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Browse Plants

Narrowed By:Zone: 8+ Uses: Ground Covers + Characteristics: Showy + Seasonal Interest: Summer+ Spread: Less than 1 ft
Displaying 1 - 20 of 53 listings   1 | 2 | 3View AllNext > Sort By: Sort
Anemone blanda Anemone blanda
(Grecian windflower)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This plant produces a great low-growing mat of flowers. The cheerful starlike blossoms come in pink, blue, and white, and the attractive finely cut leaves disappear soon after flowering.

Asarum shuttleworthii Asarum shuttleworthii
(Evergreen wild ginger)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This wild ginger is an evergreen groundcover with heart-shaped, shiny leaves that are often marbled. Its interesting brown-purple flowers hide beneath the foliage.

Athyrium niponicum var. pictum 'Ursula's Red' Athyrium niponicum var. pictum 'Ursula's Red'
('Ursula's Red' Japanese painted fern)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

The broad silvery leaves of ‘Ursula’s Red’ have a showy burgundy band at the center of the leaves in spring. This plant can double in size in a single growing season, as it spreads from rhizomes. Though deer do like it, it may simply grow more fronds and not show any lasting damage. --Michael Ruggiero, Regional Picks: Mid-Atlantic, Fine Gardening issue #127

Bellis perennis Bellis perennis
(English daisy)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

English daisy bears stems topped with a single white, daisy-like flower. The flowers are tinged maroon and yellow; but cultivars are available with single, semi-double, or double button flowers in shades of white, pink, salmon, and ruby. The plant's smooth, spoon-shaped leaves form neat rosettes. This carpeting perennial is often grown as a biennial. Its many cultivars are used for bedding out or container displays.

Berberis × stenophylla 'Corallina Compacta' Berberis × stenophylla 'Corallina Compacta'
(Compact coral barberry)
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

"Thorny but irresistible" best describes this low-maintenance, elfin barberry. Tiny leaves are smothered in coral-colored buds opening to bright yellow-orange spring flowers. These, in turn, produce silver-frosted, blue-black berries in fall. 'Corallina Compacta' is evergreen, tolerates most soil types, and is pest-free and drought tolerant once established.

Bouteloua gracilis Bouteloua gracilis
(Blue grama, Signal-arm grass, Mosquito grass)
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Blue grama is a perennial grass from the Americas bearing unusually bent and flattened inflorescences. Being native to open grasslands, they are drought tolerant and at home in meadows. They provide the garden with shades of tan that persist throughout winter. 

Bouteloua gracilis 'Hachita' Bouteloua gracilis 'Hachita'
('Hachita' Blue Grama Grass)
(2 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

'Hachita' has narrow, blue-green leaves that form dense mounds. In summer, elongated seedheads add visual interest. This tough, drought-tolerant grass thrives in sand or clay soil with full-sun exposure. It needs a setting with good drainage, as it won't thrive in wet conditions. -Scott Vogt, Native grasses, Fine Gardening issue #124

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
(2 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This lovely herbaceous species is versatile and undemanding. It is the star of the late-summer garden with its spiky bright red flower buds and vivid blue flowers, displaying long-lasting mahogany red foliage in fall. Spreading slowly via underground runners, this long-lived plant makes a solid mat with erect, slender red stems and bright green leaves.

Corydalis cheilanthifolia Corydalis cheilanthifolia
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This plant's tapering, finely dissected leaves make it look like a fern relative. The bronzy tints of the emerging foliage add to this plant's beauty. It bears buttery yellow blossoms from spring to summer.

Corydalis curviflora var. rosthornii 'Heronswood Form' Corydalis curviflora var. rosthornii 'Heronswood Form'
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This variety has fragrant, deep blue, cornucopia-shaped flowers carried tightly on red stems above 6-inch tall, blue-green foliage. It is considered one of the best blue forms for color and performance.

Corydalis lutea Corydalis lutea
(Yellow corydalis)
(3 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This species has bluntly spurred golden yellow flowers from late spring to early fall. Its pale green, glaucous leaves form compact, ferny mounds.

Corydalis ochroleuca Corydalis ochroleuca
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

From late spring and throughout the summer, creamy flowers cover a delicate mound of filigreed gray-green foliage.

Delosperma ‘Kelaidis’ Delosperma ‘Kelaidis’
(Mesa Verde® Ice Plant)
(2 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Mesa Verde® is a moderately-spreading ground cover with small, bright salmon pink flowers that bloom from midspring till late fall. It is tolerant of a wide variety of soil conditions, from poor or sandy to well-drained.

Deschampsia cespitosa 'Northern Lights' Deschampsia cespitosa 'Northern Lights'
(Tufted hair grass, Tussock grass)
(2 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

A tuft of thin grassy foliage with gray and gold variegation distinguishes this cultivar. Early summer brings 3-foot-tall, airy plumes of tiny flowers that look beautiful when backlit by the sun. As fall approaches, the foliage turns golden with pink-coral tips. This grass even grows well in shadier sites. Plant in a border, woodland garden, or shaded rock garden.

Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' Dianthus 'Bath's Pink'
(Cheddar pink)
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' is a stunning, wide-spreading ground cover with grassy, blue-green foliage and pink flowers. Use it to edge a bed or grow it in your rock garden for a splash of cool color. To keep its blooms going, be sure to deadhead.

Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Firewitch' Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Firewitch'
(Cheddar pink)
(2 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Silvery-blue mats of evergreen, linear foliage. Well-known and loved for the showy, profuse, single, magenta blooms, spring-fall. 'Firewitch' exudes the spicy scent of cloves. Very hardy; good performer. Moderate to fast grower. Heat resistant and tolerant of humidity. Excellent for use in containers, as an edger, in rock gardens, scented gardens and the front of the border. If cut back, they often rebloom in early fall. Considered deer resistant once established. Attracts butterflies!  Very suitable for gardens in the South. -Santa Rosa Gardens

Epimedium grandiflorum cvs. Epimedium grandiflorum cvs.
(Longspur barrenwort, Bishop's hat)
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Longspur barrenwort is a clump-forming, deciduous, rhizomatous perennial. Leaves, light green and flushed bronze when young, are heart-shaped with spiny margins. Four-petaled white, yellow, pink, or purple flowers, hanging in clusters, appear in mid- and late spring.

no image available Euphorbia dulcis
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This species produces erects stems of bronzy green leaves and greenish yellow bracts in early summer. In autumn, its leaves turn shades of red, orange, and gold.

Euphorbia dulcis 'Chameleon' Euphorbia dulcis 'Chameleon'
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This notable species produces erect stems of bronzy burgundy leaves and purple-green bracts in early summer. It looks exceptional when placed near contrasting plants. The foliage may be cut back after flowering to produce fresh growth.

Festuca glauca 'Boulder Blue' Festuca glauca 'Boulder Blue'
(Blue fescue, Gray fescue)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Regarded by some as the bluest blue fescue, this plant forms compact, cascading mounds of foot-tall, intensely blue, narrow leaves that are attractive in all seasons. Blooms are generally secondary to the foliage, but this cultivar blooms more heavily than most, with spikelets in summer. This cultivar is long-lived and very hardy. Grow in groups in a border or rock garden, or as a groundcover. 


Displaying 1 - 20 of 53 listings   1 | 2 | 3View AllNext > Sort By: Sort