The low-lying ground cover is a popular option as a filler for rock gardens or as an accent above retaining walls. Fun bonus: The flowers, either fresh or dried, can be used in salads or steeped in teas. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. There is no need to apply fertilizer, encouraging them to become too robust and invasive. It detests hot, humid weather, but thrives where temperatures drop at night. The little silver leaves of lamium are like bits of glitter strewn about the garden floor, reflecting any dappled sunlight that finds them. It also doesn't die back in the winter. RELATED: 10 Grass-Free Alternatives to a Traditional Lawn. Ferns come in an array of shapes, sizes, and colors. Although taller than a typical ground cover, yarrow ranks among the most attractive ground cover flowering plants. 11 Garden Fence Ideas That Will Complement Any La 10 Lush Landscaping Ideas for a Hilly Backyard. wide. These plants spread out, and you can keep them under control by pruning, too. It should be pinched back frequently to keep the plants bushy and "shrubby.". Planted in groupings, it makes a lovely ground cover. In spring, tiny white flowers add to its ethereal beauty. Its also heat tolerant through USDA Zone 9. It has excellent resistance to damage by deer and rabbits. Spotted dead nettles have few problems in the north; among other good features is the fact that they are deer-resistant plants. Poke holes in the fabric and plant the junipers, then cover the fabric with mulch. They have silver foliage and produce showy pink, purple or white flowers in late spring. It does best in cooler summer weather and prefers full sun to part shade. Look for the distinctive crook at the top of the stem to identify this species. Being creepersand having a tendency to spread, these classic cottage-garden plants are popular flowering ground covers. Dont worry if it doesnt reappear first thing in spring. The erect flower clusters are long-blooming. Lamium is an excellent ground cover for shade. Creeping phlox is a short plant often seen covering the side of a hill or retaining wall with colorful spring flowers. Use it as an underplanting for tall trees, as a ground cover in places where the hose cant reach, and even as a no-mow lawn alternative where there isnt much foot traffic. 16 Best Flowering Ground Covers for Shade - Finding Sea Turtles Growing Conditions: Full to part shade in moist, well-drained soil This is not the form of thyme used in cooking, but its fragrance will attract bees and other pollinators. To plant creeping juniper on a grassy slope, get rid of the grass, then lay down landscape fabric along the slope. The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Lamium is one of the best choices for a tough yet showy perennial groundcover. Are insane ticket costs pricing Astros fans out of Opening Day? This easy-to-grow plant spreads and produces numerous offspring from seed. Please keep reading to learn about this plant with a cautionary tale. Although it is most attractive, I have found it less vigorous in our garden, but perhaps you will have better luck. I've never tried that one. Creeping Raspberry is a wonderful and attractive ground cover that is naturally hardy, resilient, and adaptable. RELATED: How to Grow Zinnias in Your Home Garden. Root-hardy, it will return after a freeze, but in mild winters such as this year's, little damage is done to the foliage. To propagate from the stem, cut the 10cm long portion of the stem and leave it to scab for some time. 16 Fast Growing Ground Cover Plants to Transform Your Yard - MorningChores There are almost endless varieties of hostas that will fit your needs, many with variegated leaves and spikey short-lived and unremarkable flowers. Here are a few varieties to consider. Lamium is in the mint family (Lamiaceae), which provides a hint as to its toughness. Original Author. It can climb walls and grow across landscapes as unstoppable ground cover. Care requirements for creeping phlox are few. Creeping thyme ground cover is not invasive, helps prevent weeds from growing, and is a natural deer repellent. 15 Groundcover Plants for Your Garden - PureWow Thats the beauty of this native spring ephemeral that goes by several names including woodland phlox, wild sweet William and Phlox divaricata. This tenacious perennial spreads rapidly, thrives in full sun, is cold hardy, grows in poor soil, and is drought tolerant once established. Get daily tips & tricks to help make your best home, Spotted Dead Nettles vs. Stinging Nettles. Its a well-behaved spreader, and is not invasive. Spotted dead nettles are a great plant to put in containers or hanging baskets. If you set out a little nursery-grown pot of Lamium in spring. Mulching and weeding to prevent unwanted sprouts from stealing water from these low-maintenance succulents, and you can enjoy the cheery color of this low growing ground cover year-round, with a number of varieties to choose from. You will have a Lamium carpet by fall, and the following year you will perhaps be able to pen your own lamium nursery with which to supply all your friends. plant hardiness zones 4 through 8. So long as the site affords full sun and good drainage, creeping phlox requires next to nothing in the way of care. North Carolina State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. Each plant takes on a green fountain-like appearance: Long, lush shoots of chartreuse foliage sprout up from the soil, then softly twist and tangle for full coverage wherever planted. This type of evergreen comes in an array of shapes and sizes. This is great if you need to cover a problem area with an attractive ground cover, but not so good if you are trying to grow them in a place where you need a well-behaved plant. This item: Perennial Farm Marketplace Lamium m. 'Beacon Silver' (Dead Nettle) Groundcover, Size-#1 Container, Metallic Leaves and Pink Flowers $1495 Mixed Heart-Shaped Hosta Bare Roots - Rich Green Foliage, Low Maintenance, Heart Shaped Leaves - 6 Roots $1699 ($2.83/Count) Total price: $31.94 Add both to Cart Lamium covers well and adds colorful flowers, foliage and texture. The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. (I prefer to call it lamium), Lamium . Ferns come in many different colors, heights and forms. The petite white star-shaped flowers provide a nice contrast to the deciduous green foliage. The thick, dense foliage is excellent for trouble spots where other plants have a hard time becoming established. Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States. Lamium - Butterfield Gardens Ground Cover See YOU IN THE SPRING 25 Low-Maintenance Groundcover Plants That Look Great With Little Work The Ground Cover Dogwood blooms then produces edible berries. 4. Spotted dead nettles are generally grown more for their silvery leaves than for their flowers, but the latter can be quite pretty, as well. Spotted dead nettles should be pruned in the summer after the first blooming period. Spotted deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) grows as a spreading mat of herbaceous stems and leaves. Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and Horticulturist who shares her knowledge of sustainable living, organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. Whether you do it yourself or pay a landscaper, maintaining a vibrant garden and lush lawn requires time, effort, and money. A member of the mint family, Lamium spreads quickly, is self-seeding, and will rapidly create a ground cover wherever it is planted. Here are four options that we've grown in various areas around the . Within two to three years of planting, it forms a lush carpet of velvety, green, heart-shaped leaves that hug the ground. 26 Best Companion Plants for Hosta For 2023 - Shiny Plant Lamium - Excellent Ground Cover for Shade - Charismatic Planet Will ruellia make a good ground cover? When shopping for this plant, be sure to ask for Aurinia saxatilis or yellow alyssum, not sweet alyssum, which is an entirely different species. Thanks to its bold blue hue and its ability to attract butterflies, Grace Ward lithodora will add bursts of color to your landscape from spring through the end of summer. Lamium Ground Cover Evergreen - ground cover good Low-growing mats of Creeping Thyme are covered in teeny purple or white flowers in late spring, which makes it a haven for pollinators. This clumping perennial is less than a foot tall, with slender, long, arching leaves. Its dense mats are threatening native plants on forest floors. Botanical Name: Cotoneaster horizontalis This tall ground cover has a horizontal growing habit, give it plenty of water and afternoon shade until it is fully grown. Mow it down once in late winter and watch the fresh green growth fill right back in. Fix your gardens trouble spots with these low-growing perennials, annuals, and shrubs. 16 inches apart for coverage in two seasons. which is great for using as a ground cover in large fields and gardens. Plant them with an assortment of other flowering plants in a container garden to have sitting on your porch and lanai, or they trail beautifully from a hanging basket. In milder climates, it is semi-evergreen. Try to plant it in large groupings on a hillside or along the house's foundation to prevent erosion. Vinca has few pests, so it can be considered invasive, which is good news if your goal is to keep weeds at bay. It matures to a height of about 3 feet, and it, too, can be used as a taller ground cover. Within two to three years of planting, it forms a lush carpet of velvety, green, heart-shaped leaves that hug the ground. One difference, though, is that it is more aggressive. Excellent evergreen ground cover for shadeThe North American native speciesPachysandra procumbensis harder to find but a more graceful and less spready choiceGrows 6 to 10 inches 15-25 cm tall. While lamium looks great, it's not the best at dealing with high amounts of traffic, so make sure it's somewhere with less foot traffic. It grows low to the ground, making it a good alternative to grass in just about any climate. Equally at home hanging from a planter or covering a hillside, Lysimachia (more commonly known as creeping Jenny) is a plant admired for its trailing branches. Wherever its branches make contact with the soil, it will put down roots, creating new plants. Though its lush leaves dont scream drought tolerant, sedum boasts an ability to root and thrive in even the driest, rockiest settingsthus earning it the familiar name stonecrop. The secret? Doesn't need much water. Lamium maculatum: Also called spotted deadnettle, forms a dense mat over. Once it settles in to its new home, this fern will speed up its spread and transplant easily if you find new shady places for it in your landscape. Also known as lonicera, honeysuckle is an aromatic perennial that blooms with white, yellow, or red flowers in the spring and summer. Home Outdoors Yard & Garden Structures Planters. Height is a foot or so. 30. But this plant with prettyfoliageand funny namerarely becomes a problem for those who grow it in areas where it is already native. Album has white flowers and white marked leaves. This easy-care ground cover provides colors of purple, white pink and shades of light red. If you prefer a small hosta, opt for 'Blue Mouse Ears' that grows 6 to 12 inches high with round, heart-shaped blue-green leaves. Blooms from mid-spring through summer. Lamium maculatum 'Beacon Silver' - BBC Gardeners World Magazine Angelina Sedum is easy to propagate by rooting, so you can quickly fill an area with its succulent foliage. If you are looking for a tenacious ground cover that will stare in the face of drought while living in dry, sandy soil in a shady area, either shadara's violets or yellow archangel or bishop's weed should work. This is a large plant with a horizontal growth habit (thus its species name). Most perennial ground coverings fall into these categories. Also known as periwinkle and creeping myrtle, vinca minor will spread wherever its planted and will even scale trellises or fences if trained. But its attractive variegated foliage spreads out to two or three times its height. BUY IT ($18) Jill King/EyeEm/Getty Images. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Take leaves off at least half of the bottom portion of the branch. If you want this to be a fast-growing ground cover plant, make sure it receives 4-6 hours of sun each day. 20 Ground Cover Plants to Fill out Your Garden, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. It takes about 14 days until you see seedlings. Glossy leaves in shades of deep green, bronze, and chocolate-brown make this perennial a great low-growing lawn alternative for almost any climate. Ground Cover Plants: Everything You Need to Know - This Old House If you arent sure if it will survive the winter outdoors where you live, pop it out of the ground and into a container to grow as a houseplant until the following spring. Water the seedlings and apply a mulch layer on top of the soil. Whats more, it requires relatively little maintenance, and it resists deer and other critters. In regions with cold winters, Lamium is deciduous. It prefers full sun. Ground cover plants are all-around problem-solvers: They retain moisture, control erosion, and provide.css-1me6ynq{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#125C68;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#125C68;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-1me6ynq:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:#595959;} habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies. In its native environment, it spreads slowly to cover the forest floor, where deer and rabbits typically leave it alone. Not picky, spotted Dead Nettles do just fine in average, well-drained soil. Our wide range of perennial groundcovers are ideal for those spots in the garden where grass isn't wantedon banks, under trees or across large areas of the border.