New ways to think about ground covers

Ground cover: You can’t live with it. You can’t live without it.

Some have described ground covers as “garden thugs” or even worse, since they can brutally bully plants in their vicinity, to the point of suffocating or even strangling them if left to their own devices. However, by choosing shallow-rooted plants that spread quickly and flower abundantly, you may reevaluate your thoughts on certain ground covers, at least, and come to see them as friends rather than foes.

One of my favorites is bacopa (Sutera cordata), suitable for both full sun and partial sun locations. It flowers nonstop for several years in white, pink or blue and stays less than a foot tall. It is also a spiller and will gleefully grow over block walls or out of pots.

Creeping boobialla (Myoporum parvifolium) is one of the toughest ground covers. It blooms most of the year, and the Fine Form variety stays under a foot tall. I have seen it growing near the Dead Sea where average daily summer temperatures exceed 100 degrees. Yet it is also cold-tolerant down 18 degrees.

Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria species) benefit from weekly watering but can make do with less. They blanket the ground as they spread vegetatively with their rhizomes’ assistance, creating a living mulch that minimizes the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface. And should you suffer a midsummer breakdown of your irrigation system, there is no need to worry; even if your Peruvian lilies die back down to the ground, their rejuvenation will come in the form of new vertically skyrocketing shoots, ascending from their resilient rhizomes, when watering resumes.

A bonus: As cut flowers, Peruvian lilies reliably last two weeks in vase arrangements, longer than the blooms of any other garden plant. Their typically pink flowers combine well with yellow daylilies and blue lilies of the Nile (Agapanthus species), although alstroemerias in yellow, orange, red and purple are also available. Tiny, threadlike insects known as thrips, which may nibble

flower petals, are often a nuisance, so make sure you shake them out of the flowers you bring inside for vase arrangements.

I have found fairy crassula (Crassula multicava) to be the ultimate solution for difficult-to-plant areas, especially in halfday sun to shady exposures. This round-leafed crassula grows with a minimum of water in any kind of soil, whether fast-draining or compacted. It will dry out in blistering fullsun exposures with no water — in which case, you will want to soak it occasionally — and will blacken somewhat in a freeze, but otherwise holds its own quite well.

It is called fairy or mosquito crassula because of its delicate, pinkish-white flowers that hover over the foliage in winter and early spring. It grows quickly but is neither invasive nor thatch building and is easily propagated. It can thus supply you with an endless source of ground cover where your budget for new plants is limited.

At any time of the year,

detach stem pieces with a few accompanying leaves, stick them in empty garden spots, and they will root and begin growing soon enough. This ground cover consistently thrives where nothing else will grow, including under pine trees and eucalyptuses, and where dense tree roots have compacted the earth.

Sedum confusum doesn’t have a common name and is appropriately possessed of uncommon qualities. It doesn’t get woody and doesn’t build thatch. It grows quickly but is not invasive. It smothers most weeds. Its roots hold the soil well, but it can be uprooted with a gentle tug. It is a succulent plant that heads the lists of both drought-tolerant and fire-resistant species.

Volcanic sorrel (Oxalis vulcanicola) is a wonderful ground cover, a hidden gem that deserves wider recognition. Three varieties are available: Aureus, with green to golden leaves; Molten Lava, with yellow to orange to light burgundy leaves; and Zinfandel, my favorite and

the most typically seen, with green to burgundy to nearly black leaves.

The more sun you give volcanic sorrel, the darker its foliage, although it is also suitable for half-day sun or bright shade locations. Like most sorrel or Oxalis species, the foliage of volcanic sorrel is shamrock-shaped. Its starry flowers are bright yellow and adorned with thin burgundy lines at the base of each petal.

Volcanic sorrel is wellsuited as a ground cover. Each plant grows 6-10 inches tall and 1 foot wide. It makes an excellent companion to the indestructible purple shamrock (Oxalis triangularis), notable for triangular foliage resembling purple butterflies and mauvish white flowers. Propagation is achieved by rooting stem cuttings in water or by division of the rhizomatous roots.

If you are thinking ground cover around indoor plants or container plants outdoors makes no sense, you may want to think again. String of pearls (Senecio rowleyanus) is a succulent that can take regular water or barely any water at all. Its roots are superficial so it will never compete with the roots of your containerized specimens.

If you grow a noteworthy ground cover more people should know about, please share your experience in an email to joshua@ perfectplants.com. Feel free to send questions, comments, garden problems or inspirations as well.

PHOTO BY JOSHUA SISKIN Volcanic sorrel grows 6-10inches tall, tolerates full or half-day sun, provides attractive leaves and flowers and doesn’t get aggressive with its neighbors.

PHOTO BY JOSHUA SISKIN String of pearls works as a ground cover for indoor or container plants and needs little water.