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Is it a good or bad (or indifferent) idea to mix mounding plants like mondo grass or liriope with something like Asian jasmine or blue star creeper in the same bed, such that the spreading plant fills in the spaces I want to leave between the mounding plants? I.e. companion planting the two types of ground cover?

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There are issues with your suggestions; Trachelospermum asiaticum (Asian jasmine) is a large, twining plant, with a height and spread of 4-8 metres, and is not considered a ground cover plant, more usually being grown up a wall or support of some kind. Pratia pedunculata (blue star creeper) remains low to the ground at up to 10cm, with a spread of around 1.5 metres, but it does not like a lot of sun, preferring shade or partial shade; this obviously does not combine well with mondo grass which prefers full sun and, although a couple of varieties of Liriope will cope with shade, most also prefer full sun. Both mondo grass and Liriope will spread over time, so if you leave gaps, they will fill up with those two plants as time goes by anyway, though if the gaps are large, it will take some time for them to do so.

You mention ivy in your title; Hedera varieties grow well almost anywhere and are good in shady areas, but will spread far and wide (up, down and sideways) and can be difficult to control in terms of spread, so I would not recommend that mixed in with mounding ground cover plants.

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  • Thanks. re: the point about how Asian Jasmin is used, yes, I totally agree it will grow up a wall or trellis, but my experience and observation is it is used far more for ground cover, including lawn replacements. A quick search on Google (images) bears this observation out, and I have two medium size areas already that I use A/I in this way. I did want to get a little variety, so I plan on using some other that A/I in the area under consideration.
    – AA040371
    Commented May 25, 2020 at 13:56
  • I mention mondo grass and blue star at the same time as when I put in filter criteria on retailer site, e.g. select for a certain amount of sunlight, or drought tolerance, or cold hardiness, or whatever, both of those (as well as liriope and Asian ivy) remained potential selections. I get their job is to sell me stuff, and so will say what they need to, so I'll take it with a grain of salt and will happily factor in your thoughts. My main concern for the moment is not inadvertently selecting a spreading/creeping/trailing plant that would eventually choke out the mounding plants.
    – AA040371
    Commented May 25, 2020 at 14:00
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    I am aware that Asian jasmine is sometimes used as a lawn replacement, but that's not the use you intend for it; be aware that if you plant it with other plants such as Liriope in a bed or border, it will undoubtedly choke out the other plants.
    – Bamboo
    Commented May 25, 2020 at 16:36

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