|
Carex elata 'Aurea' (Bowles Golden Sedge) – A clumping semi-evergreen grass-like plant that grows to 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide with striking yellow grasslike foliage that has green edges. New bright yellow growth lightens the plant during its growing season in spring, however it does fade with maturity.
Plant in part sun (better color in brighter light) in or near water. Can tolerate shallow submersion. Hardy to below 15 degrees F. Cut back to ground in mid-winter to allow fresh new growth to emerge in spring. A great plant for a moist shade garden where it can be used in large drifts or as an accent plant. It is also useful in the shallows or edge of a water garden or pond.
Carex comans is native to wetland plant communities, such as marshes, fens, wet woods, and shallow water margins in Europe, central Asia and North Africa. The name for the genus is a Latin word describing the sedges and the specific epithet is the Latin word for tall in reference to this plant being tall for a sedge.
This cultivar was reportedly discovered Wicken Fen in East Anglia, one of Britain's oldest nature reserves, by the famous British horticulturalist and garden writer, Edward Augustus Bowles (1865-1954) who was most popularly known as E.A. Bowles. Others report that he may have found the in the Norfolk Broad, a wetland waterway in eastern England. Later British garden writer and plantsman Christopher Lloyd (1921-2006), whose own garden was the world famous Great Dixter, said of this plant that it is "a plant to treasure, its colour changing in unexpected ways" This plant is often marketed as Carex elata 'Bowles Golden' and it was under this name that we sold it from 2002 until 2006 as part of our water garden collection after getting it from Walt McAllister at his McAllister Water Gardens in St. Helena, California in 1989.
Information displayed on this page about Carex elata 'Bowles Golden' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will 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.
|
