25 Best Ground Cover Plants For Your Garden
Does your garden have patches that look ugly and you wish you could cover them up? If yes, choose to plant ground cover plants that are considered the biggest blessing for such gardens. These plants are the most popular when it comes to garden landscaping as these are low in maintenance and last an entire season. Ground cover plants grow fast and have the ability to form into beautiful blankets of blooms at spots inaccessible by other plant varieties. These produce blossoms in various colors like yellow, white and purple and are mostly used on edges or borders of gardens. Also, these are helpful in eliminating the growth of weeds. Below, we have presented an interesting collection of 25 of these plants. Take your pick!
1. Euphorbia Blue Haze
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Known as Blue Haze Spurge, this ground cover plant produces blooms in later part of spring and looks very pretty with chartreuse toned blossoms and blue foliage. This ornamental plant grows well in full sun and reaches up-to 8 feet in height and measures 12 to 15 inches in width. These plants thrive well in sunny spots and also in containers. Gardeners grow Blue Haze in front of other perennial plants to lend more attractiveness to the landscape.
2. Prairie Phlox
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Phlox villosissima or Prairie Phlox, a bloomer in later part of spring is considered one of the best ground cover perennials to brighten up the empty patches of your garden. These plants grow well in poor soil and produce a thick blanket of bright pink blossoms and reach up-to 6 feet in height. These low growing perennials are a perfect choice for such regions that experience humid summer.
3. Bigroot Geranium
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Purple ground covering plants have a beauty of their own, and the Bigroot Geranium is one of those. This plant is an excellent choice for such people that wish to grow sturdy and low maintenance plants. Bigroot Geranium grows up-to 1.5 feet in height and is a lover of the sun. It produces attractive blossoms in a wide range of colors like bright pink, light pink and red. The best spot for growing this plant is under a tree. Its a drought resistant perennial.
4. Helianthemum
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One of the best ground cover plants, Helianthemum or Rock Rose is a variety belonging to the Cistaceae family and reaches up-to 1 feet in height. This plant needs full sun to grow optimally and produces blossoms in pink, yellow, white and orange tones. In warmer regions, this plant lasts long, while in colder areas, it dies off as cold increases. It is a subshrub that blossoms nicely to cover up patchy portions of your garden.
5. Sedum
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Sedum is an excellent choice for gardeners looking for a ground cover with yellow flowers. It is an ornamental succulent plant that thrives perfectly in full sunny spots. These plants are available in 400 varieties. Sedum needs well draining soil and is popular with people all over the globe. Sedum’s ability to grow in diverse climates makes it an excellent choice for beautifying gardens.
6. Globe Ice Plant
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Ruschia punctulata or Globe Ice Plant is cold tolerant and originates from Western Cape area of South Africa. With pink blossoms and dense evergreen foliage and stems, this plant is a must to grow if you’re looking for an ornately landscaped garden. Its a specie that can only be found in this cold region and is quite a tough plant.
7. Blue Fescue
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What are the attributes that characterize Blue Fescue? Its blue gray spiky grass that catches your attention. In addition, it mesmerizes you with its slender look. Most gardeners grow this plant as a ground cover on patchy areas of gardens. It needs full sun and grows in small mounds. Its an absolutely no fuss plant that’s easy to maintain. Grow this plant on edges or in pots.
8. Woolly thyme
Woolly thyme, a perennial herb is one of the most popular fast growing ground cover plants and is loved for its ornamental appearance. Its a fragrant herb that is also resistant to drought and is easy to maintain. With a soft fluffy texture, this plant is a popular medicinal herb and is great for growing between cracks and crevices of pavers. Growing up-to 3 inches, it can spread fast to produce a colorful carpet of tiny pink blooms.
Also Read: 21 Low Maintenance Shrubs anyone can Grow
9. Dalmatian Bellflower
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Producing charming bluish purple star shaped flowers, Dalmatian Bellflower offers an attractive ground cover for your gardens in spring and summer. Its a perennial plant most loved for its rounded leaves. Its resistant to cold and thrives well in full sun and part shade. It prefers both alkaline as well as well as draining soils.
10. Moss Rose
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Portulaca or Moss Rose bears attractive yellow, pink, white, red and orange blooms as well as foliage that looks spiky. This plant grows fast to spread densely all over and is one of the most popular choices for covering up patches as well as decorating edges and borders in gardens. Its a tough perennial as well as an annual plant that can thrive well in dry soil.
11. Sweet Woodruff
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Counted among the best ground cover plants, Sweet Woodruff is a fragrant plant you’ll love to grow in your garden. It grows nicely in well drained soil and needs full sun and part shade. Reaching up-to 10 inches in height, Sweet Woodruff produces blooms from the middle of spring.
12. Cooper’s Hardy Ice Plant
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The magenta pinkish blooms of the Cooper’s Hardy ice Plant offer a beautiful ground cover for your gardens. This plant is easy to maintain and is most preferred by gardeners. The fast growing ground cover plants like the Hardy Ice Plant are perfect for decorating borders, edges as well as spaces between rocks. These grow to reach a height of 2 inches and bloom vigorously in dry climates.
13. Vinca Minor
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Ground cover plants like Vinca minor can survive well both in warm as well as cold regions falling under USDA Zones 4-10a. It grows and propagates vigorously and can tolerate full sun in winters. However, in summer, you need to keep this plant in part shade to allow it to grow optimally. It bears white and purple blooms that look very ornamental. The plant is resistant to poor soil and drought as well.
14. Scarlet Tanager African Daisy
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Scarlet Tanager is a tough perennial plant that can tolerate cold easily and produces beautiful blooms in scarlet in the middle of spring and in the Fall. Its tolerant to drought and is small reaching up-to 3-4″ in height. If your garden has pathways made of gravel, then you can grow this plant on its edges.
15. Lamb’s Ear
One of the most ornamental purple ground covering plants in this list here is Lamb’s Ear, a flowering plant that boasts of silver grayish to green foliage and attractive purplish blooms. Most eye catching feature of this plant is its velvet-like rosettes formed in its foliage. This plant produces blooms in later part of spring and is perfect for edging your garden pathways. It needs both sun and shade in USDA Zones 4-9.
16. Scarlett Hedge Nettle
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Known scientifically as Stachys coccinea, Scarlett Hedge Nettle produces tubular red blooms that attract hummingbirds. Its a wildflower that is resistant to cold and grows nicely in part shade. It blossoms prolifically in summer and offers a red carpet of blooms to cover your garden beautifully. Its also known as Texas Betony and Hummingbird Betony. You can grow this as a companion plant with Campanula.
Also Read: Top 21 Mythical Flowers and Plants
17. Ajuga
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Ajuga is one of the most stunning ground cover flowers for shade and is both an annual as well as a perennial. Its also known as Bugleweed and offers an attractive ground cover for your garden. It grows rather fast, often sabotaging the growth of other plants. Most popular is the Ajuga Reptans variety that bears spiky blue flowers.
18. Lily of the Valley
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If you’re searching for stunning ground cover flowers for shade, then Lily of the Valley must be mentioned for its a plant that thrives well in shade and produces lovely aromatic blooms in white. The blooms last for a long time and brighten up any shady spot in your garden. Since it grows very aggressively, you need to keep a check on it before it takes over much of your landscape.
19. Tufted Ice Plant
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Belonging to the family of South African Mesembs, the Tufted Ice Plant is a miniature plant that is used widely as a ground cover for rock gardens. This plant offers a thick carpet of stunning flowers that bloom well in the middle of spring. In full bloom, the plant’s foliage seems to vanish under the magenta floral blanket.
20. Brass Button
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These plants are perfect for growing in lawns as they can tolerate foot traffic nicely. The Brass Button looks very attractive and offers an excellent ground cover of yellowish golden toned blossoms. These are evergreen only in USDA Zones 8 to 10.
21. Sutherland Night Blooming Ice Plant
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Ground cover plants such as the Blooming Ice Plant produces aromatic flowers in yellow and looks unique with silver succulent foliage. This plant blooms flowers in the night during springtime. The blossoms are yellow in tone and resemble bottle-brush like texture. It is mostly grown to beautify rock gardens. It originates in a small town of South Africa called Sutherland and is very tolerant to cold.
22. Creeping Phlox
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Creeping Phlox is a sturdy and low maintenance ground cover plant you all can easily grow in between rocks in your gardens. It produces lovely looking blossoms in pastels that help in covering bald patches in your gardens. If your garden has many flower beds, grow this plant on the borders and see your landscape transform into a paradise.
23. Brown Leaf Ice Plant
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Bearing thick brown succulent leaves mimicking rocks, the Brown Leaf Ice Plant is a native of South Africa and is cold hardy. It looks ornamental with its angular leaves. This plant offers ground cover with yellow flowers that feature red pin striped petals and look contrasting against the brown chunky leaves. Most rock gardens have this plant as a showstopper.
24. Lilyturf
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Also known as Liriope, this plant is actually not a lily but a good looking ground cover plant. It looks showy and boasts of foliage that resembles grass. Lilyturf bears lovely looking violet toned blossoms that bloom fully in later part of summer and last till fall. In colder climates, Lilyturf needs full sun, while in warm regions, it grows perfectly in partial shade. You can edge your walkways with this plant. The most popular varieties to grow are Spicata and Muscari.
Also Read: 31 Pest Repelling Plants for your Garden
25. Spotted Dead Nettle
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Another stunning member of the ground cover perennials family is the Spotted Dead Nettle, a prismatic plant that bears dense clusters of pink, white and purple toned blossoms. Its a low growing plant that grows vigorously in USDA Zones 3 to 10 and needs moist soil to thrive well. Since, its an invasive ground cover plant, you need to keep an eye on its growth.
Final Thoughts
All the above showcased ground cover plants can become excellent additions to any well landscaped garden, and must be grown because these lend a decorative touch to your lush spaces. These are available in an assortment of textures and colors, making them an indispensable part of your garden.
