Glorious Groundcover.

Name your favourite groundcover and post a picture of it in work! let's swap groundcover ideas. :-D

I made a little hill and covered it with morning glories (really pretty!)
Now I wanna make a larger hill and cover it with something else. What do you suggest? Something low growing- irish moss? Small white blooms would be a big plus. (Something that shines in the evening and at night and can tolorate direct sun.)

What have you done with your ground cover?

My fave is Homestead Purple verbena - don;t have a current pick, but I've had one plant spread to cover a 5 foot square area in one season!

My favorite ground cover is any one or all of the different lamiums. I hav 5 different ones all perform very well covering a lot of space. Different colored edges on leaves and different colored flowers, so there is quite a choice. Donna

Darn, can't grow a lamium to save my life - they give in the the wet every time! Maybe in a pot...but then I guess it wouldn't be a ground cover, now would it?

RuthO do you have any pics - I'd love to see one that's not half dead!

How about Cerastium tomentosum for you crimson? I didn't have a pic so I had to go borrow one. http://www.freefoto.com/preview.jsp?id=12-53-1

Crims, try strawberry plants. They grow steadily and seem to be forgiving of full sun, wet or dry or whatever. I started 4 plants for the fruit, and they have sent runners out all over that part of the garden. I decided this was a very good thing, I won't have to mulch now and I have fresh fruit snacks while I'm weeding.

I have ruellias, daylilies, walking onions, tomatoes, phlox, mandevillas and some lavender growing in that bed.

:^)))
Molly

Ohhh Molly, Mandevillias are so scrumptious! They smell like cotton candy. Do you think I could get a limb off ya sometime? I found one at walmart but they were ten dollars!

I wont hav the money til... prolly for three weeks. Let me know!

BTW- I kill strawberries! :-(

I love this little veronica, veronica persica.
http://plantsdatabase.com/go/62917/index.html

I have plenty of creeping thyme if you are interested. It blloms with little white flowers off and on all summer and smells so great when you walk on it. Lou

Ohhh Lou- that is so kind of you!
I have a few trades I have to finish up- if you still have some then- can we do a SASE?

GW that is really pretty. Looks easy to grow too......hmmmmmmmmm purple....

Here's one favorite of two, I posted my spring favorite in perennials a while back. Of course it's the pink soapwort - But from now until hard freeze this is the star of ground covers in my yard.

It's Cerastostigma plumbaginoidies or false plumbago or just plain leadwort and it flowers blue, self prunes to purplish calyxs and then the leaves turn bronze in the fall. Here's how it looks right now.

Here's close up for color and shape.

pink Soapwort are some of my favorite plants! We have tons growing happily with my neglect! hehe.

That false plummie is so pretty and lush!!!

Here's pic of fall leaf color. it keeps throwing blue flowers here and there late in the fall. it really is an unsung blessing. I guess it could be invasive in the right place. Isn't that what ground covers are about?

one more.

Here is a picture I just took, almost too dark already, of Lamium by a Hosta. I took two others but for some reason this is the only one that I am able to show. My Olympus Camedia D-40 is not the most friendly digital camera, at least not for me. Donna

Blooms, Cerastostigma is one of my favorite ground covers too. I only have one area with it but do enjoy its blue flowers.
I have maybe 20 varieties of Thyme, by paths, along the steps going up the bank, and by the lily pool. If it weren't almost dark now I would go and take a photo of one Thyme, that I can't remember the name of that from a distance looks like a flat rock, it is very flat and that grayish rock color, very different. Donna

Ruth,, I too love all the different lamiums, but they simply do not respond to the aridity in the air here. At least I think that's why they always die for me. They do well at Crystalspin's in Calif. so I get to see them.

Oooh, how about a nice bunch of that pretty, three-leaved ivy...It's sooo beautiful in the fall and the birds love its berries...

Bwaahahahahahahaha!

Blooms I LOVE Cerastostigma!!! How in the world do you get it to form a mat like that? I've planted it and it just seems to sit there. Won't die, won't spread. Acid or alkaline soil? Sun, shade, what? Is it just a slow starter? And how in the world do you keep the weeds out of it?

In fact, that goes for lots of groundcovers - I get torpedo grass and bermuda coming up through them and its just a nightmare to weed without damaging the good stuff. Anybody have a handle on this?

Ruth thanks for the pic. Now I know why all the catalogs carry lamiums!

(BTW Blooms if you find its getting invasive you could dig some up for me - always willing to try again!)


Ahh, that nice big three leaved ivy - it's so..so...what's the word I'm looking for? (voodoo hexing gardenwife....)

Delphiniumdiva, did you find this stuff locally?

I am going to do an Internet search for the plant because I am looking for an appropriate groundcover for a small area in the yard. That picture of Bloom's floored me -- so pretty!

I've encouraged it with enough water to keep it happy here, and my sand is really just blow sand. It's alkaline here. It dies back and sheds it's leaves in the winter and I whack off the dead stick stems in eary spring. This is all the care it gets.

I have allowed it to overwhelm several campanula carpatica and to submerge a balloon flower that manages to climb up thru. And next spring will have to move out the two sedum spectibile. Was to late to do it this spring.
The only thing that manages to compete is my wild native four o'clock which also gets bigger each year.

Blooms is it in sun?

LSP I've found it at HD with the groundcovers, and at Bantings and Rose Garden Center.

It gets morning shade and at least six hrs of sun. The more established it gets the taller it stands. top height seems to be twelve inches. I think they hold each other up.

I started this with a six pack about ten year ago and it has covered thickly [you can't see ground] an area about six by ten.

Where it's free to it has spread about three feet into an area that doesn't even get regular watering...past the seep hoses reach... and this is blow sand desert. The main body of it is on reg watering system of seep hoses and gets watered like any perennial.

Like any of these things it's a third-year-it-leaps sort of plant
I admit to being crazy aout the way it has filled in for me and plan on moving a lot of it to my front yard under the peach tree where it will learn to survive on weekly soaks.

Well now I know the problem with mine - certainly never gave em anywhere near three years! Going to get some more from HD and try again. Love the part about it taking the dryness - I prob. overwatered mine too.

I have a nice patch of this plumbago growing in my perennial garden. Just gorgeous. I had no idea it would make such a beautiful ground cover until I saw Blooms' photo. And I just happen to need a large amount of gc for a steep bank that is highly visible - and dangerous to mow. Blooms, thanks for the inspiration! I love this plant!

Diva - two years ago we planted some Euonymus Coloratus on the same bank referred to above. We planted it in the grass because we needed to keep the grass roots to prevent erosion until the Euonymus was established. After planting we used a spray that we got at the local nursery to eliminate the grass. The euonymous took off and the grass died after a couple of treatments. I don't usually do chemicals but this bank is dangerous to climb on (and mow) and then there was the problem with how to pull all that grass without disturbing the euonymous. If you are interested I can get the name of the spray for you. I haven’t checked to see which groundcovers it is safe for (I’m at work right now – what a slacker!). Just be careful, as with all chemicals.

blooms, I'm with you! I discovered some C. plumbaginoides growing among some Azaleas and yews in the front bed (which was hideously overgrown, and is a whole 'nother story: http://davesgarden.com/fp.php?pid=18260

Anyway, the first summer I had no idea what this "weed" was, so I grubbed it all out. (I thought I did, anyway...) Of course I missed a few, so when it reappared, it bloomed and then the foliage began to turn red, so I went hunting through my books and online to figure out what it was, in case I was being seduced by a purty-but-thuggish weed. Figured it for a "good guy", and let it grow.

The next spring we were eyeing that bed for major demolition, so I dug up the new sprigs of the plumbago and potted them up. I planted them a year later around a maple tree, along with pink rain lily bulbs and Lycoris radiata. This is the second year and it's filling in nicely. Can't wait for next year's "leap" ;o)

I need a ground cover desperately. On the street side of our land the ground goes uphill. It looks very baren facing the east with huge trees on both side of the street. I would want a perennial ground cover that will survive the salt in winter being spread when icy and covered with snow.

Any suggestions?

Below some pictures.

Another one!

Crimson didn't mean to derail thread... you were looking for a shorter ground cover with possibly white flowers seasonally. I have a small sedum that withstand both heat [it's in tree shade in summer] and freezing in winter.

Unlike dragons blood or the one that looks like small pine trees this one really lays along the ground with peanut like leaves. And in early summer throws clusters of teeny tiny flowers.

I have it around the base of a tree where it reaches out across encircling rocks, as a green filler between plants - looking like a path thru them, and in my rock garden area where it struggles with competing geranium sanguineum.

I really REALLY like that blooms!!! It's so magical looking. :) Dont apologize lol- this thread was for groundcovers of any size or shape. ;-)

Aria, what about Sweet Woodruff (galium odoratum)? It makes a beautiful, evergreen matt. I'm not sure about its tolerance for salt, but it would look really pretty there.

http://plantsdatabase.com/go/55.html

This page has listings of groundcovers for various conditions, including salt tolerant perennials. http://www.ahners.com/SSPlants/perennials.htm

Yarrow would be pretty, even when not blooming. If you sheared it all back after flowering, it has that lovely ferny foliage.

Delphiniumdiva, if you see any at the HD in your area, would you let me know? I looked today at the HD near me, and didn't see any. Thanks!

Jean

Sweet Woodruff, excellent suggestion. We love it and ours is growing quickly!

Our neighbors have an entire large yard full of vinca minor in full shade. Pretty blue/periwinkle blossoms in spring.

You could intermix Vinca major and Woodruff - up there in Mass that should work well.

I used to live in the Catskills in NY and V. major grew really well there and it has bigger leaves and flowers to fill in faster than V. minor. and the combination of flower colors would be great.

Bishop's weed is nice... pachysandra... moss phlox... I have no pictures, sorry!

Thanks all of you for your suggestions. I am kind of disheartened, wonder how many plants I need? That mess is about 80 feet long and 5 feet wide. I also noticed all the rusty barb wire my DH used to keep his "bloomen" cattle in ages ago plus poison ivy. I do all the gardening myself but in this case I need help, don't you think?

Blooms, my apologies, I gave you a new name and you did not even say anything.

At least you gave her a nice name - should hear what we call her (kidding!);))

LSP I will keep eyes peeled for c.p.!!!