For the past 60 years or so, the American landscape has been awash with sea upon sea of obsessively trimmed green grass. 'The Lawn' conjures images of many of the time-honored, good ol' fashioned USA traditions that shaped our young years; running through sprinklers in summer, playing catch with Pa in the fall, and blowing things up on the 4th of July. If you asked a tiny second grader to draw some grass, they'd reach for the broken piece of green crayon with their sticky little fingers, and make a bunch of small jaggedy lines under some smiling stick figures. This happy normalcy is the Utopian legacy that grass has been bred to give us. But not anymore baby. Not anymore.
Black Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') is a relatively new version of the more standard mondo grasses from Japan and Korea developed during the horticultural craze of England in the 1800's. As such, it was created in response to the need of Gothic-style garden makers to have more dramatic and shag-nasty plant palettes to choose from, and is among the most prominent blacks available for the garden. It displays an almost evil purpley/black hue and grows slowly into great swathes of 6-12 inch high leafy goodness... or badness. In the fall, Black Mondo Grass creates shiny black berries that'll stick around all winter, and intensify the sort of creepy 'Garden-of-Hades' effect it has.
Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' will slowly creep around your planting beds like a paranoid shadow, setting off the color of any plants he may encounter. Normally growing about a foot or so high, this is an outstanding yet menacing ground-cover choice, which will say to people "This guy is artistically clever, intellectually complex, and exudes a penchant for great taste. Also, he is handsome." Black Mondo Grass is usually reported as a zone 6-9 plant, but the magic inter-web reveals loads of folks having great success in zone 5. As with most grasses, intensive care isn't necessary for this guy to do well. However even though most grass clumps get cut back in the fall, you probably don't want to do that with Black Mondo, as its such a slow-motion grower. That just means less work. And everyone can appreciate that.
Face it. Regular grass sucks. In lieu of making your yard a sad, soul-less, and dreary eyesore by tacking in a few hundred square feet of sod like everyone else on the block, consider the serious benefits, both in aesthetics and in labor, of Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'. Since your neighbor probably won Neighborhood-Lawn-of-the-Year the past few years, vamp up the nasty in your planting beds with this superior specimen, and capture his trophy. Black Mondo is vicious. It'll make babies cry. It's that good. Or bad. Yeah, Bad.
photo credit:
1] http://www.yourgardenshow.com/plants/7794-Ophiopogon-planiscapus-Nigrescens-
2] http://b.mp-farm.com/d/500x450.watermarks/400000/463605.jpg
3] http://www.paghat.com/images/mondofruit.jpg
4] http://a4dibbleplants.co.nz/images/mondo_grass_lg.jpg
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