Have you managed to keep a kurapia "lawn" from flowering?
We recently had our back yard landscaped, including a low-water kurapia lawn-type area. Kurapia has a tendency to flower profusely and attract tons of bees, but it was suggested that the flowers (and bees) would be kept at bay if it was mowed twice a month. (I'm glad our yard is full of bees, I just prefer having them enjoy our other plants rather than forming a bee-carpet on the "lawn" area.) The new back yard is still young, but I'm not feeling optimistic about whether the bees-in-the-lawn problem will ever be under control.
If you have a kurapia lawn (not just as groundcover, but as something you want to walk on barefoot, let kids and dogs play on, etc.) and have managed to keep it from flowering, I'd love to know how! Or if you or your acquaintances have found that it's just impossible to prevent flowering, I'd be interested to know that, too.
Thanks!
Parent Replies
We have had a kurapia ground cover in our backyard instead of grass for a number of years. It it always flowers and I do not know of a way to change that. We too get many bees because of the kurapia flowers. We are actually going to be pulling our out and replacing it with something else because so many weeds have cropped up in the kurapia.
Hello! If your worry is that the kurapia is full of bees when in flower, don’t. There are bees, but we’ve not had any issues and my dog/kid are happy playing on it.
I was curious about this "kurapia" so I did some research. It is a sterile version of our native Phyla (Lippia) nodiflora. Sterile only means that the flowers don't produce seeds that will sprout. It doesn't mean it won't flower. One of the companies that sells it specifically talks about how its flowers differ from Lippia repens. So I don't think you can have it without flowers. I have lippia repens but I don't have barefoot kids. I doubt that you can cut it low enough to prevent flowers. Honey bees, which I'm guessing is what you have, are docile. They don't want to sting because if they do, they die. But if you step on them, they will sting. Kids don't tend to look at their feet when they are playing so it may not be the best "lawn" for you. Hopefully someone here has some good ideas for a bee free ground cover.