Zone 5+ Liriope Envy (Hosta Companion)

10 years ago

So, I admit to a severe case of Zone 4 liriope envy. I was already plagued with 'I only wish I could grow it here' and then, Guacamole Don pushed me over the edge when he posted a pix of his lovely clump of yellow variegated liriope.

Earlier in the summer, I decided to gamble on some Zone 5 hardy Silver Dragon liriope spicata...bought some off of eBay and rec'd a miniscule little start of it. Planted it out in the garden & it had grown some.

Anyway, I got to thinking...

Last summer, I had gotten a small little start of mondo grass as a bonus on another eBay purchase. Thought the seller was nutz for wasting postage on shipping it to Zone 4. Anyhoo, I potted it up and grew it outdoors over the rest of last summer & brought it indoors for the winter, fully expecting it to belly-up. Somewhat to my surprise, it survived the winter & my neglect and has grown nicely outdoors over the summer. Just up-potted it, matter of fact.

So, thinking of that mondo grass, I went a-googling and learned that the variegated gold liriope muscari can be grown as a houseplant...supposedly often used in mall plantings. Since I avoid malls like the plague, I'd a never known!

hmmm....went eBay shopping...and just rec'd three very generous divisions of the variegated gold stuff and, while I was waiting for it to arrive, decided to pot up my zone marginal Silver Dragon...(esp. with the long range forecast of a bitterly cold winter.)

Very long story short, if anyone else up here on the Frozen Tundra has a hankering for that stuff that they grown down in The Tropics (all points south of Madison, WI, that is), ya' might wanna' consider giving it a try indoors over winter.

(FYI, I got my 'very generous' divisions from seller 'gnp2011' on eBay.)

Featured Answer

mosswitch

10 years ago

I have a love-hate relationship with lirope. I have it as a border in front of a row of oak-leaf hydrangeas I planted to block the view of a brush pile at the end of my woods, I love it there. I dug out a 5' row of it in front of a rose bed to plant that 50' border, lol! I hated it there. If it makes a ground cover under the hydrangeas, I won't mind, there is nothing else planted there. I just use that spot to toss garden debris and have for years so it's good compost.

Some are more aggressive than others. The white-flowered one is demonic. The purple one, not so much. I like the little black mondo, and had plans for it in my shade garden, but the deer pulled it all up and I didn't notice until they were dead and dry. I'll try again this time with landscape pins to hold it down.

I have a circle of the white flowered one around a tree at the edge of the woods, growing in a big pile of rock. I like it there. So far. I hated it in a bed at the top of a rock garden, where it took over the whole thing. I had to dig up the whole bed to get it out, and I'm still finding bits and pieces of it in there. I planted that in a border in front of tall mums, but it grew too fast and I hated it there. Dug that up too.

The variegated green and white borders a daylily bed, and it has behaved itself for a good 15 years. I like that one a lot. A couple clumps of the green and gold share space around a rock with toad lily, daffodils, woods poppy and a sedum. I like that too, as long as it behaves..

I guess it's location, location and the type of liriope too.

Sandy

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