Plant Profile: Uncinia Rubra

I love this little grass!

Technically it's not actually a grass, it is a sedge: not one of those over-large, coarse invasive Carexes that we all know and hate love,  but an Uncinia, or New Zealand Hook-sedge, which is not a particularly attractive name, for a very attractive plant.

It's evergreen, but evergreen is the wrong word as it is one of the brightest copper-red grasses that  you can buy.

Isn't that glorious?

They are very well behaved, only growing to about a foot high, slow-growing, and tending to form dense clumps.

Although you would buy this plant for the foliage, they do also flower briefly in summer, and if you are lucky, you will get seedlings.

The colour is quite variable, some come up much redder than others, so personally I pot up any chance seedlings and then choose the ones with the best colour to grow on for sale.

You don't often see them for sale: internet research suggests that they are not fully hardy,  but I have them in my cold, east-facing front yard and they seem to be perfectly happy there.

They are very easy-care, and totally low maintenance: all you have to do is rake gently through them in early spring, to remove any dead leaves.

And they certainly bring a splash of colour to the garden in winter, unlike many of the "red" grasses which tend to be very brown and dead-looking over the winter.

Here are a trayfull of last year's seedlings, growing on nicely and ready for sale later this year - this photo was taken on a cold horrible late February day:

Quite bright and cheerful, aren't they? *laughs*

They nicely complement another of my favourites, Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens':

this one has to be my ultimate favourite black "grass".  Also known as Black Mondo, great name, or Black Lily Turf, mmm, not so much.  Both of these two look good growing through gravel, and particularly when grown in contemporary pots.

Talking of pots, I'm just in the process of planting up a Pot Garden:  

Pot garden, part planted

So far I've used one of each of the Uncinia and the Ophiopogon, along with a stiff upright red grass (not very red at this time of year, which proves my point about the Uncinia) and, at the bottom, a dear little Auricula which is just starting to grow for this season.

I've used small plants of each, in order to stay in proportion with the pot.

Plenty of spaces left for other plants: hmm, what shall I put in there, I wonder?

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