What To Plant With Liriope?

There’s nothing better than a beautifully planned garden, with the heights and colors perfectly balanced. If you are wondering what to plant with liriope, then read on.

What Grows Well With Liriope?

Liriope is a great ground cover, which also looks elegant and beautiful in its own right. You can choose to grow nothing  but this plant – but it will be perfectly offset by a few additions.

Other types of ground hugging, drought resistant ferns are a great addition to your bed of Liriope.

These ferns will add texture and draw the eye around your liriope bed, and as they share the same growing conditions you won’t have to do too much maintenance.

Taller grasses can add an element to draw the eye from the smaller liriope, so scatter these about your garden.

Grass is actually a wonderful addition to a garden – and we’re not just talking about the lawn types!

Try to pick some plants with bright flowers, as liriope is a subtle character, which has beautiful flowers that can offset the more vibrant types.

Spreading the odd bright patch around your liriope will pick up the prettiness of the liriope plant, as well as the liriope acting as a good backdrop for brighter blooms. Liriope, unlike many other plants, grows well under a tree, so you can spread them around even under your taller trees, for a good, low maintenance ground covering.

Underneath or around a taller shrubby plant is also an ideal space for liriope; they won’t compete too much for nutrients, plus they can survive happily in the added shade.

As an interesting aside, rabbits don’t eat liriope, so you can use them as a barrier to protect your more rabbit prone plants if you are suffering with bunny invasions!

This informative video gives some great inspiration about liriope, and how and what to plant with it:

What Plants Look Good With Liriope?

Let’s face it, any plants look good with Liriope! That lush green foliage, and the pretty purple flowers…

But what SHOULD you be planting with Liriope? Well, plants that enjoy the same conditions is your best answer.

Liriope is a beautiful plant, with subtle blue / purple flowers. Growing it alongside more vibrantly colored flowers is a good idea, because your Liriope can act as a foil for these flowers.

• Geranium is a great choice to grow with Liriope. This plant is low to the ground, colorful, and has similar requirements to Liriope.
• Blue Fescue is another good option; these two plants get on well and can offer good ground cover even on a slope or under trees.
• Lamium, with its silver foliage, adds a touch of class to the vibrant purple flowers of Liriope.
• Hostas are another good foil for the subtle prettiness of liriope; choose the more vibrantly colored ones to offset liriope’s subtlety.
• Anemones will complement your liriope perfectly, plus they have similar growing conditions so will do well.
• Sedge, another type of evergreen grass, will look lovely planted with your liriope. Sedge doesn’t spread, so it won’t compete with your liriope!
• Hard ferns, such as Blechnum Spicant, are a great option for your liriope companions, as they are also drought resistant and happy in the shade.

You can also plant liriope with liriope; there are many different types and colours of this little plant, so if you love them then why not have a whole bed of them?

This is an informative article, which will give you some other ideas about what to plant with liriope, if you are looking for more inspiration.

Will Liriope Choke Out Other Plants?

• Liriope, because it is a spreader, has the potential to choke the life out of other plants.
• This being said, it can happily co exist with other plants that share its requirements; you just have to keep an eye on them to make sure liriope is not bullying its neighbors.
• If your liriope is spreading too much, or invading the space of other plants that are nearby it, then you can remove some of liriope’s spreading shoots.
• You can also dig the plants up and either divide them to plant them elsewhere, or give away or even compost the excess.
• Liriope is fairly slow growing, so you don’t have to worry about going on holiday and coming back to find your entire garden taken over!
• As long as you keep an eye on the plants that are near your liriope, they should be fine and able to share space peacefully.
• There is one type of liriope, L. Spicata (also known as creeping liriope), which is more aggressive than others – if you have this one in your garden you will definitely need to keep it in check!

You can, of course, if you are after a very low maintenance garden, plant nothing but liriope – then you don’t have to worry about it spreading or choking any other plants!

Can You Plant Liriope With Hostas?

• Hostas and Liriope make excellent bedfellows. They are both happy in the shade, and both provide good ground cover, so they fare well when planted together.
• Both Liriope and Hostas enjoy a bit of bright sunshine, but are happy to spend much of their time in the shade.
• Because both are spreading plants, you will have to keep an eye and make sure that one is not choking out the other!
• If you notice one or other of your plants getting crowded out, simply trim off the encroaching fronds to give each plant a bit more space.
• Liriope and hostas look lovely together, especially when the blue of the liriope is paired with a white, blue or gold hosta.

Final Words

Companion planting is a great skill, and one that can make your garden both look good, and be healthy. Liriope lends itself well to many types of companion, so now you have some ideas about what to plant, get out there and make your garden beautiful!