Evergold is the standard among variegated sedges, the one newer selections get measured against: narrow arching blades with a butter-yellow center and thin dark green edges, holding that color through all four seasons. It makes a tidy fountain a foot to a foot and a half each way.

A sedge rather than a grass, which is exactly the use for it — part shade to shade, where most ornamental grasses insist on sun. Keep the soil reasonably moist. Never cut it to the ground the way you would a miscanthus: rake your fingers through the clump in early spring and pull the dead blades free.