Lilyturf Liriope muscari Emerald Cascade

Emerald Cascade is a Liriope muscari selection chosen for how its leaves behave. Instead of standing stiff and upright, the broad dark green straps arch out and fold over, so a row of it reads as one soft continuous edge, not a line of separate tufts. Spikes of small purple flowers push up above the foliage in the warmer months, followed by dark berries. It is planted as a border along paths and driveways, as mass planting under trees, and through dry shade where little else holds its shape.

A clumper, not a runner

The most useful thing about it is what it does not do. Emerald Cascade clumps and stays put, unlike Liriope spicata, which runs on underground stems and pushes into neighbouring beds and lawn, so an edge planted with this one stays where it was drawn for years. It tolerates root competition under established trees, gets by on low to moderate water once established, and is frost hardy through temperate districts. Soil can be ordinary provided it is not permanently wet. The failure mode is heat and reflection. Planted tight against a hot brick wall, a paved edge or a metal fence, the leaf tips brown off and the arching habit reads as scorched rather than soft, and because these leaves are long-lived that damage sits there until the next cut back. Give it some relief from reflected heat. Plant at roughly five per square metre for mass planting, or about 30 cm apart along a border for a continuous edge inside a season or two. It is not mondo grass, which is finer, lower and much slower, and the two are often shelved side by side; the liriope will fill the same bed in a fraction of the time.

Cascading edge or upright line

Evergreen Giant is the same species selected for the opposite habit, taller and stiffly upright, holding a defined line rather than spilling over one. Use Evergreen Giant where you want bulk and a formal edge, and Emerald Cascade where you want the border to soften over a path edge or a low wall. For the deeper, drier shade under a dense canopy, cast iron plant takes conditions that will thin a liriope out, though it covers ground far more slowly. Neither liriope runs, so an edge of either can sit against a lawn without a root barrier, which is the practical reason both get specified ahead of Liriope spicata. Both sit in liriope.

One shear, before the new leaves move

Shear the whole planting hard back in late winter, before new leaves start to move, and take it low. Cutting after growth has begun leaves blunt, trimmed tips on the new leaves that stay visible for the rest of the year. A mower on its highest setting does the job on a large planting. Follow the cut with a balanced fertiliser and water it in to push even regrowth. Divide congested clumps in spring every few years if the centres thin out. Snails and slugs will chew the flower spikes as they emerge, particularly through a wet spring.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 2 sizes, from 140mm up to 200mm, priced from $17.95 to $29.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to low water gardens.