PLANT PROFILES: FLOWERING GROUNDCOVER

The shortest of the blooming varieties…

…FLOWERING GROUNDCOVER is great for adding low layers of ornamental interest to a planting design. They can be used in monocultural swaths to cover large designs with soft, even texture. Or they can be mixed into and in front of a tiered design to hide plants that grow stalky. A few varieties are even hardy enough to use as a lawn substitution—provided the lawn is more ornamental than functional. Both groundcover varieties are great for going low-maintenance in the landscape, though it is important to note FLOWERING GROUNDCOVER will die down to the ground in the winter just like FLOWERING PERENNIALS.

Many times this lowest layer is absent in planting design—whether by design or omission. Many species bloom earlier in the year and add a pivotal pop of color in the early months when we yearn for anything but snow. And as most groundcover grows dense at maturity, many designers often use FLOWERING GROUNDCOVER to help shade out weeds. If selecting groundcover for this reason we recommend confirming the desired plants growth rate to see if it is better to install at 6 inch, 8 inch, or 12 inch centers. The slower the growth rate, the closer each plant should be.

KEMORA PICKS	Bugleweed, Creeping Jenny, Lilyturf, Phlox, Spotted Nettle, Stonecrop, Sweet Woodruff, Thyme
SUN	Full Sun to Partial Shade
ORNAMENTAL INTERESTS	Different leaf color, texture, and varietal blooms are available as FLOWERING GROUNDCOVER for providing ornamental interest at the lowest layer of design.
DESIGN USE	Use FLOWERING GROUNDCOVER as the foremost layer in planting design to help hide undesirable foliage, to help shade our weeds in a planting bed, or to create a calm sea of texture throughout the landscape.
ALTERNATIVES	Like the texture of FLOWERING GROUNDCOVER but need a winter presence? A few varieties of EVERGREEN GROUNDCOVER bloom as well as retain their leaves throughout the year.
Periwinkle Photo Credit: Beautifulcataya via Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]; Bugleweed Photo Credit: ukgardenphotos via Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]; Sweet Woodruff Photo Credit: Patrick Standish via Flickr [CC BY 2.0].

Plant info found on Google is not always precise as it is an aggregate of information from around the world—so we want to share our observations from years of getting our hands dirty in the Second City. This post is the latest in one of our newest series, PLANT PROFILES, where we explore each plant category as well as the preferred species of Kemora. We love plants which in turn gives us a trained eye for trouble-shooting them. And it is our hope you will come to love them too!

Kemora Landscapes is a full-service design, build, and maintenance company based in Chicago.