Top Plants for Ground Covering: The Best Options

Shade-tolerant

Periwinkle

A hardy flowering subshrub that can grow in the dense shade of trees, overwinter under a layer of snow, and be one of the first to wake up in the spring. All varieties have similar petal shapes, but different colors: snow-white, violet, purple, purple, lilac, blue. Periwinkles of blue colors are most often used in landscape design. They form a dense carpet 15-25 cm high.

Modern hybrids not only bloom beautifully and abundantly, but also surprise with the unusual color of the foliage, such as Blue and Gold.

Asarum

Scientists call it “azarum”, but gardeners are more accustomed to calling this plant asarum for its leathery, richly emerald leaves in the shape of a hoof. The perennial readily spreads in lowlands, does not need an abundance of sunlight and even hides its few flower stalks in the underleaves. It’s a pity, because the flowers look original.

Asarum europaeus, the most popular representative of this type of groundcover plants, is moderately poisonous and has been used in Russian folk medicine since ancient times.

Pachysandra terminalis

This beauty belongs to the boxwood family, in nature it grows in ravines and along the banks of reservoirs, and in landscape design it is valued for its lush, juicy greenery, although it blooms with pretty white flowers. Pachysandra has long (up to 40 cm) strong stems that hang down to the ground, are completely covered with leaves and intertwine into a common, almost uncombable mass.

The terminal pachysandra has firmly established itself in rock gardens, rockeries, and mixborders. It also looks great in tree trunk circles and grows well there, despite the shading.

Indian cinquefoil

The scientific name of this representative of the rose family is Duchesnea, and in everyday life it is better known as pseudostrawberry. The resemblance is striking, but the “fake” is undemanding to growing conditions, its berries are round, and its flowers are yellow. Red sparkles on a dark green background have brought this groundcover shade-loving plant popularity in landscape art.

Indian cinquefoil has medicinal properties, and its berries are quite edible, although they are inferior in taste to garden and wild strawberries.

For partial shade

Saxifrage umbrosa

Shadow or shady saxifrage is called so for a reason – its powerful short (8-12 cm) shoots easily break through rocks, and for successful growth it does not need a lot of heat and light. But during the flowering period, it throws out thin paniculate peduncles that reach for the sun and become covered with small white flowers.

The reproduction of saxifrage depends on flowering. It is better to choose a place in partial shade for it and not to plant it in impenetrable thickets, then it will impress you with its exuberant growth from year to year.

Veronica oak

This semi-shrub with a romantic name became famous thanks to its delicate blue flowers with a white border, bright green leaves similar to nettles, and an amazingly simple, unpretentious nature. Veronica oak harmonizes perfectly with other groundcover plants and conifers, does not bother anyone and adapts well to partial shade.

Veronica flowers are natural weather indicators: drooping and curled petals – expect bad weather, opened and looking at the sky – there will be a sunny day.

Alchemilla mellifera

A tall (up to 40 cm) herbaceous groundcover crop with fan-shaped leaves also blooms interestingly – it throws out long peduncles with yellow-green inflorescences and replaces them with new ones throughout almost the entire summer. And the soft cuff is called for the silky, pleasant to the touch surface of the leaves.

The plant was considered an unbearable weed, but became popular in landscaping areas due to its unusual ability to release excess moisture from the leaf blades. Together with the dew that falls overnight, myriads of sparkles are obtained.

Bergium cordifolium

Bergium has two additional names: the official one is bergenia, and the popular one is elephant ears. Yes, its leaves are large and expressive, of a characteristic shape, but the pink-lilac racemose inflorescences are not inferior to them in beauty.

The heart-leaved bergenia is notable for the fact that it blooms in early May and takes on a decorative role when the other perennial participants in the landscape composition have not yet released buds.

Drought-resistant

Irish moss

This ground cover is something between grass and moss, densely covering the ground and rising above it slightly – by 6-8 cm. Bryosanka subulate, as botanists call it, blooms all summer with snow-white flowers that create the effect of being dusted. But it is pleasant to walk on the “snow” carpet ― the plant is not prickly.

Irish moss saves moisture and does not burn out even under the scorching rays of the sun, does not give “life” to weeds and smells pleasantly of honey.

Creeping bugleweed

Here is another perennial with a telling nickname. There is also an official name ― ajuga. The bugleweed grows up to 40 cm and produces inflorescences of blue-violet range in the form of false whorls. It blooms throughout the warm season and perfectly resists drought.

Although bugleweed protects the site from the spread of weeds, it itself needs to be looked after so that it does not creep everywhere.

Sedum

Stone rose or sedum charms at first sight. This groundcover evergreen perennial quickly takes root even in poor soil, does not require watering, forms dense growth of light green “rosettes” with a scarlet border and looks stunning in alpine slides.

In Western Europe, sedum is called “hen with chicks” because of the funny way young shoots cluster under the mother rosette.

Sedum

These groundcover plants are succulents, have many decorative varieties with small flowers of different colors. All sedums are not afraid of bright sun and are able to store life-giving moisture in their fleshy sessile leaves for a long time. The Latin name of the crop is sedum, and people call it by many names: hare cabbage, fever grass, squeaker.

Sedums used to be used for sanitary treatment of wounds and stopping bleeding, and are now favored by landscape designers for their unpretentiousness and picturesque appearance.

For sunny areas

Yaskolka

Ceratium, better known as yaskolka, is a ground cover plant of the carnation family. It forms a dense, low (up to 20 cm) growth of millions of snow-white flowers and spreads quickly by rooting shoots. In just a couple of years, the yaskolka fills all the gaps in the landscape and becomes an expressive background for other ornamental plants.

Ceratium is ideal for mixborders, flower beds, borders and ribbon flower beds. It is often planted along hedges.

Potentilla

Another name for this groundcover perennial crop is Kuril tea, it was brought to us from Japan, where it grows abundantly in the mountains. Potentilla blooms with large, bright buds of yellow, orange, pink and red colors, depending on the variety, and for a very long time – from May to September. Oblong petals densely frame the branches and form a semblance of panicles.

Cinquefoil loves sunlight and warmth, and manages to survive frosty winters at -35 degrees.

Catnip

Catnip or catnip grows well in open sunny areas. This tall (60-120 cm) perennial shrub looks like peppermint, its leaves smell just as aromatic when rubbed in your hands, but they contain nepetalactone, a substance that intoxicates cats like valerian.

Some people confuse catnip with lavender because of the popular lilac varieties, but catnip comes in different colors: white, yellow, purple, blue, purple.

Phlox subulate

Phlox has awl-shaped leaves, and the flowers are round, pink, crimson, lilac, purple or snow-white. The bush grows quickly and blooms so abundantly in June that the foliage is not visible under the bright pile of petals. Phlox is not afraid of the scorching sun and will easily become the leading color accent of the landscape composition.

Although the culture belongs to ground cover perennials, the plantings need to be renewed once every five years, otherwise they will wither and lose their beauty.