Do you think it would be worthwhile to open a thread about interesting ground covers and to share each others experiences and pictures ?
To give it a start I send a picture of a recently discovered beauty I purchased in a specialised nursery
This message was edited Aug 16, 2006 6:43 PM
Its name is Trifolium repens 'Green Ice'.
(I've send it today to the Plants file).
The flower
What a pretty clover!
Thinking about it groundcover tends not to last too long here although we had a lovely unintentional mat of wildflowers, Veronicas, Anagallis and Polygonums in one border.
I love wildflowers as a ground cover! If I had the space I would certainly have a whole field of them.
I use ground covers not in big masses, but as low plants that intertwine in between the bigger plants, so there is a playful inter action between them.
I love the 'common' Sweet wood ruff (Galium odoratum), although it might be invasive, but it doesn't really hinder the taller plants, I only have to take care it doesn't overgrow my small treasures. As my garden has mainly shade and half shade I couldn't miss this lovely ground cover.
Ahh now there was a Sweet woodruff in the front garden (the plant equivalent of a torture chamber) and it did last for a few years but like so many others it succumbed. Just recently, having overhauled the front garden somewhat, a groundcover appeared that I'm still trying to identify. I expect it will be one that needs pulling up on a regular basis but for the timebeing it's doing a job. I'll have to think about getting another Sweet woodruff, thanks for the reminder.
One of the plants we do have groundcover wise is Ajuga 'Valfredda', not very hardy but in mild winters it happily increases and has such beautiful blue flowers. Another genus I like which are semi-groundcover are the Epimediums, it's a pity they aren't always evergreen.
Baa,
Is it because of the draught that the ground covers in your front garden don't thrive ?
If that is the case and you love the pretty clover Trifolium repens 'Green Ice', then this plant might do it as it is known for being draught tolerant.
Some weeks ago when it was very hot and dry for weeks in a row without one raindrop, I noticed the grass fields in town were looking brown and yellow, only the clovers (Trifolium repens) didn't seem to suffer.
Until now, I've had no luck with the cultivars of Ajuga reptans, they don't withstand the winter and are very much under the attack of slugs and snails, only the common variety thrives.
Another 'common' woodland ground cover I love is Oxalis acetosella, it spreads happily among my shadow lovers and never hinders them.
OK, so I'm not European, but I don't seem to fit in any of these regional forums, so I'm going to mention one of my favorite groundcovers here in Southcentral Alaska: Pink Pyrola http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/7132/ It fills in a lovely space along woodland edges, it adapts to pots or rock gardens, and the flowers are lovely, as well. It's a native plant in my area. What sorts of pyrola do you have in your neck of the woods?
Weezingreens,
Happy with your response. Interesting, didn't know your plant, and didn't come across it in my local nurseries.
I found one member of the same family in one of my botanical books witch is named Pyrola minor, it looks very similar to yours, only smaller sized, like the name suggests.
Flowers look identical and are white or pink, it is also ever green.
I have started this thread in the European forum as I didn't find a special one for ground covers, but it would be nice to have more global wide responses.
Bonitin
No, it's not the drought but the soil LOL. It's heavy and compacted clay which lies wet and/or cold for too long for a lot of plants. Everytime we dig in the front garden we find parts of the gravel path we'd put in a few years ago, it sank without a trace on the surface :) Clovers tend to so well here so I'll keep an eye out for Green Ice, I know there is one with a gold coloured veining on the leaves but I haven't seen any locally.
Oxalis acetosella is beautiful isn't it, it grows well in the New Forest here and is one of the plants I look out for every spring.
WZ, that's a pretty one (even if it is pink LOL)!
Didn't we used to have a Groundcovers forum? Perennials or Garden Talk are great forums for this kind of thing too.
Ah, Baa, it is pink for only a short time while it blooms, then it is just those oval, rubbery, dark green leaves. The seed for pyrola is amazing. The seed is a golden yellow powder that really needs to be mixed with sand in order to plant it.
Bonitin, the pyrola is a native plant here that grows along wooded areas, so I doubt nurseries would carry it. I have added it to my little nursery business because it seems to adapt well to the rock gardens.
We have so many forums now that it is difficult for me to decide where to post a thread. That is not to say that the aren't properly defined, but rather, that some are so infrequently visited that the responses are few and far between.
As for regional forums, we really don't have enough Alaskans to warrant an Alaskan forum, yet we have such singular gardening situations. I keep sticking my nose in one regional forum after another, but end up feeling like a stranger at a wedding reception... everyone is cordially, but wonders who the heck I am.
Weezingreens,
Would you not feel home in the forum: 'cold climate gardeners' ?
I don't know how cold exactly is your climate, is it harsher than in Norway ?
I had a couple of trips to Norway and they have strongly impressed me. I went in the autumn time and I can remember very lively the overwhelming beauty of vast forests and peat moors covered with the most luxurious high poled carpets of mosses and lichens in a symphony of colours of all tones. Then there was a huge range of all types of mushrooms, abundance of bright coloured birches and dramatically twisted pines.
I felt like wandering in a fairy tale land. I was especiallly grateful for the inspiration it gave me as a nature painter.
I would be very interested to see a photo of the nature in your area !
Baa,
I have a little area edging my pond, witch is pure compacted wet clay and I have some plants which grow happily in it.
Among them are lysimachia nummularia that forms a beautiful spreading ground cover. Strangly enough also the airy euphorbia cyparissias feels happy in it although all my books say that it grows in dryer conditions.
In the shadier parts grows the Golden Saxifrage (Chrysoplenium alternifolium and the oppositifolium), although I've seen them naturally growing along brooks in some European forests in soil with contains a lot of humus.
At the moment I only have two pictures of the plants mentioned here:
The Euphorbia cyparissias and the Chrysoplenium alternifolium which for me form nice ground covers.
and the Euphorbia cyparissias
Those are lovely, bonitin. We have wonderful woodlands here, and the mountains offer lots of alpines. We also have the benefit of being coastal, so our summers are green and beautiful. I will email you a picture taken along a mountain trail. I am too old and fat to climb that high, but my son takes my camera and brings back lovely photos to download. I am a hiking voyeur!
There is no cold climate forum, but rather a cool climate forum. Actually, that more suites my climate, since our temps get neither overy hot or overly cold. The forum is not very active, and many of the folks that visit there are northern gardeners who experience hot summers and frigid winters... quite different than here. What we have in common, is that we don't grow a lot of the plants popular with our southern members.
I love 'listening at the door' to some of these threads, and don't always speak up because I don't really have a knowledge of these things. But your photos of the clover made me wonder if a plant that I bought to go in my baskets and tubs (chosen purely because of the colours )was a clover. I've had loads of people ask me what it is, and I have no idea at all. I was wondering if i's work as a ground cover, or if it was tender and would die off.
Any suggestions as to what it is would be greatly received?
another picyure of it in the baskets
Sueone, could it be one of the yellow wood sorrels? It's a dear little cover plant.
Sueone,
It is indeed a beauty! I've never seen it before so I cannot help you for its identity. Most probably the people on the identification forum could help, and then you could find out if it is winter hard in your climate zone. It would be certainly a pretty ground cover.
Bonitin
Lovely photos! I'm yet to find a nursery which stocks Chrysoplenium, even the wildflower specialists don't seem to stock it lately.
Sueone that's one of the Oxalis cultivars which I can't for the life of me remember the name of. It's a beautiful plant you have there and while I think it's fairly frost tender, these cultivars have started to self seed about the local area here so you might find them too. There's a dark/coppery leaved one currently making a home for itself down by the river. You might be able to overwinter your current plants in a frost free space if you wanted to keep them.
Sueone,
I think I have found the identity of your lovely plant.
Look in the plant finder under the name Oxalis siliquosa.
(I still don't know how to insert a link!)
Great thread :)
bonitin, to put in a link you highlight the address of the page you want to link to and copy it by clicking on copy in the drop down edit menu. Then go to the place you want the link to be seen, with the cursor in the right spot and click on paste in the drop down edit menu. When on DG this will appear as a dead link until you send it to the thread (even in the preview) but should work once in the actual thread. Hope this is clear - just ask if I haven't been
Philomel,
Thanks! , I did what I thought you meant and hope it will work.
Sueone, I hope this link will be active.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/52899/
Yippee it worked!!!!!!!!
.............and very pretty it is too!
Ah I love ground covers too, that Trifolium 'Green Ice' is really lovely! I haven't seen that one before. I also have sweet woodruff - I just got it about two summers ago after I'd been searching for it for ages - I love it - it's such a pretty green color and the white flowers brighten up even the darkest corner. I have an Ajuga reptans 'Atropurpurea' that does ok if it's not in too heavily shaded area. I also find Lamium maculatum a fine ground cover, both the species and 'Beacon Silver'.
I bought a hardy geranium this spring that's turning out to be a really fine groundcover - it's name is Mavis Simpson.
That oxalis reminds me of one I read about with dark red foliage - I don't recall the name of it - I'll have to go look it up:-)
Hi folks, thank you for the links here for my plant, nice to know what it's called at last.
Another one that I love, though not sure if it can be called a ground cover is the black grass
Ooops forgot to add photo...
wow sueone, that is an amazing colour!! Never seen black grass before!
It's not technically a grass, it's from the lily family, have temporarily forgotton Latin name.....I'm sure someone else will help me out here.
well, it's an amazing colour anyway!
Sueone,
Can it be : Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' ?
That would be correct bonitin.
I have lots of it growing around a phormium through purple paddle slates. It sends out runners and makes more plants, I had to cut holes in the ground cover for a start, now I just leave them and they come up on the edges. I also have several in pots waiting to go in the right spot.
I don't seem to have any recent pics other than the berries in a close up, I took a digi of an old photo, a few years ago now, there are many more plants now filling the area.
This message was edited Sep 8, 2006 12:47 AM
That is a handsome plant - never seen it around here.
The flowers produce clusters of black berries, they stay on all winter and only start to drop off in spring, some set themselves around the garden if they get carried away, but runners make plenty anyway. It should be hardy enough in your mild winters, and our summers are not always that hot so they would probably grow OK there.
I'm adding it to my want list!
Here's a photo of my Ajuga reptans "something purple - can't remember the name" ;-)
And my Lamium maculatum - it makes a great groundcover here :-)
I love Lamium macalatum! They have very intriguing flowers!
yeah they do! Nice photo bonitin!
Lamium maculatum 'beacon silver'
Another Lamium I really love, although not a groundcover, is Lamium galeobdolon 'Herman's Pride'
I love ajugas, but because it's dry here, they tend to get that mouldy look as the summer wears on, and never really thrive unfortunately.
Hardy geraniums are also useful, especially the one with heavily scented leaves, virtually evergreen (again memory lets me down....LOL)
