Plant Calculator
Enter the approximate length and width of the area you will be planting and click 'Calculate' to determine how many Carex plantaginea you will need.
Correct and successful spacing is complex and depends on project conditions. We encourage you to call us at 877-ECO-PLUG for project specific recommendations and further assistance.
Carex plantaginea
seersucker sedge
- Category: Grass, Carex
- Hardiness Zone: 4-8
- Height: 8-10 Inches
- Spread: 10-12 Inches
- Spacing: 10 Inches
- Bloom Color: Green
- Foliage Color: Blue
Shiny deep green leaves are unusually broad (to 1 1/8") and puckered like Christmas ribbon. An excellent, mostly evergreen (the basal foliage overwinters) groundcover for average to moist shade, provides unique texture. Flowers occur in early to mid-spring, thin and black-tipped, not especially showy. Found in moist woods from Canada to Alabama.
Click here to download technical information for growers:
Plug Type
| • | Landscape Plug™ |
For Animals
| • | Deer Resistant |
Season of Interest (Flowering)
| • | Early Spring |
Propagation Type
| • | Tissue culture |
Grass Type
| • | Cool Season |
Additional Information about Carex plantaginea
Unlike other woodland sedges, Carex plantaginea has bold textural contrast with broad shiny deep green leaves that are puckered like ribbon. Growing about 6-12” tall and 12” wide, seersucker sedge grows well in dry shade, making it a wonderful clumping groundcover and problem solver. The almost-evergreen foliage is a constant in the landscape with light purple-brown flowers arriving in early spring.
Carex plantaginea grows in rich deciduous forests in the eastern United States up to Canada. While it excels in moist shaded sites in calcareous soils, it can adapt to difficult dry shaded sites quite well. Seersucker sedge does well in light to medium shade in the garden and should be cut back in late winter to maintain its bright appearance.
The trial gardens have a few difficult dry shade locations and we love to experiment to see which Carex spp performs the best. In an area beneath a spruce tree, we have a mixed planting of Carex plantaginea, Carex pensylvanica, Carex platyphylla and Heuchera americana ‘Dale’s Strain’ and love the way seersucker sedge contrasts with the running Carex pensylvanica and the mottled color of the Heuchera in the fall. A great forage for local wild birds and insects, sedges are a true workhorse in the garden.
Growing & Maintenance Tips for Carex plantaginea
Grows well in part or full shade in moist to average soil. Tolerates a dry shady site, but will not spread as freely.