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Where the garden meets the wild |
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| GROUNDCOVERS | |
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Native ferns and lilies carpet a shady riverbank on Vancouver Island in spring. How much more interesting than Vinca or ivy! Photograph © Dorrie Woodward |
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Here we present some of our favorite groundcovers. All photographs on this page are copyright. Copyright owners are named on the pages devoted to each species. |
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| GROUNDCOVERS
A-Z Browse all the possibilities. WHAT WORKS WHERE Is your site sunny or shady? Wet or dry? THE GREAT ONES Some groundcovers are so versatile you can plant them almost anywhere. |
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| GROUNDCOVERS A-Z | |
| Achlys Achillea Antennaria Arctostaphylos Asarum Boykinia Caltha Campanula Capnoides Carex Castilleja Chrysosplenium Cornus Corydalis Crocidium Dicentra Disporum Dodecatheon Dryas Eriophyllum Fragaria Gentiana Goodyera Helleborus Heuchera Iris Lewisia Linnaea Luetkea Lysichiton Maianthemum Mimulus Minuartia Mitella Montia Penstemon Petasites Plectritis Polygonatum Saxifraga Selaginella Sisyrinchium Smilacina Streptopus Tellima Tiarella Tolmiea Tricyrtis Trientalis Trillium Vancouveria Viola | |
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| WHAT WORKS WHERE: A FEW SUGGESTIONS | |
| Scroll down through them all, or click on a description of your site. | |
| Spring wet, summer dry | Partly shady & damp |
| Sunny & dry | Shady & wet |
| Sunny & damp | Shady & dry |
| Sunny & wet | Very shady |
| These are examples, not laws. More plants than these will do well on these sites. Some of the plants we suggest will do well on more than one site. More information about growing conditions is provided in our species descriptions. | |
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| SPRING WET, SUMMER DRY | |
| The site is sunny and fairly open. The plants that suit it need spring rain or snowmelt to stimulate growth. Once they have set seed they can slip into dormancy, passing a dry summer safe underground. | |
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| From left: Dodecatheon pulchellum (Shooting stars); Camassia quamash (Common camas) with Plectritis congesta (Sea blush); Calochortus spp. (Mariposa lilies); Triteleia laxa (Ithuriel's spear). | |
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| SUNNY & DRY | |
| The site doesn't get much rain. Or water drains from the surface quickly. Or both. The soil may sometimes be hot to the touch, but several inches down, it is cool and damp. | |
 
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| From top left: Crocidum multicaule (Gold stars); Antennaria spp. (Pussytoes); Penstemon davidsonii var. menziesii Kyuquot form (Penstemon); Heuchera cylindrica (Alumroot); Fragaria chiloensis (Beach strawberry); Eriophyllum lanatum (Oregon sunshine); Senecio canus (Woolly groundsel); Solidago spathulata (Spike goldenrod). | |
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| SUNNY & DAMP BUT NOT WET | |
| The site may look a little dry sometimes, but not far below the surface it is damp and cool. | |
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| From left: Aster foliaceus (Leafy aster) in a moment of part shade; Iris cristata; Boykinia elata (Coast boykinia) still handsome as it goes to seed; Maianthemum racemosum (False Solomon's seal); Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell); Luetkea pectinata (Partridgefoot). | |
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| SUNNY & WET | |
| The site is muddy, or puddled with excess moisture, or covered with spongy moss. Whether it is a bog, an estuary marsh, a seep or the bank of a stream, it is always wet and it gets lots of sun. | |
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| From left: Alpine mosses, sedges and Rhodiola integrifolia (Roseroot); Kalmia microphylla (Kalmia); round-leaved Caltha leptosepala (White marsh-marigold) and tall Veratrum viride (Corn lily); Vaccinium uliginosum (Bog blueberry) and Vaccinium ovalifolium (Oval-leaved blueberry). | |
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| PARTLY SHADY & DAMP BUT NOT WET | |
| The soil is cool, and just beneath the surface it is damp. | |
 
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| From top left: A lush salad of Achlys triphylla (Vanilla leaf), Maianthemum stellatum (Star-flowered false Solomon's seal) and Maianthemum dilatatum (False lily-of-the-valley) on a slope in our garden; Cornus unalaschkensis (Bunchberry); Rubus pedatus (Creeping raspberry); Vancouveria hexandra (Inside-out flower); Rhododendron kiusianum, one of many shade-loving Rhododendrons; Trillium ovatum (Western white trillium); Mitchella repens (Partridgeberry). | |
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| SHADY & DRY | |
| The bed might be in dry country, or under a conifer, or simply sheltered by an overhang. | |
 
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| From left: Mahonia nervosa (Low Oregon grape), one of several Mahonia species that tolerate dry places; Paeonia brownii (Brown's peony), from the low-rainfall east side of the Cascade Range; Penstemon ovatus (Oval-leaved penstemon), one of the leafy Penstemons that prefer some shade; Antennaria alpina (White pussytoes) and Sedum oreganum (Oregon stonecrop), two dryland specialists that tolerate light to dappled shade; Tellima grandiflora (Fringecups). | |
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| SHADY & WET | |
| The site is the edge of shaded running water or a wetland. It is always cool and moist and may be flooded for weeks during spring runoff or the rainy season. | |
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| From left: Arum aff. concinnatum Black Spotted (Black-spotted Arum); Erythronium oregonum (White fawn lily) with native grasses; a salad of Sedum oreganum (Oregon stonecrop), Antennaria (Evergreen pussytoes) and ~ scarcely visible, but it's there ~ Luetkea pectinata (Partridgefoot) on a moist reach of our rock garden; Lysichoton americanus (Swamp lantern). | |
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| VERY SHADY | |
| The site is dark, but not as dark as a coalmine! It does receive indirect light. It is cool and dry to moist. It may be facing north. | |
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| From left: Terrestrial mosses; Dicentra formosa (Bleeding heart); Adiantum pedatum dwarf form, one of many shade-loving ferns; Corydalis scouleri (Scouler's corydalis), one of many shade-loving Corydalis species; Helleborus dumetorum, representing the shade-brightening Lenten and Christmas roses. | |
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| THE GREAT ONES | |
| Some plants thrive in a wide range of conditions, making a gardener's choices simpler. | |
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| From top left: Allium cernuum (Nodding onion): part shade to full sun, most soils, rainy or dry, Zone 4; Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Bearberry): part shade to full sun, most soils, rainy or dry, Zone 4; Gaultheria shallon (Salal), shady and moist to sunny and moist, most soils, Zone 6; Heuchera micrantha (Alumroot), moist shade to dry sun, most soils, Zone 5; Linnaea borealis (Twinflower), most soils, wet shade to fairly dry sun, Zone 2; Sedum spathulifolium (Stonecrop), most soils, moist shade to dry sun, Zone 5; Asarum caudatum (Western wild ginger), moist to fairly dry, shade to part sun, Zone 6. | |
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