Friday, May 15, 2015

Transplanting Liriope Lilyturf Groundcover

The April shower continued through May and now my low growing groundcover has become invasive and needs to be divided and transplanted.



I grow three groundcovers in my yard; Baltic ivy, Vinca flowering vine and Liriope  lilyturf which is a low growing grass like plant that flowers in the fall.  

Know that in late winter I did trim back the liriope but the spring rain made it grow in twice the size that it was before and now husband says we need to thin it out and shape it before it takes over the entire front yard.  I agreed and added this garden project to my list of things to do.

The best time to tackle this garden project would be on a cloudy day. Today was cloudy so I started to thin out the liriope with my spade. I selected large clumps and dug them up. Then dividing the clumps and transplanting to grow around my mature oak tree. (the photo you see above was taken in the fall when the flowers were blooming) 

I was able to remove six feet of the plants before calling it a day. The mosquitos were very bad, and my repellent did not seem to keep them away. Even the citronella fire torch did not keep the biting bugs away so I called it a day and went inside.

Know that my groundcover garden does not look thinned out but I think that when I remove several more plant clumps that it will look better.  I plan to get up early tomorrow morning and work on this project before it rains in the afternoon.

View this youtube.com video to learn more about dividing and transplanting liriope.


If you are interested in growing liriope in your garden then I would recommend that you ask your friends if they are transplanting and if they can spare to give you some plants.  Otherwise you can buy groundcover plants at any of the following online stores.

eBay.com
greenwoodnusrsery.com
gardenerdirect.com
ckassygroundcovers.com

2 comments:

Sheila Brown said...

This looks like what I call "monkey grass". If it is, I have a lot of it that needs to be thinned this year. I gave clumps of it to one of my daughter in laws last year. I hope she wants more this year!

S Golis said...

Yes it is monkey grass and it can get invasive if you do not keep it under control. I used it this year on my slope where it is hard to mow, it is growing in nicely. Transplanted 30 clumps and have 100 clumps to go.