Carex ‘Feather Falls’ – by Steve Huddleston
Here’s a sedge that’s like a regular sedge on steroids. It’s larger, tougher, and faster growing than similar sedges. It has that all-important hybrid vigor that lets it stay attractive all season long.
‘Feather Falls’ is a perennial with narrow, variegated leaves with dark green centers and creamy-white margins. The leaves form evergreen mounds of arching foliage 18-24 in. tall and wide, although under ideal conditions it can reach 30 in. in width. If you want the individual mounds to show up, space the plants 30 in. apart. If you prefer to see your planting as one single large groundcover, set transplants 18-24 inches apart checkerboard style.
‘Feather Falls’ grows best with protection from hot afternoon sun. Morning sun is fine, so it’s listed as “part sun to part shade.” It prefers acidic to neutral soils that are organically enriched and kept moist at all times – never dry and never waterlogged.
Handle it as you would most other perennials, that is to divide it every 3 or 4 years as the clumps get thick. Fall or early spring are the best times to divide. If the foliage ever becomes tattered by the end of winter, cut it back to the ground in late winter and new foliage will emerge in the spring to fill the clumps out.
Suggested uses…
This attractive sedge can find many places in today’s landscapes.
• In a container, it makes the perfect “spiller” plant draping over the rims of the pots.
• As an accent, border, groundcover, massed planting, low “hedge,” or as a feature in a shaded rock garden, this plant is awaiting its call.
• It’s particularly good planted in front of the dark green foliage of plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Plania’). It sets up striking contrast between the two plants in colors, but also in textures.
• ‘Feather Falls’ also looks great planted in combination with oakleaf hydrangeas. The white margins on the leaves of ‘Feather Falls’ correspond beautifully with the white flowerheads of the oakleaf hydrangeas.
• Because of its white variegation, ‘Feather Falls’ lightens up any shady spot in the landscape.
What you’ll want to know…
• Botanical name: Carex hybrida ‘Feather Falls’
• Lineage: It is a cross between Carex hybrida parents bred in The Netherlands.
• Plant family: Cyperaceae, also known as the sedge family, a large group of grass-like plants distinct from true grasses (family Poaceae). All members of the sedge family have triangular stems. True grasses have round stems. Sedges are found worldwide in diverse habitats.
• ‘Feather Falls’ is winter-hardy in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 6a-9b. That includes most of Texas. Some sources say it is hardy to Zone 5a (still colder) and Zone 10b (yet more tropical).
• Resistant to deer.