Heath Pearlwort, Scottish or Scotch Moss 'Aurea'

The species grows as a weed in many of the gardens I maintain. It usually dies out in spots when gardeners try to grow it as a groundcove...Read Morer here (Boston Z6a). In my climate it doesn't form an even groundcover, and tends to be short-lived.

It's a staple of coffee-table garden books, especially in checkerboard patterns with the species. But the reality is that such fussy schemes fall apart not long after the photographer leaves. The yellow form self-sows, but the seedlings don't inherit the golden foliage.

I grow in Zone 6 in heavy clay soils (amended as necessary) in a city prone to lots of rain and very infrequent drought. This year, the f...Read Moreirst year of planting, we have had rain nearly every weekday for several weeks solid. I bought Scotch moss in combination with Irish moss with the intent of planting along the problem areas of my retaining wall in my backyard. I have an oddly shaped, triangular backyard with a large covered patio, which overhangs my retaining wall in parts, leading to a few areas of complete to mostly shade.

I had originally planted creeping phlox in those parts, but it all starved without enough sunlight. I was in need of a creeping groundcover that would soften my wall's edges and grow low enough to not overshadow the tiered plants behind it, but it also had to be pretty and hardy enough for mostly shaded areas. These mosses seemed to do the trick, though I was a bit worried as they were billed for sun to part-sun.

I left them in their shipping pots for several weeks (my fault for being too busy then too lazy to plant them right away), and they thrived under part-sun conditions. I noticed the pots that were in the deeper shade had fewer delicate white flowers, but the chartreuse plant color was no less striking than the one that received more sun. I recently planted them in their intended spots, and they look very happy and healthy in all this rain. They certainly brighten up my shady spot as well as look striking against their Irish cousin.

OK. Both Scottish Moss and its kissing cousin, Irish Moss look neat in the pot. There is no doubt that, in the right environment it look...Read Mores fantastic. The problems I've had with it are related to getting it to survive. It doesn't do well in lots of sunshine. As others have said, it does great in areas with more shade. This is the usual thing for real moss, so I am not surprised. But the thing that is a real problem with it is its roots. They weave around eachother, forming a dense mat. Not bad in the ground, but I was trying to use it in bonsai pots. The roots so dominate the pot that they choke out everything else. In a bonsai pot, where there really isn't a lot of space for roots to start with, this smothers the trees and kills them. Happened with about a dozen Japanese Maples this winter, as well as half a dozen conifers. Man, the moss looked great in the spring, but the trees died.

Underplanted this around rose bushes, looks very pretty with fallen petals on it. Creeps quite rapidly especially with frequent (every o...Read Morether day) watering.

Here in northern California, it doesn't seem to like all-day sun. It does well in the area I planted which gets afternoon shade, but not further down the path where it gets 8 hours of summer sun a day.