Fast-spreading ground cover for native woodland/meadow?

Any suggestions for native (New England) ground covers? I have lots of open space, some sunny, some shady, that attracts just about every non-native invasive around: bishop weed, chickweed, dandelion, plantain, creeping charlie, creeping buttercup, dock, wild carrots - you name it. I am looking for something that can reclaim the space, so it should be aggressive itself. Also needs to be low maintenance - and cheap! Bonus would be if it's attractive, deer-resistant, and/or can be walked on. The best I've got so far is common violets, which fit the bill perfectly - they're basically free, since they're all over my lawn already. But I'd like some variety. Any thoughts? Could do vines like Virginia creeper and wild grape, but then I'd have to keep them out of the trees. Any native mints that would work?

I don't know if it's native, but Sweet Woodruff grows like gangbusters. It grows in sun or shade and is deer resistant. I bought a very small pot of it in the spring of 2013. I planted the clump beside a bleeding heart. Late that summer, I divided it into small sections and placed it all around the base of the bleeding heart plant. A year later it had doubled in size in the area where it was planted.

First pic is when I bought it 2013. Second pics are a year later June 2014. In May/June it's covered with white flowers. Stays green all summer if kept watered. This year it SPREAD to about twice the size it was in 2014. Haven't gotten around to taking a photo, but it's just starting to bloom now.

Sweet woodruff, Galium odoratum is not native (it's European) but there are similar native species that act the same and are also nice-smelling, e.g. Galium boreale, northern bedstraw and Galium triflorum, fragrant bedstraw.

Edit: And by "native", I mean to the OP's area.

This message was edited May 24, 2015 5:11 PM

I like the look of sweet woodruff, but Altagardener is correct; it is not native to New England. I will check out the native bedstraws, though - thanks! I'm also looking at mints such as Meehan's mint (Meehania cordata). My problem is that I have large spaces to deal with (>500 sq.ft. total), so I can't afford $5-10 per plant while buying enough plants to fill it in a reasonable time. I am hoping to find something that's already around (like violets, or a "weed") that I can just transplant.

Here's a nursery in the US that has many interesting native species including groundcovers - Sunshine Farm and Gardens.
I've never ordered from it but I would if it were not for having to get phytosanitary certification to send plants across the border. The reason I point it out specifically is that it often offers good deals on larger volumes of plants, e.g. 10, 30 , 50, etc..

http://www.sunfarm.com/index.phtml

Many ground cover types of plants are grown in flats and cell packs, so the price would be a lot less. Of course the plants are smaller, but you can get a lot of them, and they do grow.

Depends on the species, of course, but planting things from a flat or cell pack 12" -24" apart could get a really good start the first year, and get pretty dense by the 2nd year.

Have you thought about investing in starting from seed, I dont mean all the little seed cells erc, but scattering the seeds on patches of cleared ground, again I mean roughly cleared from larger weeds etc.

Forgive me IF some of my suggestions are NOT native to your area but will go ahead and list a few plants, especially as they spread themselves over the years. Remember there are many BULBS and tuberous plants that grow within shade, dappled shade and give a wonderful show as do climbers like Honeysuckle, look for perfumed types.

Ajuga, there are several colours to leaf and flowers now.
Geraniums, Perennial types, lovely little flowers, spread quickly and if you cut them down after first flowers are done, they regrow and get second flowering.
Hypericum
Hostas, many, many types and heights with beautiful colours on leaf or markings on green leaf.
Oxalis
Vinca.
Roses, (Wild Dog Roses) are beautiful left to ramble. Perfumed.
Wild Garlic.
Cyclamen.
Bergenia.
Primula.
Heuchera
Tiarela.
Viola.

There are many more.
you will have to research and place these where they obtain the right conditions, like dapple shade, damper spot or whatever, but the good thing about woodlands, you can help create those plants requirements by adding a large rock to give shelter /shade for a low growing plant or a damp spot by burying a sheet of thick black plastic, use fork to punkture it and make a dip in the soil, refill the dip with soil you had to remove to give the dip, fill with water and add a few logs, large stones etc and you have a wonderful area for Hostas. slugs love hostas so from planting you need to use protection from slugs and snails.

I feel sure there MUST be books at library or book store for wood plants, AND plants that are natural to your area.
it's fun, it's heavy work at times BUT think end results.
Just enjoy.
Best Regards.
WeeNel.

Thanks for all the suggestions; you've given me some good ideas. I will also look for cheaper nurseries; the ones I've been going to don't sell flats, at least for the plants I want. The website for Sunshine Farms - no relation :) - does seem to have some great deals in bulk: $3-$5 per plant if you buy a couple dozen or so. I will give them a try, though I have never used a mail-order nursery.

Two specific plants I've found that might work for me are:
- Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) - no cheap source for this yet, but supposedly it spreads fast so maybe won't need too many.
- Various sedges - Sunshine Farms is offering Carex laxiculmis at 20 for $70. I also have some kind of sedge growing wild with my violets, so if I can identify it and it's native that will be perfect (i.e., free)!

But I still have the question: what are the New-England-native "weeds" that fill the same ecological niches as, for example, plantain, dandelion, or dock? Probably not the kind of stuff they sell in nurseries.

Take frequent walks in areas where wildflowers grow, and get lots of pictures of anything that interests you. Over all pics of the individual plants, plus early season pics- young leaves, flower buds... mid season pics- flowers growing on taller stems, flowers opening... and late season- ripening fruit, aging leaves.
All these are clues to ID.
The closer you are to houses or agriculture the more likely you are to find introduced plants, whether weeds or cultivated plants.

Another way to plant these areas:
Get a few special plants, if you want, but also get some mixed wildflower seeds. If there are any seed nurseries that specialize in your area that would be best. If only a few species survive out of a good mix of seeds that may be OK, as long as they have the right growth habit.
Find a place that will work with you to create a mix you want, or else look in stores that sell seeds in little packets and make up whatever blend you want.
You might end up with a couple of blends: Sun vs shade, and growth habit- if you have some areas where you want taller plants vs. lower growing plants.

Couple of seconds worth of google search came up with all sorts of places to continue the search, but look at this:

http://hartseed.com/about-us/

I have never tried growing from seed, but I'll give it a shot if I can find the right seeds. Wildflower mixes I have seen in the past are usually (implicitly or explicitly) a blend of native and naturalized flowers, which I would like to avoid. (For example, "Hart’s Northeastern Perennial Wildflower Mixture Item Code: FWILPERE - A balanced perennial mixture containing native or naturalized perennials that are outstanding performers in the Northeast and will provide vivid, season-long color from the second year on..."). But I will look through the catalogs to see what else might be useful. Thanks!

How about sedums

As far as I have learned, the only two sedum species that are native to New England are S. ternatum and S. telephioides. They both seem to have clumping habits rather than creeping as I would prefer.

Theres a sedum that creeps and very invasive. I am out of town so I can not show you pictures. i used to live in Portsmouth Rhode Island and had tons of this sedum.

Belle

Hi, Mickey. Since you aren't too far from the Framingham area, you might take a drive to see the plantings at the New England Wildflower Society. There are books and you might be able to find an expert there. They have a small nursery too. Mainly this is to get ideas for native plants because they aren't cheap. Wild strawberry is one of my favorites that I bought there.

It may help you to decide right away how faithful you want to be to the idea of planting only New England natives. I think a few combinations of the word native and New England in Google ought to help you locate some websites with plant lists and ranges. Look out for mistakes too. Longstalk holly has grown in New England for the past 200 years, so sometimes I see it on native plant lists. There are surprises too. The national Forestry service lists tupleo trees as native to this part of New England, but you don't see them because the region was clear cut for farming so many years ago. This gets back to the idea of what native really means. It can get complicated.

I agree that sewing seeds is the least expensive way to make a meadow.

Sedum ternatum spreads well for me.
I also use barren strawberry, Waldenstenia fragarioides for a mostly evergreen ground cover with wood phlox.
Wild ginger, Asarum canadense, is native and works well in the same areas violets grow.
Lyreleaf sage is native and looks alot like ajuga.
The native pachysandra is nice but spreads slowly.
I like to use the smaller leaved, later blooming white native violet , V. striata. and the purple leaved labrador violet.
Running foamflower, tiarela cordifolia, heuchera americana, ferns( some ferns like hay scented ferns will take over) .
Then there some anenomes that are native and spread well.

I have one area where bloodroot and Jack-in -the-pulpit filled in and share the space with Christmas fern.

What did you try so far?

I've tried most of what you suggest, except the lyreleaf sage and anemones. They all do fine, but it's still too expensive and/or too slow for me to cover the area I have with purchased plants. My solution so far is to use a mix of violets, sedge, aster, may apples, Virginia creeper, and wild grapes - these are all pretty aggressive, but most of all, I have a lot already so I can transplant them for free. I'm also looking into seeds. But I still don't have an answer to my original question. If I clear a plot of land that gets a minimum of sun and water, within a month or two it will be filled with invasive non-natives. Are there natives that are that aggressive, not requiring multiple years to fill a space? What would have happened to a cleared plot in pre-Columbian times?

If enough sun got to it annual grasses and flowers would sprout first.
Perennials would not be far behind.
Seeds of trees and shrubs would also sprout.

Deer, rabbits and others would nibble the plants, and perhaps slow the growth of the woody things for a while, keeping the area more sunny, but eventually the trees would grow and shade the area again.

To see this in action visit some natural parks.