Winter foliage color

From the window above my kitchen sink my eye was recently caught by two foliage plants growing on either side of a large boulder. While their color is noticeable in the summer, it is at this moment with no snow and mostly brown surroundings that they are especially striking.

The temperature today — Dec. 29 — is also striking: 54°F. at 8:00 a.m. this morning and a balmy 56°F. at 2 p.m. as I write this.  

Carex platyphylla, a sedge with distinctly blue foliage.

Lizula sylvatica 'Solar Flare' is a woodrush, not a sedge. 

Carex plantaginea is growing across the driveway from C. platyphylla so it is easy to see how blue that sedge is compared to this variety. 

Comments

[Lisa at Greenbow]

I love that seersucker sedge. I have never seen the one with blue foliage. Pretty, and so is the woodrush.
It is unusually warm here too. It has rained a lot today. We need it.

[Kris P]

Ha! Our afternoon temperatures were the same today! Of course, we don't consider 56F at all balmy. I'm glad you're not seeing all white landscapes at the moment.

[Frank]

Cool! I think I have a similar sedge, maybe a named form of carex platyphylla, and I was surprised to see it's kept its foliage. Shows how much I researched before planting it! Actually your name came to mind when I bought it, I figured it was about time I grew up and think of something other than flower color!
Warm here as well. Snowdrops are coming up and a few are nearly flowering. It should be an interesting February....

[Linda Brazill]

A number of my Carexes keep their color if they aren't buried by the snow. Then again, these have been snowed under twice and had single digit temps and they pop back when it rains and hits 50!

Supposed to get 2-4" of snow overnight. I won't mind a little protection for the garden as the temps are going down again. Looks like we will miss the brunt of the storm, which is good since we have a couple of dozen or more coming for brunch on New Year's morning.

After the holiday I need to sit down and think about what I ordered late in the season and where the heck I am going to plant it!

Here's to an improved 2020 on all fronts.

[Linda Brazill]

So crazy that we should have the same temperature. Rained a fair amount Sat. and Sunday but I put my rain gauge away when it got cold in the fall as it's plastic and I don't want to crack it. Thus I really don't know how much rain we got.