Bicknell’s Sedge grows in clumps of green, narrow, grasslike foliage. Copper, oval-shaped seed heads appear in spring, rising well above the foliage. It's a more Northern species, with its range in the Eastern half of Canada and south to Kansas. It grows in dry and moist prairies, open woodlands and rocky areas. Because it tolerates both dry and wet conditions, it's useful for rain gardens, meadows, and areas where conditions fluctuate.
Carex bicknellii adapts to coarse, fine, and medium textured soils, so it's appropriate for sand, clay, loam, and rocky soils. Bicknell's sedge prefers full sun and dry to mesic conditions (mesic soils are damp or moist but not wet enough to be considered wetland soils). Yet, it can also adapt to wetter conditions. There's a theme here—this sedge is pretty versatile, especially within its native range. In mixed plantings in full sun, it may lose out to broad-leaved forbs if placed where they overshadow it.
Space plants 24"-36" on center.
Bicknell's sedge has short rhizomes that will increase its spread over time. However, it's not aggressive.
Bicknell's sedge is one of the few sedges that grow naturally in prairies. It's a happy companion for the closely related Carex brevior (shortbeak sedge) and shortgrass prairie grasses like Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama), Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), and Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed). The cool-season grass Koeleria macrantha (prairie junegrass) gives good coverage with the sedges early in the growing season. Add showy flowering species that provide color and pollinator support at various times, like Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower) in spring, Liatris aspera (tall blazing star) in late summer into early fall, and wrap it up with Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (aromatic aster) in fall.
Upland gamebirds and grain-eating songbirds browse on the seeds of Bicknell's sedge, and several insects feed on the leaves. Fortunately, it's not a favorite with deer. This sedge's specific epithet honors Eugene Pintard Bicknell (1859-1925), an American botanist and ornithologist. After his death, his collections were gifted to the New York Botanical Garden by his wife.
BUY MORE, SAVE MORE
Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.
CT, DE, IA, IL, IN, KS, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, SD, VT, WI, TX |
Endangered | PA |
Possibly Extirpated | ME |
Threatened | NY, OH |
Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain | FAC |
Eastern Mountains and Piedmont | FAC |
Great Plains | FACW |
Midwest | FACU |
Northcentral and Northeast | FAC |
MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS
Code |
Status |
Designation |
Comment |
OBL |
Obligate Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Almost always occur in wetlands |
FACW |
Facultative Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Usually occur in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands |
FAC |
Facultative |
Hydrophyte |
Occur in wetlands and non-wetlands |
FACU |
Facultative Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Usually occur in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands |
UPL |
Obligate Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Almost never occur in wetlands |
Kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants |
Superdivision | Spermatophyta | Seed plants |
Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants |
Class | Liliopsida | Monocotyledons |
Subclass | Commelinidae | |
Order | Cyperales | |
Family | Cyperaceae | Sedge family |
Genus | Carex | sedge |
Species | Carex bicknellii | Bicknell's sedge |
Prairie sedge, copper-shouldered oval sedge, prairie sedge
Carex bicknellii var. bicknellii
Carex brevior var. crawei
Sizes info
Shipping is free on all plants orders!
Your plants will ship using each grower’s preferred method: FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, or Spee-Dee Ground (in select midwestern states). Our growers ship orders Monday through Wednesday. The farther your plants need to travel, the earlier in the week they will ship. The goal is to have all plants delivered by the end of the week.
Shipping plugs:
Plugs are shipped in full flats, sometimes also referred to as trays. Multiple flats can be shipped in a single box. The flats are wrapped in netting or craft paper to secure the plants, and spacers are used between flats to keep the plants from being crushed.
When you unpack your plugs, the plants will have been somewhat flattened by the netting or craft paper. They will straighten out within a couple of days. You may also gently “fluff” them a bit to speed up the process. In some cases, your plants might have been cut back before packing, if the grower deemed them to have become too tall for safe packaging. Don’t worry, though, these guys know what they’re doing and would not compromise the health of the plants. They’ll fill back in in no time.
After receiving your plants’ journey in a dark box, it will be important to acclimate them to sunlight again. Over a couple of days, you should gradually move them into their preferred light exposure, and water them as per their requirement.
Although we always recommend putting your plants in the ground as soon as possible, they can stay healthy in the flats for a considerable amount of time. The key is to respect their growing requirements: if the species requires full sun, do not store them in the shade. If it is best adapted to dry soil, do not over-water.
Planting plugs:
We consider plugs ready to ship when the plants’ roots have filled the entire liner cell and the plants can easily be pulled out. In some cases you will have to go about it gently, wiggling the plant by the crown, and possibly squeezing the bottom of the liner to compress the growing medium and release the roots. Other times, the plants will appear to be root bound. They are not in the traditional sense. The plants are healthy but they have used up all the growing medium available to them. Plugs are at an aggressive stage of growth. As soon as planted the roots will immediately expand into your native soil. They establish faster than plants in larger containers, because they don’t have the luxury of a lot of growing media that can inhibit the roots from venturing outside of their comfort zone.
We are not going to address area preparation because the process can be complex and is always site-specific. However, as a rule, we recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible, and we do not recommend amending the soil. If you chose the right plant for the right conditions they will thrive. Any disturbance and amendments will only encourage weeds to emerge that never had a chance to do so before.
Installing plugs cannot be easier: dig a hole large enough for the roots to fit snugly inside, then water them in to eliminate air gaps. We recommend using a soil knife, sometimes referred to as hori hori, or a drill-adapted auger if it’s a large installation. If you use an auger, you will need a powerful drill. Depending on the size of the project and the type of soil, the process can be beyond what an average drill will bear. Mulching is recommended after installation to help keep weeds down while the plants establish. Be sure to keep it away from the crown of the plants. For large projects, you may want to mulch the area before planting, rather than tiptoeing through it after the fact. As a side note: if you are installing plugs in the fall, you might want to plant them so that the crown is about ¾” lower than the surrounding soil. The winter’s freeze/thaw cycles can push plugs out if the roots did not have enough time to establish and anchor them in.