San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Native ground covers bring unique beauty — and pollinators
These low-growing plants are hardy, drought-tolerant and a favorite of hummingbirds and butterflies
While popular ground covers such as thyme, dymondia, baby’s tears and ice plant have their well-earned places in the world of low-spreading evergreen plants, did you know that there are a number of wonderful California native ground covers ready to plug into a variety of situations?
Not only do these selections display all the virtues of the above-ground covers — tenacious, drought tolerant, excellent at weed suppression — but they add their own unique benefits as well. Many attract pollinators of one kind or another; some are edible or medicinal; and a few even produce winter seed for songbirds. And many can be found at your local nursery. Here are a handful of my favorite selections to consider for your Bay Area garden.
Low growers for pollinators or birds
California buckwheats (Eriogonum) are one of the very best low-growing plants to attract and nourish pollinators and songbirds in your garden. The foliage on these hardy and drought-tolerant perennials stays low (3-6 inches), with flowers floating above on elongated stems. Be it the pink flowering E. grande rubescens, the yellow blooming E. crocatum or E. umbellatum, or the white flowering E. latifolium, the flowers are a popular nectar source for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Leave the flowers on the plant in order to produce seed for local songbirds. These buckwheats love the sun and want good drainage.
Yerba buena (Satureja douglasii) is a common herb belonging to the savory family. It’s easy to grow and spreads quickly. Its sweetly fragrant leaves are popular in salads or as tea, but its white tubular flowers are also a favorite of hummers. This herb likes shade and a bit of regular water. It is prolific, so no worries about harvesting some of its leaves. More will grow back.
Self heal (Prunella vulgaris) is a low-growing herb that more people should have in their gardens. It is so durable that when the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco was redesigned with a living roof, this herb was a featured plant. That roof receives no artificial moisture, showing how tough this purple flowering herb is. Bees and hummers love the flowers, and the leaves were used by native people to treat skin issues.
Coyote mint (Monardella) is one of the best-kept secrets in the worlds of both fragrant herbs and ground covers. Species such as M. villosa, M. odoratissima and M. macrantha offer highly fragrant leaves and lovely light purple flowers that are a magnet for bees and butterflies. They are a bit taller than some of the other ground-hugging plants mentioned here — typically 8-15 inches — but they do offer many of the same virtues (erosion control and weed prevention).
Ground covers as a design element
We sometimes view ground covers as only utilitarian plants but they can add their own beauty to any garden.
California fuchsia (Epilobium) is exhibit A in this regard, displaying silvery foliage and highly decorative tubular flowers in shades of red, pink or coral. Ranging in height from 4-18 inches, this mostly evergreen spreading perennial is surprisingly drought tolerant, needing almost no summer water. The nectar-rich flowers are a prime destination for hummingbirds. Less known but just as beautiful is the woolly sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum ‘Siskiyou’), a low-spreading native with cheerful 2-inch daisy-like flowers. It’s both a butterfly magnet and attractive yet tough customer, with its lobed, silver foliage.
Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium species) seems like an odd common name until you spot this native’s purple or bluish-purple flowers, each with a golden eye in its center. Best planted in the fall, this clump-forming grass tops out at 8 inches and spreads to 12 inches wide. A bit more useful as a decorative ground cover, it is nonetheless one of the loveliest of our native lowgrowers.
Need a ground cover for shade? Native coral bells species (Heuchera) are a wonderful choice. Of the lowergrowing types, H. micrantha and H. sanguinea offer the greatest number of varieties. Sporting green scalloped leaves, these durable evergreens create 6-inch-by-15inch clumps with sprays of tiny white, pink or red flowers rising above the foliage on wiry stems.
Succulent ground covers such as various ice plants are familiar to many a gardener, but did you know that there is a native stonecrop among succulent selections? Sedum spathulifolium purpureum or Cape Blanco are groundhugging, drought-tolerant and highly decorative. Purple stonecrop features rosettes of tiny leaves that have a reddish-purple cast while Cape Blanco’s rosettes are entirely silver. Both produce yellow flowers sought out by butterflies. These succulents love the sun and fast-draining soil.
Spreading plants for weed control
To control weeds, a plant that fills in densely, making it difficult for weeds to push up, is in order. Four natives get the job done, and our native strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is one of them. This groundhugging perennial creates a dense mat of feathery green leaves, adding small edible fruits in the summer. It prefers sun but can tolerate a bit of shade. Likewise, our native sage (Salvia sonomensis) stays very low (1-2 inches) and spreads out to eventually cover an area of 6-10 feet. Durable and drought tolerant, it appreciates a bit of relief from interior midday sun. Pale purple flowers dot the plant in the fall, attracting hummingbirds.
There are several lowgrowing manzanitas (Arctostaphylos), but one of the best is A. uva-ursi. Staying very low, it creates a thick mat of small, dark green leaves that slowly spread to 5 feet wide. This ground cover is so tough that you can walk on it, a quality shared by all four entries here. Lastly, Lippia repens is a very low and extremely dense ground cover that can be used as a lawn substitute. It forms a green carpet that eventually sprouts little white-with-purple-centers blooms in summer.