Monkey Grass Care: Complete Guide to Planting, Care, and 11 Best Varieties
If you’ve ever driven past a house with those neat, grassy-looking clumps lining the walkway or spilling down a slope, you’ve seen monkey grass in action. It’s a workhorse of an ornamental grass — well, technically it isn’t a true grass at all, but it plays the part beautifully as an evergreen ground cover and perennial border plant.
Maybe you’re staring at a bare, awkward strip of dirt along your driveway. Maybe your lawn won’t grow under that big oak tree. Or maybe weeds keep taking over a slope that’s too steep to mow safely. Monkey grass solves all three problems as a reliable lawn alternative, and it does it without asking much from you in return — which is exactly why it’s become a go-to for low maintenance landscaping across the country.
This guide walks you through everything — what monkey grass actually is, the best types to plant, how to grow it, when to trim it, and how to deal with the problems (yes, even monkey grass has a few). By the end, you’ll know exactly how to use it in your own yard.
What Is Monkey Grass, Exactly?
The monkey grass plant isn’t actually grass — that’s the first surprise most people get. It’s a member of the lily family, and its monkey grass scientific name is Liriope (most commonly Liriope muscari or Liriope spicata). The nickname stuck because the thin, arching leaves look just like turf grass from a distance.
People often ask about liriope vs mondo grass or monkey grass vs mondo grass, and it’s a fair question since garden centers sell them side by side. Here’s the simple version:
- Liriope (monkey grass) has slightly thicker, taller blades and produces showy purple or white flower spikes.
- Mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) has finer, darker, more delicate blades and is often used for a more manicured, lawn-like look.
Both belong to the same plant family and are cared for almost identically, so whichever one you choose, this guide applies. You’ll also hear this same plant called spider grass, one of several lilyturf plants, or simply border lily — they’re all describing the same family.
11 Best Monkey Grass Types and Varieties
With so many monkey grass types and monkey grass varieties on the market, picking the right one comes down to how you plan to use it. Here are the 11 most popular choices.
1. Liriope Muscari (Big Blue Liriope)
The classic liriope muscari cultivar. Clumping, non-invasive, and topped with violet-blue flower spikes in late summer. Great for borders.
2. Liriope Spicata (Creeping Monkey Grass)
This is the liriope spicata monkey grass variety, and unlike muscari, it spreads by underground runners. It’s the one people usually mean when they ask if monkey grass spread — and for this species, the answer is yes, quite a bit.
3. Giant Liriope
A larger cultivar that can reach up to two feet tall, ideal for filling bigger spaces or softening the base of a fence.
4. Liriope Super Blue
Known for deeper blue-purple blooms and slightly more compact clumps than the standard Big Blue.
5. Variegated Liriope
This variegated liriope monkey grass has leaves striped in cream and green — a nice option if you want texture and color contrast without adding a flowering shrub.
6. White Liriope
A white liriope plant produces soft white flower spikes instead of purple, a subtle twist for a moon garden or all-white border.
7. Liriope Royal Purple
Bred specifically for its rich, dark purple blooms that stand taller above the foliage than most other cultivars.
8. Liriope Muscari Majestic
A vigorous, dense grower often chosen for large-scale landscaping and commercial properties.
9. Black Mondo Grass / Black Monkey Grass
Technically Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens,’ not a true liriope, but almost always grouped with monkey grass varieties and often nicknamed black monkey grass. Its near-black foliage is a favorite for dramatic, moody garden design.
10. Dwarf Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon Japonicus Nana)
A tiny, tightly clumping dwarf monkey grass that works beautifully between stepping stones or as a miniature lawn substitute.
11. Liriope Spicata ‘Silver Dragon’
A silvery-variegated spreading type, useful for brightening dark, shady corners where little else will grow.
If you’re planning a themed bed around these varieties, it also helps to know which companion plants tolerate similar shade and moisture — our forget-me-not guide is a good pairing option for shady borders.
Growing of Monkey Grass with Sun, Shade, and Soil
One reason monkey grass shows up in so many yards is that it barely complains about its environment.
- Light: This is one of the true low growing plants that thrives almost anywhere. Ask “liriope shade or sun?” and the honest answer is both — most varieties handle monkey grass full sun conditions right through to fairly deep, shade loving corners of the yard. For variegated liriope sun or shade, lean toward more sun; it keeps the cream-and-green striping brighter.
- Soil: It isn’t picky about well-drained soil, though good drainage helps it establish faster. According to NC State Extension, lily turf prefers acidic to neutral, well-drained soil and tolerates almost full shade once established, though growth slows and leaves stretch out more in deep shade.
- Water: Genuinely drought tolerant once established, though the first year benefits from regular watering. If you’re planning a wider xeriscape-style bed around it, our drought-resistant garden calculator can help you plan the rest of the planting.
- Habit: As an evergreen perennial, it holds its color through winter in most climates, which is a big part of why it reads as monkey grass spreading so reliably compared to seasonal ground covers.
If your yard has a mix of sun and shade patches, you can check our soil type guide to confirm what you’re working with before planting.
How to Plant Monkey Grass
Planting monkey grass is genuinely one of the easier weekend garden projects you can take on, whether you’re asking how to plant monkey grass for the first time or wondering how you plant monkey grass to fill in an existing bed.
- Pick the right time. Knowing when to plant monkey grass — spring or early fall is best, giving the monkey grass roots time to settle before extreme heat or cold.
- Space it properly. Monkey grass spacing of 8 to 12 inches apart gives a fuller look sooner, or up to 18 inches apart if you’re patient and want it to fill in naturally over a season or two. Our plant spacing calculator makes this quick to work out for any bed size.
- Dig a hole slightly wider than the root ball and just as deep — planting too deep can rot the crown.
- Backfill and water thoroughly right after planting to settle the soil around the roots.
If you’re planting monkey grass as a border around a new raised bed, our guide on how to build a raised bed yourself pairs well with this project, and the soil calculator for raised garden beds takes the guesswork out of how much soil to buy.
Monkey Grass Propagation, Division, and Transplanting
Monkey grass propagation almost always happens through division rather than seed, since it’s faster and gives you flowering-size plants right away.
Established clumps can be dug up and split by hand or with a spade for easy monkey grass division. This is the cheapest way to multiply your plants — one mature clump can often be divided into four or five new ones.
Whether you call it how to transplant monkey grass, transplanting monkey grass, or simply how to replant monkey grass, the process is the same: dig up the whole clump, gently separate the roots into sections with a few leaves each, and replant immediately at the same depth. Late winter to early spring, right before new growth starts, is the ideal window for this.
Monkey Grass Care and Maintenance
Once it’s in the ground, monkey grass care — or, phrased the way plenty of people search for it, care for monkey grass, care of monkey grass, or how to care for monkey grass — is mostly a matter of leaving it alone. The same routine covers caring for mondo grass too, since both plants have nearly identical needs.
- Watering: Water regularly for the first growing season, then only during extended dry spells.
- Fertilizing: A light, slow-release or organic monkey grass fertilizer applied in early spring is plenty. Our fertilizer selector can help you pick the right formula, and if you’d rather stick with a natural option, our organic fertilizer for lawn guide covers products that work just as well on liriope beds. If you’re feeding your lawn nearby, the best time of year to fertilize grass guide keeps both on the same schedule.
- Monkey grass winter care: In colder zones, foliage may look ragged by late winter. That’s normal — a hard cutback in late February refreshes the whole planting.
- Liriope care and liriope muscari care in particular is simple because the plant is naturally pest- and disease-resistant compared to most true grasses.
How and When to Trim Monkey Grass
This is probably the single most-searched question about this plant, and however you phrase it — how to trim monkey grass, trim monkey grass, trimming monkey grass, monkey grass trimming, how to prune monkey grass, prune monkey grass, or simply pruning monkey grass — the answer and the timing are the same.
When to trim monkey grass (also asked as when do you trim monkey grass, when to prune monkey grass, or when to cut monkey grass): late winter, ideally February or early March, before new spring growth emerges. Cutting it back any later — whether you call it when to cut monkey grass back, when to cut back monkey grass, when do you cut monkey grass, when do you cut back monkey grass, or when to cut down monkey grass — risks slicing off the fresh new blades along with the old ones.
How to cut monkey grass, how to cut back monkey grass, cutting monkey grass, or cutting back monkey grass — all the same job:
- For small patches, hand pruners or grass shears work fine. This is also the method for how to trim liriope plants grown in tighter spaces like between pavers.
- For larger areas, a lawn mower set to its highest blade height can quickly cut back an entire bed in minutes.
- Always remove the cut foliage afterward so it doesn’t smother new growth underneath.
You don’t have to trim every single year — many gardeners only cut back monkey grass every two to three years, purely for appearance. If the foliage still looks fresh and green, there’s no rule saying you must prune it.
Landscaping Ideas and Uses for Monkey Grass
This is where monkey grass really earns its keep. Whether you’re searching for monkey grass landscaping, monkey grass landscaping ideas, landscaping ideas with monkey grass, or just landscaping with monkey grass in general, here are the uses that come up again and again:
- Monkey grass edging and landscape edging along walkways, patios, and driveways — a classic piece of garden edging
- Ground cover plants and shade ground cover under trees where turf grass struggles, thanks to its dense ornamental foliage
- Slope stabilization and erosion control on banks too steep to mow
- A monkey grass lawn substitute in small, shady side yards where grass won’t take
- Framing a monkey grass flower bed or a classic flower bed monkey grass border
- Filling in the ring of soil monkey grass around trees, where roots make mowing awkward anyway
As a true evergreen edging plant, it also holds its shape and color through the off-season better than most flowering borders.
For a deeper dive into building out a full border, check our dedicated guide on monkey grass border ideas. If erosion is your main concern on a slope, our silt fence guide and landscape timbers article both work well alongside a monkey grass planting to hold soil in place while the roots establish. And if you’re rethinking the lawn itself rather than just the border, our lawn care and maintenance guide is worth a read too.
Monkey Grass Flowers and Appearance
Contrary to what many people assume from the name, monkey grass flowers are one of its best features. Come mid-to-late summer, you’ll get genuinely flowering monkey grass, with spikes of monkey grass purple flowers rising above the foliage on most varieties — so if you’ve seen photos of monkey grass with purple flowers and wondered if that was really the same plant, it is.
Not every variety follows the purple trend, though. White liriope produces white spikes instead, and a handful of cultivars are bred specifically for monkey grass with yellow flowers — ‘Yellow River’ and similar yellow monkey grass types are less common but do exist for gardeners chasing something different.
After the blooms fade, you’ll notice monkey grass berries — small, shiny black fruits that persist into winter, adding a bit of color when little else is blooming.
Common Monkey Grass Problems and Diseases
Even a tough plant like this runs into a few monkey grass problems now and then.
- Yellow leaves: Monkey grass yellow leaves are usually a sign of poor drainage, too much direct sun for a shade variety, or nutrient deficiency.
- Curling leaves: Leaf curling often points to drought stress or, less commonly, spider mite activity — check the undersides of the blades if you spot this.
- Crown rot and root rot: Liriope crown rot and root rot are almost always caused by soil that stays too wet. Improving drainage solves most of it.
- Anthracnose and leaf spots: Fungal issues that show up as brown or tan spots, especially in humid, crowded plantings. Thinning out overgrown monkey grass improves airflow and helps prevent this — a problem similar to what shows up in our leaf spot disease guide.
- Pests: Aphids and spider mites occasionally show up but rarely cause serious damage.
- Dead monkey grass: Patches of dead monkey grass are typically old, unpruned foliage smothering new shoots underneath, or a sign of one of the rot issues above rather than the whole planting failing.
If the surrounding lawn is also struggling, it’s worth ruling out a separate turf issue using our lawn spot disease and grass spot disease guides, since the two problems can look similar but need different fixes.
Weeds in Monkey Grass — and How to Remove Monkey Grass Entirely
Weeds in monkey grass and general monkey grass weed issues can sneak into loose or thin plantings. Hand-pulling is safest since most weed killers will damage the liriope too. For a thick, established bed, a pre-emergent herbicide applied before weed seeds germinate helps kill weeds in monkey grass without harming the plant itself.
If you’re trying to figure out how to remove monkey grass, removing monkey grass, or getting rid of monkey grass entirely — say, it’s spread further than you wanted — here’s what actually works, whether you ask how to get rid of monkey grass or how do you get rid of monkey grass:
- Dig it out. The most reliable method, especially for clumping types. Get under the root ball and lift it whole.
- Smother it. Cover the area with cardboard and mulch for a full growing season to block sunlight.
- Herbicide as a last resort. If you’re asking how to kill monkey grass, how do you kill monkey grass, or simply want to know what kills monkey grass, a glyphosate-based monkey grass killer or general monkey grass weed killer applied to actively growing foliage will do it. This is also the standard herbicide for monkey grass removal jobs. Spreading types (Liriope spicata) may need more than one application to fully kill liriope monkey grass since the rhizomes can resprout.
Whichever method you choose for killing monkey grass, patience matters more than speed — rushing the job with too much herbicide usually just damages nearby plants without finishing the liriope off any faster.
Is Monkey Grass Invasive?
This depends entirely on which species you planted, and it’s the real answer behind the broader question of is monkey grass invasive or is liriope invasive.
- Clumping monkey grass, like Liriope muscari, stays in tidy mounds and is not considered invasive.
- Liriope spicata invasive behavior is well documented — this spreading monkey grass species is a true rhizomatous plant, spreading aggressively by underground stems and sometimes escaping garden beds into lawns or nearby wild areas, which is why some regions flag it as a concern.
If you want the look without the spreading headache, choose a clumping variety like Big Blue or Royal Purple instead of spicata.
Is Monkey Grass Toxic to Dogs or Cats?
Good news for pet owners: according to the ASPCA’s official plant list, monkey grass is toxic to dogs and monkey grass poisonous to dogs both have the same reassuring answer — liriope is classified as non-toxic to dogs, cats, and horses. So is liriope toxic to dogs, or is monkey grass toxic to cats? No, on both counts. That said, any plant eaten in large quantities can cause mild stomach upset in pets, so it’s still smart to discourage heavy grazing. If you’re double-checking other plants in the same bed, our poisonous plants finder is a quick way to screen the rest of your yard.
As for wildlife, do deer eat monkey grass? Rarely. Ask will deer eat liriope and most gardeners in deer-heavy areas will tell you it’s one of the more reliably liriope deer resistant plants they grow. If deer pressure is a bigger issue in your yard, our animal resistant plants finder can help you round out the rest of the bed with similarly tough plants.
Companion Plants for Monkey Grass
Monkey grass plays well with almost everything, but a few pairings stand out for a shaded, perennial ground cover-style bed:
- Lily of the valley — a fragrant, low-growing shade companion with a similar woodland feel. If you’re starting from scratch, our guide on planting lily of the valley bulbs and other shade-loving spring bloomers covers the basics.
- Daylilies (Hemerocallis) used as hemerocallis ground cover alongside a taller liriope border for layered texture.
- Hostas, which share almost identical shade and moisture needs.
If you’re building out a full shade garden, the moody houseplants for beginners guide has good ideas for indoor companions that share a similar aesthetic if you want to extend the look inside.
Where to Buy Monkey Grass
If you’re searching monkey grass for sale or thinking about buying monkey grass for the first time, it’s widely available at local nurseries, big-box garden centers, and online plant retailers, usually sold as bare-root divisions or in small potted starts. Black mondo grass for sale tends to run a bit pricier than standard green liriope since it’s slower-growing and more sought-after for accent plantings. Buying potted plants in spring gives the fastest, most reliable results since the roots are already established.
Monkey Grass Care & Growing FAQ
Answers to common questions about growing, pruning, controlling, and caring for monkey grass
Final Thoughts
Monkey grass earns its reputation as a low-maintenance garden staple honestly. It fills in awkward spots, holds soil on slopes, stays green through winter, and asks for almost nothing in return — just an occasional trim and a little patience while it establishes through division propagation. Whether you’re lining a walkway, covering a shady patch under a tree, or stabilizing a slope, there’s a monkey grass variety on this list built for the job.
For a closer look at how other gardeners in humid climates keep their liriope beds looking sharp year-round, the Clemson Cooperative Extension liriope factsheet is a solid, research-backed reference worth bookmarking.
Start small, pick the right variety for your space, and let it do what it does best — quietly making your garden look pulled together with almost no effort on your part.
