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| Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman |
| Dwarf mondo grass is slow-growing, but it makes a great groundcover. |
When winter grips my garden, I’m thankful for any little bit of green that can be found. In my Japanese garden – where the browns of soil, stone, fencing and a few remaining leaves dominate – any green stands out like a beacon in a dark night. So the mondo grasses I’ve planted there have become favorites in the winter scene of this small but peaceful space.
Mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) is a member of the lily family and is closely related to its more familiar cousin, Liriope. But mondo grass resembles Liriope about as much as the average Japanese citizen resembles a sumo wrestler. Everything about Ophiopogon is about one-third the size of the typical Liriope – with the common mondo grass reaching just 6-8 inches tall and leaves measuring only about a quarter inch wide. And dwarf mondo grass (O. japonicus ‘Nanus’) is even smaller – just one-third the size of the typical mondo, only reaching 2 inches tall. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman | | Mondo grass is a useful – and attractive – edging plant, too. |
As you likely surmised from my adoration of mondo grass in winter, the plant’s grasslike, dark green leaves are evergreen. They grow in small tufts from the slowly spreading underground crown. Come August, this small grass puts forth tiny flowers. The Latin name “Ophiopogon”is a botanist’s way of describing the bloom, and it translates as “snake with a beard.” Personally, I haven’t seen many bearded snakes, so the obscure Latin description is less than helpful in describing the tiny, light blue flower spikes that bloom buried in the foliage. I happen to think the little quarter-inch blooms look quite a bit like grape hyacinth flowers scattered up the stem. (The dwarf form is sparse-flowering, and you really have to get down on your hands and knees when looking for the few tiny bloom spikes.)
Mondo grass is listed as hardy in only USDA hardiness zones 7-10, but for 30 years I’ve seen one form or another growing in sites where temperatures dip down to around 0 degrees F. Furthermore, the rather trying winter of 2000 – where temperaturesgot down to 0 degrees F for several weeks – caused absolutely no damage to my Arkansas planting.
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