Black Mondo Grass
Black Mondo Grass- Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens
I like this low growing easy to care for plant. Since it only gets about six inches tall and wide it can be used in a lot of places where other plants can’t.
Black Mondo Grass
These photos of my Black Mondo Grass aren’t great, but I’ll add more later. I really like Black Mondo Grass but I’ve yet to use it properly in my landscape. Because it’s so dark in color it tends to get lost in the bed. Unlike the Liriope that you see planted in this same bed the Mondo Grass does self propagate. That can be good thing or a bad thing, depending on where you use and what you are using it for.
I thought that by mixing it with the Liriope I’d get a nice contrast and I have. But as is often the case when you mix plants they grow to different sizes at different rates and it’s just not keeping up with the Liriope which had a head start. So . . . since this stuff likes to self propagate I am going to buy more of it and plant it all in a large bed at the nursery. That way I can dig and divide and always have an Endless Supply of Plants to Sell.
Black Mondo Grass
Black Mondo Grass really works best when planted in mass plantings or used as a border. And since it does spread keep that in mind as you decide where it is going to be planted. The tiny lavender flowers appear in mid summer. They are not prominent but they are so delicate that you can’t help but appreciate them.
Black Mondo Grass
Black Mondo Grass is not really an evergreen, but the foliage does last all winter until it is replaced with new growth in the spring. It’s said to be deer resistant, likes some shade, and it’s not real fussy about soil conditions. It seems to do well in zones 5 through 10.
This is why we need more people growing and selling plants like this from home. Online they want about $7.50 for a 3-1/2″ pot of this stuff. Plus shipping. Our Backyard Growers could sell it all day long at $4.97 in a larger container and still make great money. Many of them would probably sell it for $3.97.
Here’s a list of Backyard Growers by state. See if any near you have Black Mondo Grass.
Hey
thats a great plant….. now if I could only find a plant that is all orange…
jT
JT you must be from TN!
My favorite orange plant is the exbury azalea. It comes in many colors, but has a very bright orange variety.
Did you start these from seed?
There are some some heuchera cultivars that are almost orange. “Marmalade” is one I’ve seen.
JT
Check out
Schizachyrium scoparium.
It is suppose to be shades of orange.
Great stuff, fairly pricey in these parts, though. Did a border with this and and Huechera “Citronelle” behind it, nice contrast.
mike i like all the things you send me thank you for shareing them with me
coy
And you can just mow this when it gets ratty. It’s a great groundcover that soaks up runoff water. A landscape co. planted this around the school where I taught, with the understanding that they could come back and thin out when they needed some.
Pam, this plant that soaks up runoff water. is the black mondo? I need something to soak up runoff.
Thanks
I like the black mondo grass. I haven’t seen it before. Thanks for letting us know about it.
If it’s deer resistant,we could plant it in our garden. We do have that problem.
I’ve tried growing Ophiopogon twice, a few places in the garden (zone 7a), and indoors in pots. Both unsuccessful, in spite of my attempts to give it the right conditions. Found this to be slow-growing and and very slow spreading. Also expensive ($15 at the nursery). Definitely beautiful plant. Perhaps best suited for a container garden. On the other hand, I have varigated liriope under a tree and it is much easier to grow, and seems to thrive on neglect.
My black Mondo grass is not as black as yours. I don’t know if it’s the climate and soil type that makes mine a deep green. the flowers are the same as yours
does anyone know how to get rid of ground wasp?
they are digging tunnels in my flower bed.
ground wasp and any other critters, spray apple cider vinegar on your garden it will get rid of all your pest and will not harm your plants, and to best of my knowledge it does not kill a number of beneficial insects. As for Black Mondo I love it. I am a big fan of monkey and mondo grass, even though blk mondo is extremely expensive for a grass the cheapest I have seen it is 9.97, I am on a great number of nursery and plant sights. Back to apple cider vinegar, it is the absolute best thing on the market for anything questions just ask I will explain brttsan@aol.com
I noticed the black mondo in the last email. I had a customer who just loves black and ordered these. Here in Fla. it does better in some shade and it is very slow growing. My customer paid a good deal more for hers–more like $10 each and so when a couple of them died, it was a bit of a crisis. I was able to divide some from the others for her though. No worries.
I actually have Mondo Grass and it is in bloom as I write this. Not all the sections of it are in bloom. It was planted around a pond that I removed. It does have a very delicate lilac colored bloom against the black spears of leaves. I never noticed the blooms until today. Now I believe I’ll divide it and grow more. Yay! Thanks for all the suggestions.
I have a question for another posting. Living in Washington State we have lots of slugs. Are there any plants that they don’t feast on? I’d like to plant some. They are better than goats at clearing a flowerbed, sometimes. Thanks for any information you might share.
I planted black mondo grass in some shaded landscape beds, because I read that they would do well in shade. They have not done great, but they have survived, and all of them are propating. I suspect in a few years I could have beds full of nothing but black mondo grass, if I gave it free rein. It’s an interesting plant, but I’m not sure yet that I have maximized its potential.
Mike,I thank you for all your information,I love plants may someday sell them myself, you seem so helpful I really appreciate that
Why can’t You research plantsa that are beautiful & native? Our wild areas,what’s left of them are full of crap plants from china & japan that don’t aid wildlife at all! if You lived in Miami,You would see the devastation that has been caused by people who are all about who has the latest trend in foreign plants.To hell with a healthy world.Japenese yews have tons of ticks on them.I hate to work anyones garden who has them.wake up America & garden intelligently.stop the greed!!
This is very nice and the flowers look a lot like hosta flowers. I’m going to try this grass if I can find it in northern wis.