Carex scoparia
broom sedge

Characteristics

Descriptions

Light Requirements

sun, part-sun, part-shade

Soil Moisture

moist, wet

Soil Description

acid, average, loam, clay, sand

Height

18"-30"

Bloom Time

May, June, July

Bloom Color

green

Hardiness Zone

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

More Filters

food for birds, colonizing, deer resistant, pond margin plant, stream margin plant

Description

Carex scoparia, with an average height of about 2', is a relatively tall sedge. This sedge has an erect and clumping habit, forming dense tussocks over time via a fibrous and short-rhizomatous root system. It is fine-textured, with 3/16" wide medium to dark-green leaves. The culms (flower-bearing stems) are up to 3' tall, and bear 5 to 10 wedge-shaped spikelets that are 1/2" long.

Cultivation

Broom sedge can be found growing in high quality sites such as wet prairies, wet meadows, marshes, fens, open floodplain forests, margins of ponds, streams and creeks, as well as in disturbed sites such as wet roadsides and ditches. It thrives in wet locations under full to part-sun, and will tolerate drier, but consistently moist condition, in part-shade. Too much shade, however, will lead to the plant's decline. Like most sedges, this is a cool season species that grows actively in spring, and has a second flush in fall when the temperatures cool down. It is low maintenance and non-aggressive. It can be used for freshwater wetland restoration and erosion control, in wet meadows and along stream or pond margins, in rain gardens and stormwater management projects. Zones 3-8

Additional Notes

Carex scoparia is a host plant for various insects, including several species of skippers and moths, and the seeds are a food source for birds, including ducks, rails, and some songbirds. It is unpalatable to deer.
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Pricing & Availability

Pricing & Availability

To view our Pricing and Availability, you will need to enter your shipping destination zip code.

You can also do so on any species page.

 

Izelplants
Please note, we are unable to ship to:

AZ, CA, CO, FL, ID, LA, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY

Grouped product items
Pricing & Availability

Full Flats

Kind Earth Growers , PA

Available:

72-count plugs, full flat (72 plugs)
$179.85
$2.50 per plant - Sold in full flats only

67 available

See all plugs sold by Kind Earth Growers.

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72-Count Plugs

72-count plug

Size
1 ½” x 1 ½” across by 2 ¼” deep. They are referred to as 72s.

Recommended Uses
72s are starter plugs. They are usually transplanted into larger pots and readied for resale. They can be planted directly into the landscape but will require additional care due to their small size.

Pros
Economical because they require less resources, time, and space to produce. One of the cheapest purchasing options.

Cons
They are small, young plants with little margin for error: They can be damaged in shipping, require skill to nurse in the flats or pot up. They will require more TLC than larger plants when installed directly in the landscape. They should not be used as filler plants where previously established plants will compete for available resources.

Maps, Wetland Status & More

MAP OF NATIVE RANGE

Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.

More Information

Native To

More Information
AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, AZ, CA, CO, ID, LA, MT, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY

Legal Status

Wetland Status

Arid WestFACW
Atlantic and Gulf Coastal PlainFACW
Eastern Mountains and PiedmontFACW
Great PlainsFACW
MidwestFACW
Northcentral and NortheastFACW
Western Mountains, Valleys, and CoastFACW

 

MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS

Wetland Status regions

 
Northcentral and Northeast
 
Eastern Mountains and Piedmont
 
Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain
 
Midwest
 
Great Plains
 
Western Mountains, Valleys, and Coast
 
Arid West

Interpreting Wetland Status

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

Classification

KingdomPlantaePlants
SubkingdomTracheobiontaVascular plants
SuperdivisionSpermatophytaSeed plants
DivisionMagnoliophytaFlowering plants
ClassLiliopsidaMonocotyledons
SubclassCommelinidae
OrderCyperales
FamilyCyperaceaeSedge family
GenusCarexsedge
SpeciesCarex scopariabroom sedge

ADDITIONAL COMMON NAMES:

pointed broom sedge, lance-fruited oval sedge

Plant Sizes

Sizes Sizes

Sizes info

Shipping & Planting

SHIPPING 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 INFO:

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.