Monkeying Around with Monkey Grass - Monkey Grass Beds with Monkey Grass Borders

Monkey grass (Liriope muscari or Liriope spicata) is not a grass.

The two species, muscari and spicata, often referred to as clumping lilyturf and creeping lilyturf respectively, are not in the lily family either, but in the asparagus family. Don't go thinking about sauteing or roasting up some liriope in some extra virgin olive, butter, garlic and lemon; then drizzly on some aioli. Although, it does sound delicious.

People's opinions somewhat near that "love-it-or-hate-it" attitude, like those I sometimes hear about plants such as nandina, azaleas, loropetalums, etc. Frankly, I appreciate the proper species placed in the right location. And, sometimes I'm thinking, "No. You didn't."

Muscari, due to its clumping habit, is great for borders, edges and delineating a bed, walkway or vignette, while spicata is a wonderful groundcover as it will take off and expand its original footprint once established.

Both have their own slight physical differences and there are several cultivars within each species.

Several years ago I was on a customer's property doing several projects over many months while also performing routine maintenance. There was this rather large bed with sizable shrubs and three to four substantial trees. In the area which constituted the edge of the bed where the driveway met the walk to the front door, was a field of monkey grass.

At that time it was all about the same height and was spreading into the bed, but not truly encroaching any of the other plants. It appeared that spicata (creeping liriope) was used as the border and it spread into the bed. I thought, "Wouldn't it be more attractive if I shaped (created) a monkey grass border and treat the remainder as a monkey grass bed? Yes!" It would also help the other plants stand out. I pictured a height, shape and depth for the border and began shaping the border, considering what height I wanted for the bed.

This can work if you have a vision, a light-weight combination string edger/trimmer, a good eye and two deft hands.

Due to lighting and angles, it make also take a good eye to recognize the variations and shapes of the monkey grass border and bed creation in these photos.

I slightly ramped up the ends of the border for another effect.

Those little interesting looking glossy plants are Farfugium japonicum var. giganteum, also known as giant leopard and tractor seat (a farmerism) plants.

Oh, this bed or vignette, is just one of many on another gorgeous property I am honored to work on. Unfortunately, the owner has one hell of an irrigation system and at this time of year I am almost always in catch-up mode. That's okay.

Thanks, Terri!?