Brought to you in cooperation with the Kansas State Johnson County Research and Extension Master Gardeners.   Each week we feature the most popular questions received on their "Hotline".

Home
Current Issue
Previous Issues

Donations

Videos new!

Bookstore  
Magazines 
Gardening Catalogs 

Site Search
Contact Us
Submit A Tip

Feature Articles

Rose Tips
What's Hot... 
Nuisance of the Week
Winter Wisdom 
Turf Tips... 
Gardener's Glossary 

Books We Love
Great Products
Web Resources
Event Calendar

Unsubscribe 
Address Change 
Tell A Friend 

Privacy Pledge

Week of 5/24/04

Many gardeners have found groundcover plants a useful and attractive addition to their landscapes, and a solution to some persistent problems of plant protection and maintenance. With the increased commercial availability of plants suitable for use as groundcover, gardeners’ imaginations have found new and varied uses for them.

Traditional uses for groundcover plants include replacement for turfgrass in many locations where mowing and care are difficult and inconvenient. Fortunately, many of these plants are adaptable to differing cultural conditions like light and moisture, height, color and vigor of growth. They may also be either perennial or annual, some are evergreen, while still others are fragrant or have especially attractive foliage and flowers.

Groundcover plants are useful and attractive as low borders that frame a lawn area and provide a happy transition from grass to garden. Their use around trees and shrubs reduces mower or weed trimmer damage, and is an interesting substitute for rock, stone, or bark mulch. Many of these plants are practical tools in controlling or eliminating erosion of banks, berms and terraces while simplifying their upkeep by avoiding the need for hand clipping or mowing of steep or irregular surfaces. From an aesthetic standpoint alone, well-planned groundcover areas add interest and variety to the landscape.

Here are some plants well adapted for use as groundcover that you may wish to consider or look into at your nursery or plant source.

The semi-succulent low-growing sedums, often known as stonecrops, are perennials that flourish in sun or light shade and have bright yellow or red flowers in addition to attractive foliage. Their moisture requirements are moderate to low, and they are reasonably cold hardy.

Vinca minor and Ajuga are old favorites that are semi-evergreen to evergreen, and bloom beautifully in the spring. Both spread readily from season to season and are good companions for tulips and other bulbs which will rise easily through them. Neither will flourish in too-moist or poorly drained soil, but grow well in part shade and filtered sunlight.

If you prefer a woodier, heavier textured groundcover that flowers and has berries in the fall and winter, try one or more of the prostrate-growing Cotoneasters. Their interesting horizontal growth pattern rarely tops four to six inches. A number of prostrate Junipers are also available that form a dense evergreen cover in the same height range or slightly taller.

One of the most economical groundcovers for large areas is Coronilla or Crown Vetch that can be grown from seed. It is a rampant grower more suited to roadside or commercial use than for the home, unless it can be properly contained. The same caveat applies to creeping Honeysuckle varieties that can be highly invasive, and once established are next to impossible to eradicate.

There are, however, many vines that make excellent groundcovers. These include reliable perennials like Hedera helix, English ivy, a hardy evergreen particularly well-suited for partial shade; and Polygonum aubertii, Silverlace Vine, a prolific late-season bloomer with great quantities of small flowers.

There are also non-climbing Clematis like C. ‘Durandii’, a beautiful indigo-blue bloomer that is well suited to rambling among shorter perennials in the border.

No listing of groundcovers would be complete without some of the taller favorites like Lirope; Mahonia repens, creeping mahonia; Euonymus fortunei var. coloratus, Purple leaf Wintercreeper; or Pacysandra terminalis. All of these are hardy perennials in the 8 to 12 inch height range, that thrive in shade to partial shade.

For the more adventurous, there is a wonderfully bright yellow foliage plant, Lysimachia nummularia var.’Aurea’ that is sure to brighten any area in which it grows.

Articles submitted by Bill Latimer, Johnson County Extension Horticulture Assistant and Dennis Patton, Johnson County Extension Horticulture Agent.

Previous Weeks' Hotline Tips

* The "Hotline" is an information service of the Kansas State Johnson County Research and Extension Master Gardeners.  Research-based responses are provided by Extension Master Gardener volunteers weekdays from March 1 through October 31, from 9:00 am to 4:30pm .  To telephone, call (913) 764-6306 or visit the Extension Office at 13480 South Arapaho Drive, Olathe, Kansas.  Visit their website at www.oznet.ksu.edu/Johnson 

© 1999 - 2008 Savvygardener.com, Inc. All rights reserved.  If you wish to copy, transmit, or otherwise duplicate any of the material from our website please ask us first.  Thank you.