Ground cover perennials today are widely used in landscape design. This is due to diversity, multicolor and the ability to create complex compositions with their help. With the right choice of plants and proper care for them, an attractive look of a flower garden or an alpine hill will be provided for the whole season.
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Varieties of ground cover perennial flowers
The diversity of soil protectors allows you to create interesting ensembles that will delight you with attractive colorfulness throughout the summer.
Stonecrops or sedums.
Plants are particularly unpretentious and resistant to drought and heat. Stonecrops quickly occupy large areas, spreading on the ground or stones.
Arabis.
A plant densely covered with small white flowers. It looks especially advantageous when landing in cascades.
Stone rose.
The groundcover will grow very well in a sunny area, even with the poorest soil. Does not need watering.
Dyusheneya Indian.
Reminds wild strawberries. Blossoms in white and yellow flowers, gives red berries. The plant is unpretentious and shade tolerant.
Clove grass.
A low ground cover plant that needs watering and very good lighting. Even in partial shade, flowering does not occur. The frost resistance of the culture is high.
Orbietta.
A plant that requires a lot of sun. The soil needs to be dry. If these requirements are not met, then the bushes begin to decay and the attractive appearance of the plant is lost.
Pupochnik.
The plant creates a dense flowering carpet with a minimum of soil.Flowers collected in a dense corymbose inflorescence range from blue to dark blue. It grows very fast.
Cotula.
A plant up to 7 cm high, native to Australia and New Zealand. Winters in the middle lane fully. Flowers are not expressive or attractive. The main interest is dense greens, which quickly forms a cootula.
Periwinkle.
The most common type of evergreen groundcover. Its height reaches 20 cm. The shoots of the plant are ground, creeping. The leaves are leathery, shiny. Flowers from white to dark lilac shades.
The listed land protectors are the most popular. Except them, there is still a huge number of plants that can create a beautiful green carpet that will bloom.
Plants blooming all summer
When choosing ground cover plants, most gardeners give preference to those species that can please flowers throughout the summer. There are a lot of such plants and, if desired, from them you can create unusual compositions in your garden. The most popular perennials blooming all summer:
Stonecrops.
Plants form a very dense green carpet that blooms profusely. By combining various varieties on your personal plot, you can create intricate vivid sketches. Depending on the variety, asterisk flowers can be white, yellow or pink.
Phlox awl-shaped.
Such a plant blooms 2 times a season with a break of one and a half months. The first wave of flowering occurs in June, the second - in mid-August and September. Today, breeders bred phlox, blooming in July. Combining several varieties of phlox, you can achieve their long flowering. Coloring of flowers can be white, pink or lilac.
Cistus.
The flowers of the plant are large, their big plus is that they are very fragrant. Cistus should be grown on moist soil in a sunny place or in partial shade. The plant does not tolerate shadow.
Clove grass.
The plant lays buds throughout the growing season. Grassy flowers are similar to ordinary garden cloves. Their color is deep pink or red and white. Especially often, subject to good lighting, this groundcover is planted around tree trunks.
The cultivation of ground cover plants, the flowering of which continues throughout the summer, allows you to maintain an attractive garden with a minimum of effort. Shade-tolerant groundcover allows you to green any area.
If all the necessary conditions are created for the plants, it will be possible to get a very thick flowering green carpet that weeds cannot drown out. It is not a lawn and is not resistant to trampling, and therefore, to care for plants, you will need to leave tracks.
Flowers that start blooming in early summer
In order for the garden to begin to please the owner with flowers as early as possible, it is necessary to plant not only plants that bloom in the middle and end of summer, but also bloom in its beginning and even in the spring months.
Soap box.
It copes with the task of early flowering, begins to bloom actively in the last days of May. The plant forms very dense pads, covered with large enough red, white or pink flowers. The height of the soap box is from 5 to 16 cm.
Veronica is threadlike.
It is also an early-growing groundcover species of plants. The graceful dark blue flowers are very attractive, and the area where Veronica blooms looks like a light cloud.
Thyme.
Not only ornamental, but also a medicinal plant. It begins to bloom from the end of May. Since a large number of plant varieties are bred, the flowers can be of very different colors. The most popular are plants with yellow-green foliage and bright pink flowers.
Alyssum.
It has been actively blooming since mid-May. Small flowers are collected in large racemose inflorescences. Varieties and hybrids of alissum differ not only in the variety of shades, but also in the height of the plant, which can vary from 6 to 40 cm.
Shade-loving perennial ground cover plants
Shade-tolerant species and shade-loving - these are plants with different lighting requirements. The former may exist with a lack of sun, while the latter cannot tolerate direct sun. The most popular groundcover used in landscaping are the following plants:
Bruner.
The flower is perennial and can grow up to 15 years under favorable conditions. Flowering plants from May to frost. Cold resistance is high, and without shelter, it can tolerate cold up to -30 degrees.
Doronicum.
The plant has small leaves that form a dense carpet, and flowers of rich yellow color, having the shape of chamomile. Frost resistance of doronicum is very high. Without a transplant, in one place the plant is grown up to 4 years.
Saxifrage.
A plant with a variety of flowers, having a diameter of up to 2 cm. There are many varieties of saxifrage, and their height can be from 5 to 70 cm.
Undersized groundcover
Low-growing ground cover plants are planted on alpine hills and for landscaping areas near bushes.
The most popular are such low groundcover:
- thyme;
- alissum;
- cotula;
- some varieties of periwinkle;
- saxifrage;
- violet;
- young;
- loosestrife.
Most soil protectors are small in height. Because of this, they are very actively used on alpine hills, where large plants will look out of place.
Creeping plants
Creeping ground cover plants can quickly fill large areas without buying a lot of planting material for this. Such groundcover grows quickly and therefore requires constant monitoring, otherwise they easily turn into weeds, dragging the plot, drowning out other flowers.
Creeping ground cover plants include:
- tenacious creeping;
- thyme;
- aubration
- periwinkle;
- veronica;
- loosestrife.
Creeping plants are highly resistant. If they left the area allotted to them and aggressively captured a large area, it would be difficult to get them out of it; since even small residues of their roots quickly give a new plant, from which shoots begin to form in the same season.
Features of care for perennial soil protectors
Despite the diversity of species, and varieties of ground cover perennials, general recommendations for their cultivation are available. If they are observed, it is possible to achieve an ideal state of the flower garden, which, even in adverse weather, turns out to be an attractive green carpet. In the absence of proper care, the plants cannot tighten the soil qualitatively, and bald spots and gougeous areas will take place.
In the first year after planting, it is necessary to carry out weeding, as they cannot compete with weeds until the moment of active growth. To prevent excessively dry ground, weeding is recommended in the evening or early morning.
When the plants grow strongly, they are divided, after which the ground covers are planted to maintain an attractive appearance. These works are carried out in the fall. There is no need to feed plants. Watering is carried out only for those who need moist soil. It should be carried out no more than 1 time per week, and only if there is no rain.
Landscape design
Ground cover plants are used in landscape design when creating rockeries, alpine hills, lawn devices. They also make flowering carpets along the paths and under the trees.
Since the rockery is easier to create than an alpine hill, in most cases it is this design of a site that is chosen. Even a beginner can cope with the creation of such an element of landscape design.
Groundcover perennials are an interesting category of ornamental plants for landscaping, which you should definitely pay attention to. With minimal care they give the maximum decorative effect.
