One of my proudest native plant gardening achievements: Gray’s Sedge (Carex grayi) is blooming!

Sedges are notoriously difficult to grow from seed, and I have experienced this many times now. I winter sowed this species in plug trays 3 winters ago – the seed packet only had enough to barely cover 5 plugs and the "seeds" provided were massive (I could only buy these from Prairie Moon and they sent what looked like individual perigynium that were entirely dried out). It took until mid-July until I realized one was growing, and I planted it in August in this spot…

It seemed to do just fine and I left it alone that year (2024). Last year it grew larger but didn't bloom. However, this year? BAM! I've got a wonderfully unique and truly beautiful sedge blooming intermixed with Hairy Woodmint, Sweet Joe-Pye Weed, Large-leaved Aster, Thicket Creeper, Bottlebrush Grass, Eastern Star Sedge, and several other native plant species (I really wish I could grow more sedges myself). This is a rather rare sedge in MN that grows almost exclusively in floodplain forests along rivers in the wild, but it seems to be doing very well on my little property! Just another reminder to not forget about the graminoids!