RE: brown and green

Marge,
Now there are 2 of us that love the bronzy, coppery Carex!!  I thought I was
all alone in the world :).  The only problem I've ever had with them was
trimming them down low in the spring to allow for new growth like you do for
other grasses.  Don't do it folks it might kill them, they only want their
tops trimmed a little.  Some helpful friends probably just killed my Carex
in the rockery by cutting them down low :(.  Well, it's my fault - I forgot
to say "don't touch those"!  I'm a victim of deadheading/pruning madness.
Gad it's like a grade B slasher movie!

Marilyn Dube'
Natural Designs Nursery
Portland, Oregon


-----Original Message-----
From:	owner-perennials@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of Marge Talt
Sent:	Tuesday, February 18, 2003 9:04 PM
To:	perennials@hort.net
Subject:	Re: brown and green

Whoa now guys!  You're picking on one of my fav. genera.

I am particularly fond of the bronze Carex.  C. buchananii and C.
comens 'bronze form' are two I grow and I keep trying for C. petriei,
but the seed always turns out to be comens...actually, can't say I've
ever met an ornamental Carex I didn't like:-)

Yes, the bronze forms need careful siting to bring out their best.
They work well next to plants with bronze-purple foliage and any
flowers with an apricot/orange tendency; also look rather nice in
groups IMO.  Quite nice with deep purple-black foliage of  Ipomea
batatas 'Blackie' and kin, too and that one that has the almost
cinnamon colored leaves, whose name escapes me right off.  They also
provide needed color (and texture) relief from deep, dark greens like
Hellebores.

 If you examine the foliage, you find that it is green tinged and not
dead looking at all; rather translucent, in fact - of course, like
all of the fine foliage Carex, they need a comb out periodically to
clean out truly dead foliage.  The fine foliage texture is marvelous
IMO.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
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----------
> From: ECPep@aol.com
>
> In a message dated 2/17/03 3:47:37 PM Eastern Standard Time,
lwallpe@juno.com
> writes:
>
>
> > Brown in the garden doesn't do a lot for me.  I recall a tale
about 2
> > gardeners discussing one of the N.Z. sedges that was being
heralded for
> > it's tan color.  One asked the other,  'Can you keep it alive?'
The
> > second gardener replied, 'How would I know?'
>
> To that you may want to add two more new ones.  One is completely
white and
> stays that way for quite a while, looks sickly.  The other is a
tangled mass
> of leaves given the name 'Bad Hair Day'.    I have seen and cannot
remember
> the name of the rusty brown Carex.  It attracted a lot of interest
though did
> not look good in a garden setting.  Maybe part of a container
grouping.  A
> Carex that stays alive in our zone is what might be asked of it so
we do not
> see much Carex here.
>
> To strange plants, add that Rudbeckia with no petals.  Widely
featured in
> catalogs for the last two years.
>
> Claire Peplowski
> NYS z4

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