Re: [gardeners] gardeners Digest V2 #1278

M T (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 4 Oct 2001 23:26:05 -0700 (PDT) 

Hi Penny,

 Sounds like you have the regular Var. Liriope. It's a
great staple here in the south as an edger along the
front walkway. Almost as familiar as azeleas and
southern magnolias.
 There are 2 general groups of liriope, clumpers and
runners. I can't remember the latin for the clumping
liriope group, but I believe  the 'runners' group is
L. spicata.
 The clumpers generally have a much broader and longer
leaf blade and include the var. liriope (handles full
sun reasonably well), Big Blue (green leaves pushing 2
feet tall and blue blooms), Monroe's White (dark green
leaves with white blooms, needs a good bit of shade
here in the south).
  The L. spicata's include the 'generic' green running
liriope (1 gal plants spaced on 1 foot centers will
fill in as a solid ground cover in about 3 years if
they are happy), Silver dragon (a personal favorite,
bright white stripes and darker green, can have
several stripes of each per leaf. Grows about as slow
as the black mondo grass though.) 
 Most all of their flower spikes slowly mature to
shiny black berries, almost as pretty as the flower
spike.

 I've heard people use the term 'Monkey grass' for
both liriope and Mondo grass.

 Some of the mondo's include the generic green (about
6-8 inches), a dwarf version of the green. a great
white and green variety with very thin leaves(bright
white variegation is a personal hobby) and the black
mondo.

I trim all of the above in late February, the new
growth starts to pop up here around the begining of
March. If you clip the tips of the leaves the don't
grow back, so if you're, um, "a little late with your
spring garden chores" (not next year...) you either
have to work around each peice of new growth or ignore
the missing tips.

 About 2-3 years ago the mega marts were selling
something called Aztec grass, It looked like var.
liriope on steriods. Since I hadn't found silver
dragon for about 5 years (until I found it again this
year) I assumed Aztec grass was a faster growing
replacement. Aztec grass was taller than silver dragon
and seemed to be a lot more robust, but it had much
creamier varigation than the bright white of silver
dragon.

HTH

Matt

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 12:37:09 -0400
> From: penny x stamm <pennyx1@Juno.com>
> Subject: Re: [gardeners] Liriope vs monkey grass
> 
> Martha, I have opiophogon, mondo grass, the black
> variety. It
> has never done much for itself.  The Missouri
> Botanical Garden
> has its pathways lined with the green variety inside
> the 10 acre
> Japanese garden, and it is stunning. Maintains its
> single-file
> pattern of growth as an edger. 
> 
> What might be liriope is certainly a bright green,
> stands out even
> though planted in shade. It has never acted like a
> ground cover -
> I started with 4 plants 3 years ago, and I still
> have 4 plants -- but 
> they have grown more  robust. In spring they look
> like a bit of a 
> mess. but I hand clean off the old leaves, and lots
> of fresh leaves
> spring to life. Remember, the slightly-creamy white
> stripes are
> the full length of each long leaf on the left and
> right outer edges. 
> The bloom is a tall and very purple spike -- quite a
> few per plant,
> scattered throughout the foliage, very late
> September.. It is a 
> much taller and wider plant than the mondo grass.
> 
> 
> Penny, NY
> 


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