The garden stores sell annual grasses for gardeners who want a soft grassy look in containers or as a temporary plant in a bed they change every year.

The sedges are a big group with a lot of them hardy to the south. You have to look at the zone on the tag before you buy. There are quite a few northern-hardy ones....some can be a bit invasive. As a group they are great plants!

You can over-winter yours in a cool basement or garage if you'd like. Just don't let it freeze. It'll go dormant, keep the roots slightly damp and bring it back outside after your frost date next spring.

Just looked your grass up.
Carex 'Amazon Mist' is a cultivar of Carex comans.
I grow Carex comans 'Bronze Form' in my zone 5 garden & it survives most of our winters. I might loose one every couple of years.
It sounds like you bought more than one - why not keep one indoors (as suggested above) as insurance & plant the rest outdoors?

achnatherum...hello!

I'm surprised to hear that you've been able to over-winter carex comans Bronze in your zone. We are in 5b here, but I think maybe because of our heavy clay soil and lack of snow cover we can't carry it over.

What is the soil like in your area? Do you have good snow cover most of the winter or does it fluctuate? Are yours planted near the house or some other protection?

Just curious....I'd love to be able to go some other Carex!

ohiogdnr
I am gardening on quite sandy soil.
If I loose any of my carex it is often in the spring - I don't think that they like cold wet weather at that point in their growth. I almost always give mine a haircut in the spring (I know they say not to) and they bush out beautifully. I will take a picture of a couple & post it here if you like. There are a number of 'bronze' coloured carexs out there & I am convinced that some are much hardier than others. I have grown Carex flagellifera and another bronze-coloured one (must look in my records) that have also done well here.
I do also have great luck keeping them over the winter in patio pots in my garage - kept from going lower than 30F (-2C)
One of my prettiest bronze grasses has a lot of seed if you're intersted ....
A.

This thread is exactly what I was looking for! I'm planning on buying some of the hardier z5-9 sedges for outdoor planters and was wondering if I could over-winter them in the planters, here in z7? These would be un-established, newly acquired ones, and, of course, planters get colder than the ground.

What do we think, will they survive? Or should I stick them in the basement? Or just buy them in the spring (though they're on sale NOW!) and deal with it then.

I'm talking about Carex elata Bowles Golden, Carex morrowii Ice Dance, or Carex Kaga Nashiki Gold Fountains. Some of the brown ones look really cool, but, as the OP discovered, they're not as hardy. Still, I might get some of those, too, and stick them in the basement, per ohiogdnr's suggestion

btw, information on the catalogue sale I mentioned is below; I've gotten other things from Santa Rosa Gardens and been very satisfied with quality, size and price.

Here is a link that might be useful: Santa Rosa Gardens carex page

fmogul,
what is your minium winter temp??
I overwinter a number of grasses, including the bronze carex, in decorative pots, in my garage.
The garage is kept around -1C (32F). These plants do quite well under these conditions.
A.

I'm just getting into ornamental grasses, and am glad to have found this forum. I live in the high desert west, and am hoping to overwinter some of my grasses. I'll post again once I determine what kind they are...Thanks

achnatherum,

Thanks for following up and asking for more details. Sorry to have been offline and not respond sooner.

I was hoping to plant these grasses -- and potentially even the more tender ones (that is, before I read this thread) -- in outdoor planters that would be too large to move into the basement or any place else (and we don't have a garage). But I'd only do this if I were convinced they'd survive. Larger containers would be better insulated than small pots, but they'd still be above-ground, of course, and therefore relatively cold.

In our little brownstone Brooklyn micro-climate, we do get to freezing, and even lower (in the 20s and teens) a handful of times each winter, but overall the winters aren't too bad.

I could buy the on-sale plants now, leave them outside in their current pots until first frost, and then put them in the basement. But a) there's NO light down there, and b) once I planted them in the spring, I'd want them to then last outdoors, above ground, for the duration. What do you think?

That being said, at $3 each, if they only lasted one growing season and didn't survive the next winter, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Still cheaper than a lot of annuals!

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Fred

Fred,
At that price I would certainly give them at try outdoors in your larger planters.
I am growing all these varieties in the ground & at least once per winter our temps go down to -20C (-4F) with unreliable snow cover so .... I'm guessing life in a pot in your garden can't be much worse :o)
You might consider putting the pots close to the house during the coldest parts of the winter.
Would love to hear how your plants make out over the winter - post here underr a new subject & let us all know.
A.
ps, if you are looking for a FAB smaller grass for containers I would highly recommend Hakonechloa sp. & cultivars.