Carex testacea - Orange sedge

Color will be orange, as the name implies. The more sun, the more orange...otherwise it can look brown or even greenish-brown.

You really don't have to cut back at all, but rather comb through it to clean it up and remove dried or dead foliage. You can cut it back to tidy it up, but I wouldn't cut it back more than you did already.

Carex testacea is a cool season grass, I'd expect it to be doing quite well right now for you. It should be hardy for you. I've seen it listed anywhere from zone 5 to zone 7, but I believe it to be a solid zone 6 (Rick Darke lists it as such).

Give it a few weeks of spring weather and see how it's doing.

I have a bit different opinion :-) Unfortunately, I believe these are dead. Carex testacea is native to New Zealand and it is highly unlikely it survives our zone 6. Rick Darke's opinion not withstanding, the minimum temperature quoted by most resources is 15-10F, which translates roughly to zone 7b/8a. I work in sales for a wholesale grower of these grasses and we do not market them to any of our customers below zone 7. I also do not recommend cutting back hard any of the evergreen New Zealand sedges - they generally seem to resent such a harsh treatment and seldom respond well. Often they die off completely, even in my very mild climate.

GG, You certainly might be right...it may have succumbed to cold at this point. I know I would have if I lived in Indiana this winter. lhsgrad2000 may be in zone 5 as well.

I'm going to stand by Rick's zone 6 assessment on this one tho', since testacea has been shown to be one of the hardier copper/brown/orange New Zealand sedges, along with Carex tenuiculmis 'Cappuccino'...southern New Zealand.