Pimelea prostrata

This native daphne, sometimes called Strathmore Weed, is available all over New Zealand, and the only thing it hates

is wet feet. It’s not one of my favourites but it’s pretty nice as native groundcovers go. Low growing and prostrate, it’s a perennial shrub that usually grows around 5-10cm high and up to 1m wide.

The leaves are bluish-green colour and it has small, scented white flowers from spring through to the beginning of autumn. That’s a pretty good effort. It has red or white berries that you can eat, but don’t eat any other bits of the plant as it may be poisonous.

Pre-European Ma¯ ori used the inner bark of the plant to tie their hair, so it comes with a nice back story.

Coprosma neglecta

This is not a favourite of mine either, although I have a warm relationship with its brother Coprosma Green Rocks. I’m not sure whether Neglecta means you can neglect the plant, or neglect the garden it’s covering, but you’ve got to love the name.

It’s a divaricating, weeping coastal shrub with a cascading habit and it grows to around 50cm tall. It makes trailing branches up to a couple of metres long

If you have wet spaces rather than dry, Fuchsia procumbens is your baby. And it’s literally your baby, because it’s the smallest fuchsia in the world. As you might expect of something that likes wet areas, it’s a coastal species and is often found just above high tide mark, where it occasionally gets inundated by spring tides.

Its stems are very slender, and it has small, rounded green leaves. The flowers are yellow with red anthers and the pollen is blue. It blooms from September to May and produces its berries in winter. If it’ll grow at your place, please plant one, because it’s listed as an endangered plant species.

Pachysandra

I planted this glossy, green-leaved groundcover under a couple of Murraya shrubs about three years ago and lost it. I’ve just found it again and it’s done rather well in my absence.

It’s a low maintenance plant (just as well!) that produces clusters of little white flowers in early summer. It grows to about 15cm tall and spreads by runners, so it can exceed 50cm in width. Mine’s at least as wide as that — probably because it’s been looking for a way out from under the Murrayas.

It likes dry shade but will tolerate damp areas. And it’ll tolerate sun, too, although the foliage might go a little dull.

Gardenia radicans

This is one of my favourites, possibly because it doesn’t quite look like a groundcover, although it does a fair job. It’s a gorgeous, fragrant cultivar with small, glossy leaves and a compact habit, and it flowers with abandon.

Ironically, the time you save by having it cover the ground, you spend deadheading its endless blooms. Not a bad complaint though.

Baby’s Tears (Soleirolia Soleirolii)

And I love this one too. I started a wee bit as a pot plant in a defunct fish pond and there was no stopping it. It likes moist, shady, frost-free gardens and I’ve recently discovered it’s escaped into the garden and is busily carpeting the bottom lawn by the stream.

I love it. It’s also known as Mind Your Own Business, presumably because it’s always poking its nose in where it shouldn’t, and colonising areas of the garden to which it was never invited.