Lilyturf Liriope muscari Evergreen Giant

Evergreen Giant is the largest of the commonly grown lilyturfs, with broad, stiff strap leaves that stand upright instead of flopping and lilac-purple flower spikes held clear above the foliage through the warmer months. It clumps rather than runs. Where mondo grass is too short and too slow for the area being covered, this is the usual step up: mass planting under established trees, a taller border along a path or driveway, and the dry shade beds where root competition defeats most other things.

Root competition and the ground under trees

This is the liriope to reach for when the ground is full of tree roots. It takes that competition, keeps its colour through it, and gets by on low to moderate water once established, which matters because you cannot irrigate under a mature tree without feeding the tree instead. Soil can be poor, though it should not stay wet. It is frost hardy through temperate districts and fills in steadily rather than quickly, so give a mass planting one full season before judging it. Plant at roughly four to five per square metre, setting each crown level with the soil surface, since divisions buried too deep are a common cause of a slow, patchy start across a big planting. The failure mode is a maintenance one and it is entirely avoidable: skip the annual cut for a few seasons and the crowns brown out through the middle, leaving a mass of dead leaf with green fringes that one cut will not restore. Because the leaves stand upright and hold for a long time, tired foliage shows on this cultivar far more than it does on an arching form.

Giant, cascading, or a native tussock

Emerald Cascade is the arching selection of the same species and reads as a soft continuous edge, where Evergreen Giant stands up and holds a line, so choose by whether you want the border to spill or to define. Evergreen Giant also carries more bulk, which is why it gets used to fill space under trees rather than to trim a path. If the brief is native planting in an open position, Little Pal mat rush is the finer-textured alternative, though it is a plant for open ground rather than the shaded beds this one is grown for. Where a bed takes both liriopes, run Evergreen Giant through the back of it and Emerald Cascade along the front, because the difference in scale between them is real. Both are in liriope.

The late winter haircut

Maintenance is one job a year. Cut or mow the entire planting back low in late winter, before new growth pushes, and clear the clippings out of the crowns. Timing is the whole trick, because cutting too late leaves every new leaf carrying a blunt trimmed tip until the following winter. Feed after cutting back with a balanced or slow-release fertiliser and water it in, which brings the new flush through evenly across a large planting. Lift and divide congested clumps in spring where the centres have gone woody, replanting the vigorous outer pieces and discarding the middle.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 4 sizes, from 125mm up to 200mm, priced from $16.95 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.