Saw what we need but what is it?

We recently visited a new commercial and cultural development called North Hills and Six Forks Road in Raleigh, NC. The buildings are concrete and they've planted a small leafed creeping plant that grows up from the dirt and clings to the masonry.

It reminds me of a dark green creeping Jenny or Moneywort. I had to pull out one strand to convince my husband it wasn't plastic. Low and behold it had roots and was doing wonderfully even tho' the soil was dry. I replugged it into the dirt. It's clinging to all the concrete foundations around shops, theatre and restaurants.

It's just what we've been searching for BUT WHAT IS IT?

I believe its an evergreen -- I'm sure I saw it during the winter.

Our area is facing increasing droughts and very high temperatures -- the best designed new developments are xeriscaping. Unfortunately, the garden centers are still selling a lot of plants and shrubs that require a great deal of watering, but we've had bans on watering here. Last year was a doozie. This year it has rained and we can hand water.

I need a plant that will cover a faux brick wall I've created to hold dirt and mulch and give my plants something to root into besides solid clay. The fake bricks are ugly but they were affordable.

Can anyone guess what this little bugger could be. It's a shinny, small leafed creeper that you'd swear was plastic. I wish I had a picture but didn't have my camera at the time.

It could be dichondra, it will climb up things and looks like moneywort.

Or maybe creeping fig?

http://www.magnoliagardensnursery.com/productdescrip/Ficus_Green.html

This message was edited Aug 4, 2008 4:33 PM

Prickle: Thanks, I used google image and both the dichondra and the creeping fig look very much like what I saw. I'll look up the specs on both.

Do you know one would be the most plastic-like? Sounds strange but I can't stress how much this thing really felt fake. It was weird.

If I can get it down to a specific, I'm going to order this stuff. I need an evergreen if at all possible and I've tried a few plants and failed...mostly due to sales people not providing the full info.

I have a front yard with mounds of creeping Jenny around the trees and a birdbath and now I find it's a waterhog. I love the stuff but next year it could just all die and I'm back to square one.

Dunno about the plastic-ness, sorry.

If you Google for wall climbing vines you'll get a ton of info.

I don't know about dichondra but I've had creeping fig in a hanging basket before and I thought the leaves had a somewhat papery feel. They have an almost quilted appearance also. It grows very fast and will cling to anything--don't plant it too close to trees as it will eventually take them over. It is pretty and comes in green and variegated.

It was creeping fig. I planted some last year but find its really slow growing unfortunately. But I found both variated and solid colored varieties. It definitely has an inclination to grow up stone and concrete blocks so I think its going to be a godsend. Still little tiny plants though.

Yes - creeping fig.

Just be prepared for invasion if you plant creeping fig. It's roots go everywhere, and in time it gets very thick and dense. It's a little slow to get established, but then it realy takes off.

It can't be any worse than the vinca major that was planted by the previous owners. It's crawling up my gardenias, my hollies, suffocating my knock out roses. My hands are calloused from pulling the long long strands out by the roots and yet its still popping up in new places.

I had vinca minor as a ground cover in the NE and I loved it. I initially thought it was the same stuff but that the leaves probably grew bigger down here -- after all, the foxglove here is three to four times the size of the plants we grew up north and they come back sometimes three years in a row. I thought I hit the jackpot..

Wow, if I'd known, I'd have cleaned it out when I first moved in and replaced it with vinca minor or a more controllable ground cover.