Plant in full sun to light shade in a fairly moist, well-drained soil – plants in shade have done well with only occasional irrigation. Brown flowers sit 6 inches atop the refined clumps in summer. Very cold hardy sedge tolerating 10-15 ° F but dislikes hot dry climates.

Carex brunnea is a widespread species that grows naturally from eastern Australia north into Southeast Asia and Japan. The name for the genus is a Latin word describing the sedges and the specific epithet comes from the Latin brunneus, meaning "brown," which alludes to the brownish coloration of the species' inflorescences.

Our plants were grown from seed collected from a plant we first grew in 1988 as Carex species 'Variegated' and later called Carex elegantissima 'Variegata', a name coined by grassman John Greenlee. Although this name was dubious it was used for this plant for many years and until we determined that this plant was Carex brunnea,. The variegated form would occasionally produce seedlings lacking variegation and we found these dark green clumps with narrow foliage to be a very attractive addition to the garden. We grew and sold this attractive sedge from 2010 until 2015 and only discontinued growing it because of lack of sales. 

The information displayed on this page about Carex brunnea is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.