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| My phlox subulata isn't nearly as special as I know it is capable of i.e. not the mass of flowers that such a phlox can give. It is in part my fault as it it planted in a (much) less than full sun location. But even so I am just wondering if there are better ground cover flowering perennials than subulata?
For example my garden variety, albeit annual alyssum is so superior to the phlox in question i.e. flowering all summer and even now when it is almost December. Is there something very similar as a perennial? |
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| Perennials won't bloom as long as annuals, so with one type of perennial you won't get long-term flowering the way a plant like annual Alyssum will give. For instance, in conditions it likes, Phlox subulata will bloom profusely for a few weeks in spring and then is just fine-textured foliage the remainder of the year. However, there are perennial groundcovers that do well in part sun and will bloom profusely for you for a few weeks and look tidy the rest of the year. I have candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) growing in about 4 hours of sun. Mine is a type that has white flowers spring and fall and neat dark green foliage the rest of the year when it isn't under snow. In only a couple of hours of direct sun, my Veronica 'Georgia blue' is completely covered with lovely little blue flowers for a few weeks in spring and spreads slowly but not aggressively with tiny medium green leaves on stems only about 4 inches high. Sandwort (Arenaria montana) is another spring bloomer with profuse white blooms for a few weeks and then very small dark green foliage the rest of the year. It will spread, but in my garden plays well with other plants. It has only a couple of hours of direct sun also. Carex 'Ice Dance' has relatively unobtrusive flowers, but its green and white striped, short grassy foliage is lovely all year and it prefers part to full shade. |
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| Funny you mention "Iberis" as I did plant some "candytuft" this past summer (in late July, so after the bloom time). I am looking forward to seeing it in all its glory white next spring. Thanks for the suggestions. I never really find the greenery of "Phlox subulata" to look all that good after blooming. Personally I think the plant is over rated. Does no one else feel similarly? |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a 5b/6a N CT (My Page) on Sun, Nov 27, 11 at 14:41
| I agree P. sublata is over-rated altho' I've admired it in bloom in other people's gardens. It just doesn't give as much bang for the buck as I expect from my plants. I too grow iberis/candytuft, with some raspberry red perennial dianthus next to it for contrast. I winter sowed veronica so that should bloom next year. Carex 'Ice Dance' is not only worry/pest/care-free, it's evergreen where I am. I divided my original plant into 9 pieces this year, gave a couple to my daughter and planted the others along the curved edge of a sloped bed. All the plants filled in quickly and are already as large as the "mother" plant. |
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| How about plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides)? Those *electric* blue flowers are fantastic in the fall! Plus, the foliage takes on a lovely reddish tinge when the weather cools. Carex "Ice Dance" is a great sedge, but as mentioned it has grassy foliage, so very different effect than the creeping phlox. If you want to go in that direction, definitely recommend Ice Dance; or, you could try Liriope - great grassy foliage and small flower spikes in late summer. I would recommend L. muscari over L. spicata - the former is a clumper while the latter is a runner. Geranium "Biokovo" is BULLETPROOF. Fantastic foliage all season (which is scented, BTW - reminiscent of Vernors to my nose), prolific flower display in mid to late spring. I've posted pictures before, do a board search and you should find a couple posts with pics, if you're interested. For something different, try ornamental strawberry (Fragaria). Nice foliage, and pretty effect with small pure white flowers at the same time tiny red berries appear (bonus: they're edible). Get the clumping variety of this one, not the running variety (sorry, don't have a cultivar name, have had mine many years and don't recall any specifics off the top of my head other than it's a clumper). Not sure why this plant is rarely, if ever, mentioned on the boards, it is terrific. All of the above tolerate part-shade beautifully. :0) |
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| All very interesting suggestion mxk3. Thank you. |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Sun, Nov 27, 11 at 16:37
| For only a part sun location, woodland phlox, Phlox divaricata, might be a better choice than regular creeping phlox but neither has an extended bloom season and IMO, both look kinda ratty when not in bloom. I like the other suggestions you've been given. I find the Veronica blooms virtually nonstop in my climate but doubt that would necessarily be the case in colder locations. Also for part shade I might suggest lamium. While maybe not the longest flowering season, most selections offer patterened or variegated foliage that is present pretty much year round. Some may find them to be an overly aggressive groundcover but I've always had very well-mannered performance from these plants. Will tolerate quite a lot of shade and pretty dry conditions as well. I'd be interested to know what type of GC strawberry is considered a clumper. All the varieties I am aware of, including the pink-flowered potentilla hybrids, spread by runners and pretty aggressively so. One of the reasons they make such good groundcovers :-) |
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| Snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum) is another perennial with white flowers and nice silvery gray foliage if white flowers works for you. |
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| Is it your experience that Veronica 'Georgia Blue' is more more ground cover like than say Geranium Rozanne? (I like Rozanne a lot as it is a non stop bloomer from late June until October but for me it grows too tall. I want something much lower and of course flowering and able to spread/creep into spaces which would otherwise require weeding. ;)) |
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| Not enough bang for phlox subulata? See pics below. These are going on three years now. Love this plant and it forms a neat mound for rest of summer. In sun till about 2pm but I think good drainage is essential. Cerastium tomentosum is nice but has a tendency to get gangly and unkempt looking up close (for me)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us |
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| Rouge 21 - Veronica 'Georgia Blue' is definitely a groundcover. It doesn't have the thicker, but floppy stems that many of the "groundcover" Veronicas have. It is a form of V. peduncularis (along with 'Waterperry Blue') which has delicate thread-like stems. In general, I am not fond of Veronicas, but the V. peduncularis forms are much more delicate, spreading without overwhelming other plants. Mine is only 4 or 5 inches high. I have not had issues with weeds in it at all, but mine is in a spot with only a couple hours of direct sun, and the bed is well-mulched. It doesn't overwhelm other plants in the bed, but weaves among them, so I don't know if it would make a great weed-blocker in a sunnier spot with more aggressive weeds. Like Miclino, I find that Snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum) looks pretty unkempt after bloom without severe cutting back, and it does best in full sun, a bit on the drier side. It will spread by seed as well. |
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| My first thought when I hear of "Veronica" is speedwell. Thanks nhbabs for informing me. |
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| Oddly enough, I have a smallish patch of snow in summer that looks great all year around.......its in morning sun only with bright shade rest of the day. What about lamium? I don't think it likes too much sun though. I have it at the base of a red JM and the contrast of white leaves with red foliage of JM is great. Seems to spread nicely as well. Flowering is okay but it has nice foliage for the rest of the year. Still looks good for me even in November. |
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| I'm not going to weigh in on what's better than creeping phlox..... I'm too big of a phlox fan.... I've seen it naturalized (it is a native) in lawns and love the look. Just wanted to mention to gardengal that the clumping strawberry is probably an alpine strawberry. It makes a nice border but without the runners you would need to divide etc in order to get some ground covering. |
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- Posted by purpleinopp 8b AL (My Page) on Mon, Nov 28, 11 at 13:59
| CP takes a few years to really start kickin'. Great suggestions so far. Add Pulmonaria (lungwort) to the list. Attractive variegated foliage and flowers that change from pink to blue on the same plant. |
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| I love creeping phlox but it just does not love me. I've tried for about 8 years to get it established on a full-sun, well-draining slope, but it just refuses. So I switched to creeping sedum. Still let out a big sigh when I pass the local Wendy's in spring, with their absolutely HUGE swath of glorious creeping phlox. rouge21, the creeping sedum I mentioned won't help you in your part-shade situation. I do like lamium as suggested above. I also love my veronica Georgia Blue, but my experience with it is in more sun. Someone gave me an alpine strawberry, but I never thought to use it as a groundcover... Dee |
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| A-Ha! I knew I had that darn plant tag somewhere in my old binder... The non-running strawberry to which I'm referring is Fragaria (alpine strawberry), and the cultivar I have is "Improved Rugen". If this little charmer likes the spot it's in, it will fill in at a nice clip - not obnoxiously aggressively, but at a decent pace. So yes, it can be used as a groundcover. :0) |
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| Sorry, forgot to mention that I believe there are running varieties of Fragaria - I may be wrong, though. In any case, the cultivar I listed above is a clumper, not a runner. I suppose there's nothing *wrong* with runners, I just find them to look messy, I prefer a tidier plant appearance. |
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I don't have any photos of Veronica 'Georgia Blue' in bloom, but here's a photo out of bloom showing its growth habit. (I'm sure that it would be easy to Google for a photo of it blooming.) It's the short, fine-textured foliage that is between and Heuchera and the Siberian iris and then runs backwards and under the lilac on the right side of the photo. The part under the lilac gets virtually no sun, and looks about the same as the part that gets 2 or three hours of sun.
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| Thanks so much for the picture nhbabs. I think I will look for this particular Veronica next spring. |
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