Prefers moist shade. In much sun, it tends to bleach out and gets lots of dried looking foliage over time and since it is fully evergreen in my climate, it doesn't get cut back so tends to look messy unless you go in and carefully groom out the dried blades. In fact, I can't say how well it will respond to a heavy pruning.......most evergreen sedges do not but YMMV. And it definitely spreads!!

In my garden it spreads quite vigorously, a good thing since each winter the voles munch it, both the roots and the top growth. Its vigor means there are always some sprigs left to resprout in spring, but I also have to clean out a bunch of dead foliage from where the voles ate just the roots. Mine get a few hours of morning sun, but then are shaded by a tall building and some pines for the rest of the day.

Great, thank you both! I was wanting to use it like a groundcover in a north facing bed, so it sounds like it would work pretty well there.

Thanks for the links Rouge! I wonder why I didn't see that thread when I searched.

Too bad the Hameln didn't do so well, they looked charming together.

I bought a single Carex 'Ice Dance' 10+ years ago, planted it on the north side of my garage in full shade. About 6 years ago I decided to divide it and plant the divisions as a border along the curved edge of a part shade bed on a slope at the north side of my garden. I divided it into about 16 pieces, gave a couple to my daughter and planted the others as I pleased. The divisions "exploded" with growth and although they do form an "enthusiastic" border along the edge of the bed, they do produce off-springs which also multiply. It's not invasive but I stand by "enthusiastic."

I alternated the C. 'Ice Dance' divisions along the edge of the bed with Alchemilla mollis/Lady's mantle with spacing of about 11 inches either side. The Lady's mantle didn't stand a chance against the 'Ice Dance.' There are a couple that remain...

Thanks gardenweed! I was hoping to use it as a border on my north bed too. Glad it works well for that purpose. This is a bed I don't tinker as much in, so I think "enthusiastic" would be perfect - less weeds to fight.

FWIW greenhearted here is a picture of our two ID one year after they both went in the ground:

I agree with the "enthusiastic" spreader description. I have mine in a few different locations and it does well in all of them. After winter, I cut it back once it blooms. If it reseeds, I've gotten only solid green seedlings, which are even more vigorous than 'Ice Dance.'

Thanks Rouge, looks like they put on quite a bit of growth but not scary amounts. Very nice plants!

Thanks Ruth about the heads up with the reseeding; for some reason I thought this was a sterile cultivar.

Very easy plant in its preferred conditions and looks great once leafed out, pretty tough plant. Will spread at a good clip, as mentioned already. Be forewarned: It is butt-ugly in the spring.

Thanks for the heads up about the "bedhead" in the spring, mxk3

UPDATE:

greenhearted, although right now the weather is unseasonably warm we have had some killing frosts earlier and this grass just shrugs it off. It still looks perfect. Here it is today November 5 with fallen leaves all around.

Those look like nice clumps. From the discussions of the plant being a spreader I didn't expect it to clump. Kept mine in a large pot this year. It didn't grow much as got covered by the huge coleus in the pot.

mnwsgal, I dont have much experience with grasses but this and the "All Gold Japanese Forest Grass" look really healthy well into November.

Thanks for the update Rouge! Mine are still in the pots I bought them in! They have proven themselves to be quite tough as they look perfect despite my neglect. I decided at the last minute that I wanted to redo the whole North bed that I was going to put them in, so I'm just going to overwinter them in their pots.

Agree with mnwsgal that the dense clumps you have are especially attractive.