Plant of the Week
Lilyturf, Liriope
Latin: Liriope muscari 'Variegata'
Landscape styles, while maybe not quite as fickle as Paris fashion trends,
continually evolve as dictated by the whims, wants and needs of the gardening
public.
Here in the South, the leading purveyor of landscape style has long been
Southern Living. The magazine has both chronicled the change over time and
significantly influenced the magnitude of the change.
This year at the Arkansas Flower and Garden Show, Steve Bender, a garden
editor with the magazine, will travel to Little Rock from Birmingham, Ala., and
discuss his perspective on landscaping, southern style.
Certainly one of the plants that has helped define the southern landscape
style is Liriope, the quintessential edging plant. This mostly evergreen member
of the lily family grows in dense clumps with only long, grasslike leaves seen
above ground. Plants ultimately reach 16 inches in height and form clumps 8-10
inches across at the base.
The variegated form has a creamy yellow margin that runs the length of the
leaf. It makes a nice color contrast for other evergreens or to brighten dark
corners of the landscape.
Lilyturf flowers in August when most of us are tethered to the lifeline of
our air conditioners and miss its elegant display. Flowers are light blue,
individually small but borne up a slender scape that is held above the foliage.
The species epitaph, "muscari," is descriptive of what the individual flowers
look like – tiny grape hyacinth flowers.
Liriope makes an effective display when the flowers appear and undeniably
makes Liriope one of the plants with multiple seasons of interest. After
flowering, pea-size black berries form that persist well into winter.
Like many of our favorite southern landscape plants, Liriope hails from
southeast Asia. There are two species common in cultivation. Liriope muscari
is the polite, well-mannered species that stays in an orderly clump where its
planted. L. spicata is a bit more rambunctious and seems to have world
domination on its tiny green brain. This latter species is rhizomatous and
spreads with abandon when conditions are to its liking. It’s only available as a
green-leafed form and is only about two-thirds the size of L. muscari.
Steve Bender will speak at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 2, at the Arkansas Flower
and Garden Show at the newly remodeled Statehouse Convention Center. Other
speakers during the three- day show include Glenn Stokes of Stokes Tropicals in
New Iberia, La., Greg Grant of Stephen F. Austin University, who will discuss
aspects of cottage gardening, and David Slawson, who will discuss principles
that can be learned from Japanese gardens.
Caring for Liriope in the landscape is an easy task. While it’s evergreen,
its leaves don’t last forever. Usually, by late February, lilyturf foliage is
beginning to look a bit shopworn and bedraggled. It should be cut to the ground
before any new leaves begin to push their way up from the crown of the plant.
If division is on your mind, spring is an ideal time to do this chore. Reset
the divisions at the same level they were growing.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
February 23, 2001
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