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Wild About Sand

MOTHER'S DAY GIFT: FLOWERING SEDGE

5/13/2018

3 Comments

 
Happy Mother's Day to mothers everywhere!

When we arrived at the cabin a few days ago, I was looking forward to seeing which plants were flowering in the yard. And I found a few. This white flower is bloodroot. My bloodroot must have tagged along with a clump of wild ginger that I transplanted a few years ago from my brother-in-law's yard.
Picture
Bloodroot
And below is the wild ginger, which is also flowering right now. The pink flowers are low to the ground and easy to miss.
Picture
Wild Ginger
But I was most eager to see whether the oak sedge (Carex pensylvanica) was flowering. And it definitely is. This time of year, it’s easiest to distinguish the sedge from the grasses I usually yank (like fescue and crab grass) because of the way it flowers.  
Picture
Oak Sedge (Carex pensylvanica)
Those wispy yellow tops (a highly technical botanical term) are actually the flower. I rarely think of grasses and sedges as flowering plants, but they are. And these flowering tops are pretty distinctive. I've become a sedge fan and I'm starting to see them everywhere. It's like when you buy a red car, you start seeing red cars everywhere.

​Five years ago, I learned about oak sedge from Cheryl Clemens, who once served as a native plants consultant for Burnett County (not sure if she still does). Cheryl visited us – free of charge – after we had torn down our old cabin and built new. Our yard was a great big sand pit after all the excavation work. The sight of it was a little daunting. We worried that one thunderstorm would send our real estate downhill into our neighbor’s yard. They were probably worried too.
 
Cheryl advised us how to start our native plants experiment. She first told us about oak sedge, which is becoming a no-mow lawn substitute around the country.
​ https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/sedge_lawns
She pointed it out to me in the woods and I was pretty embarrassed that I’d never paid much attention to this little native grass growing everywhere. In Burnett County, it grows mostly in the woods, but it can tolerate full sun as well.
 
This is what an oak sedge lawn is capable of looking like (the photo is from the Minnesota Wildflowers website):
Picture
That's what I'm shooting for -- we're a long way from that.
Picture
Oh, well. But every year, it spreads, and it’s tough as nails. The deer don’t eat it and the harsh conditions here – cold winters and droughty, sandy, nutrient-poor soil – don’t faze it. But one thing I’ve learned about planting natives: the mix of plants changes a little bit every year. And if our wild-strawberry patches outcompete the oak sedge, I’m good with that!
 
Here’s more info on oak sedge:
 
https://www.prairiemoon.com/carex-pensylvanica-pennsylvania-sedge-prairie-moon-nursery.html
​
3 Comments
Spencer
5/13/2018 12:02:18 pm

Very interesting. We're going on a walk now and will likely see bloodroot and sedge everywhere we go. Baader-Meinhof, as you say.

Thanks for the info!

Reply
Kerri Steele
9/2/2019 04:14:39 pm

Hello, I’m enjoying your blog. We just purchased a cabin in Douglas Cty. With 11 acres. It has plantation pine with hemlocks , balsam for and white spruce growing up amongst them. We have a small meadow and then a more mixed woods on the rest of the land. I would really like to plant natives on the prairie first and you have given me some great ideas. Do you think I could consult a native plant specialist in Douglas Cty.? Would I contact the DNR? Thanks again for your wonderful blog!

Reply
Lisa Peters
9/3/2019 07:18:45 pm

Thanks for your comment, Kerri. I have a few thoughts:
—walk around your area to see what grows there. Everything I’ve planted I’ve seen growing naturally in our area.
—take a long look at a great website:
mnwildflowers.org
It’s minnesota, but the species are basically the same ones you’ll find in Douglas County. It’s a great site for identifying plants.
—definitely check with Douglas County to see if it has a native plants specialist. Burnett County did when I was planning our yard. Her name is Cheryl Clemens and she owned Harmony Environmental in Amery. Maybe she still does, not sure.
—the DNR also has a lot of information on its website about growing native plants. I never consulted them but I think there’s no substitute for actually talking to a human being when you have questions.

Best of luck. I’ve had a great time these past five or six years growing natives. I’m guessing you will too — just be patient!

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    Author: Lisa Peters

    This is a blog written by a sand-loving native plants gardener at Lake 26 in Burnett County, Wisconsin.

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