bought from Northwind last month and planned on planting by the Linden trees that are espaliered.   Below is the sign from Northwind that includes this description:   You've noticed the rich, soft green, beautiful foliage. Plant this in your shade garden and develop a ground layer of soft textures that will enliven your other plants and reduce weed seeds from germinating. Mix this Carex with other Carext to create a tapestry of colors and textures. Why not?? Haven't you wood chipped long enough??? Shots fired at

Carex Albicans Spring Green - April 2023

Image
Last year, the Bird planted a single Carex Albicans in her little 'garden' that is a in the shady understory section of our backyard.  I didn't think much of it at the time, nor paid much attention to it.  But it appears to have been buried under some leaves this Winter.  And, when I was nosing around that section, I noticed them.  It is green and sitting next to some Wild Onions.  See below: Interesting to note how Carex Albicans have done over the Winter - I have others planted back by the firepit - which look the same.  Also a big note:  the rabbits don't pay any attention to these at all. 

Sedges Eaten by Rabbits - Early Winter - November 2022

Image
I've just about had it with the dang rabbits.  Most recently, I posted some photos of how they've gnawed at one of our contorted trees and one of our evergreens (Mugo Pine) .  And, before that, there are a bunch of posts showing these pests eating things up in the garden .   For the most part, the dang! rabbits seem to have focused on everything but the sedges in my garden.  Until..... Today. That's when I was out puttering around and saw what they had done to a few of the Everillo Sedges - Carex EVERCOLOR everillo .   I have five of these yellow-green (or some may say chartreuse) sedges planted around the Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree in our backyard.  Three from Fall 2020 , two from Spring 2021 .   They've done ok in this spot - with some of them growing larger than others, but for the most part, getting established and filling in some bare spots. This Fall-time damage is a first for these sedges.  I posted about how these same plants were eaten-up by the dang! rabbit

Carex Albicans - Firepit Border - August 2022

Image
A few days ago, I showed how the Bird added a single Carex Albicans to her little backyard garden and mentioned that I had bought a few more of these plugs.  I intended to plant all four back by the fire pit border, but she wanted one, so it went in her garden.  As I talked about in that post, these sedges are plugs from Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin, where gardener Roy Diblik evangelizes for Carex as the cure for garden groundcover.  Below is the sign from his nursery: These Albicans are darker green than the Bromoides that I planted yesterday under the Hornbeams .  Below, you can see some of them before planting: Here, below, is the layout of these three.  They're close to the fire pit gravel border and will (hopefully) fill in and cover up some of that mulch. I could plant four dozen of these and that wouldn't be enough, so three barely makes a dent.  But, every garden has to start somewhere, right?   These three additional Carex Albicans now add to the total of care

Carex Bromoides with Carex Little Midge - Planted Under Hornbeams - August 2022

Image
Just yesterday, I posted a photo showing off the Carex Albicans that The Bird planted as ground cover in her little backyard garden and talked about how that marked the 12th sedge that we've planted in the backyard.   I had posted about planting a little cluster of four Carex Bromoides earlier this Summer and included a video from Roy Diblik where he talks about his favorite Carex and how he combines them.  In that video, he talked about Bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis (Little Midge).  And how to combine them together with a dominant species and 'islands' of other species in various percentages.   That video pushed me to think about how I can use some of these in our landscape and how to create a unique pattern that is unique to our garden and isn't a 'monoculture'.   When we were up at Northwind in Wisconsin, I came home with some of the Carexes that Roy talked about:  Eight Carex Bromoides.  And Two Carex muskingumensis Little Midge.  When p

Carex Albicans - Woodland Sedge Added - August 2022

Image
The last plant that my middle child planted in her garden from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm was a result of me advocating that she try something that Roy has (I think) made famous:  a sedge.  Or...a Carex.  She picked out a Carex Albicans . Here, below, is the sign from the nursery table up in Wisconsin: It reads:  "Perennial sedge that grows in dense, mounded tufts. In late spring, interesting scaly flower spikes emerge.  An excellent selection for dry, shaded sites." Below, you can see where she planted her Carex Albicans plug - just adjacent to the Helene Von Stein Lamb's Ear - Stachys byzantina that she planted in July of this year .  By my count, I (now) have 12 sedges in our garden. 5 Everillo sedges  - planted in 2020 and 2021 2 Carex Pensylvanica under the Hornbeams - planted in 2021 4 Carex Bromides by the Astilbes - planted in Summer 2022 1 Carex Albicans in the Bird's garden - planted late Summer 2022 I also have a pair of Prairie Dropseeds,

Carex Bromoides Planted - July 2022

Image
I've planted a few different sedges in our garden in the past few years as I've become more aware of them and how they can work in various spots in the garden.  I have a few Everillo Sedges planted in a little colony and some OG's of the Sedge world: C arex Pensylvanica planted as a test .  There doesn't seem to be a bigger booster of Sedges in the gardening world than Roy Diblik from Northwind Perennial Farm.  He's actually where I've 'gotten to know' anything about sedges.  From his YouTube videos.  He posted a short video where he named his '3 favorite Carex' (embeded below), where he detailed what he likes about all three - bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis. Well...that means I have to try ALL of them, right?  I'm starting with one of them:   .  Below is the sign from Roy's nursery. The description on the sign reads:  Too nice, a good looking soft foliage grass-like plant that adds contrast to all types of shade plantings

Carex Pensylvanica Black Seed Heads - May 2022

Image
Last year, I planted a few Carex Pensylvanica in our backyard (under the Frans Fontain European Hornbeam trees) that I brought home from Northwinds Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin.  It doesn't look like I planted anything about these being in the garden last growing season.  These were the the pilot plantings of Carex under these trees and they seemed to do fine last year.   Carex Pennsylvania can be planted as close as 1' centers where they'll knit together to create a carpet.  Mine are planted 10-plus feet apart, so there's, ummm, no 'knitting' going on.   But what *is* going on?  A really lovely Spring seed head show.  See below for a look at one of these Carex showing off dark colored, almost-black, seed heads with the flush of new Spring growth. I've taken different approaches with all three of these sedges in terms of Spring cleanup.  This one (above), I've left as-is.  No trimming at all.  One of the other ones I ran over with the lawn mower and

Rabbit Damage - Sedges - March 2022

Image
  Sedges are something that I've just recently (in the past few growing season) gotten to know and planted in our garden.  We have five of these Carex Everillos planted around my flowering cherry tree in the backyard.  They're a nice little pop of color and are evergreen through the Winter.  Normally.  Based on my experience last year, I found myself leaving the foliage all the way through Spring clean-up and then I trimmed off all the leftover blades and cut it back to a clump.  From there, the normal cycle of regrowth took over and - just like an ornamental grass - new growth emerged from the center.   This year?  Much of that 'clean up' was done for me.  By rabbits.  Those same jerks that have been eating at my Oakleaf Hydrangeas all Winter .  Or was it?  This document from Good Oak in Madison Wisconsin says that rabbits don't usually eat sedges.  From that pdf : "Rabbits do not typically eat grasses, sedges and ferns, however, there are always exceptions.

Two More Everillo Sedges Planted - May 2021

Image
Last Fall, I bought my first sedges.  They were these Evercolor Everillo Sedges (Carex o. EVERCOLOR 'Everillo' from the Morton Arboretum and I planted them around the trunk of our Cherry Blossom tree .  I initially planted three and this month when I saw them at the Morton Spring sale, I bought two more.   They went up in price (last Fall = $10 each, this Spring = $10.95 each) as you can see from the sale sign below: If you look back at this photo from late September of 2020 , you can tell the color of these after a Summer of growth, but not look at the photo below, they seem to start a little bit more muted.  With five of them planted, I'm starting to get a little bit of a drift going on - right next to the Waterslide Hosta that I planted last year (and the two new ones from this year). I'm about to get these mulched in and that should keep them happy for the hot growing season.  I didn't do a THING to these this Spring - didn't clip off any growth, but thinkin