June 24, 1997
Covering Ground At A Trot For
What To Do When The Woods Disappear
Some groundcovering plants that don�t exactly gallop. There pace is more of a steady trot. These are all very easy to control if they put themselves where you don�t want them. Better manners, but steadily increasing cover without any effort on your part. Of course, if you want faster cover, all of them can be divided.
MAZUS
Mazus reptans is one of my favorites. (You have to scroll down a bit to see the photo at this link.) It�s a tiny plant, about an inch or so high, and travels by extending delicate, stems, flat to the ground, that root where they touch. Rated hardy to USDA zone 3, it�s just about the perfect groundcover. Mazus is neat, tidy looking and tolerates a certain amount of foot traffic. I even have a patch that put itself in the driveway and gets driven over periodically. It also has the bonus of intriguing long-lipped flowers in spring (May -- June for me), with an occasional one popping up during the rest of the growing season. There is a white flowered form that is pristine and lovely.
Mazus is easy to pull if it puts itself where you don�t want it. In my USDA zone 7 climate, it really wants a bit of shade and moist soil. It would probably tolerate more sun in a cooler climate. It will tolerate a bit of dryness, but this is not a plant for a hot, parched situation. The leaves stay effective, for me, until mid December, after which they retreat to a tiny, tight rosette until warmer weather arrives. I have quite a bit of this in the blue-flowered form, but I think I will split up my one patch of the white form for my new garden.
SYMPHYTUM
Symphytum grandiflorum, unlike most Comfreys, is a neat, carpeting plant that gets about a foot high. It is a fast trotter, spreading by underground stems and seeds, but can be dug out easily if it exceeds its bounds. The leaves, like other members of the Boraginaceae, are rough and hairy to the touch, and somewhat coarse taken individually. But en masse, it provides a weed-proof cover for sun or part shade, remaining somewhat evergreen, for me, in all but the worst winters. It is rated hardy from USDA zones 3 to 9.
The flowers start in early spring (April for me), and, if cut back, it will rebloom a bit during the summer. I find that it often needs to be given a good haircut in early July. It will put out new foliage that remains nice for the rest of the season. This might not be necessary in cooler, less humid climates. It will tolerate dry shade and is good under shrubs and trees. The basic flower color is a creamy white, with deep orange tipped buds, but the cultivar �Hidcote Blue� has red buds, changing to blue and then white and �Hidcote Pink� has pink flowers fading to white. I have not run across these, but would grab them in a minute if I did. There is also one with cream and yellow variegated foliage, �Variegatum�. Mine was supposed to be that, but I have only seen slight variegation on one or two plants. There will definitely be a spot for this one in my new garden. Maybe by the time I�m ready for it in �The Wilderness�, I will have located one of the �Hidcote� cultivars.
PULMONARIA
�Lungwort�, �Bethlehem Sage�, �Spotted Dog� � whatever common name you know it by, Pulmonaria is a great groundcover plant for shade. They do not like a really sunny position. Of the twelve species, native to Europe and Asia, I have Pulmonaria saccharata �Mrs. Moon�. She is one of the best for use as groundcover. She�s covering a lot of my territory, not as rapidly as some of the �gallopers�, but at a nice steady pace. She has put herself in most of the places she occupies, and where I have put her, she has spread by seed and slowly expanding clumps to form complete cover that keeps out all but the most determined weeds.
Like Symphytum, these are members of the Boraginaceae and have the typical rough, hairy leaves. On Pulmonaria they are generally spotted with silver although some forms have a solid green leaf. Some of the new cultivars have leaves that are almost entirely silver. Nurseries have begun carrying a wide variety of the many cultivars that have been developed. Some have more or less silver on the leaf; some have white flowers, or pink, or blue. �Mrs. Moon� has pink flowers, fading to blue, that appear in very early spring, before the leaves have even developed. Flowering continues until mid-May for me. But, as nice as the flowers are, it is the foliage that is the number one feature, providing interest in the shady garden all season long.
Where she grows near a path, I will generally go around and trim out dead flower stems and the older foliage in mid summer. If the weather has been very hot and humid, and the foliage is really ratty, I will cut the plants to the ground and they will send up new leaves for the rest of the season. The bulk of my plants get no maintenance at all. �Mrs. Moon� tolerates dry shade very well, although if allowed to get too dry, she will develop a nice case of powdery mildew. This doesn�t seem to bother her, and I generally just ignore it because I have too many plants to treat all of them with fungicide. The mildew sort of blends in with the silvery variegation anyway and is not to obtrusive.
I�ve gotten one plant of the cultivar �Spilled Milk�, which has an almost entirely silver leaf, to see how I like it. So far it is not as robust as �Mrs. Moon� and I�m having to baby it, but the leaf is quite lovely. Pulmonaria is a plant I would not be without, and considering how well it spreads, I�m not likely to lose it. Even if I don�t plant it in my new garden, I know it will put itself there.
There are more plants for covering ground and I�ll tell you about some of them next time. See ya� later.
PHOTO CREDITS - Brown University Center for Environmental Studies Groundcover Demonstration Project : Mazus reptans
- Marco Pacchiarini�s Pflanzen-Fotoarchiv : Symphytum grandiflorum
- The Ohio State and Virginia Tech, Plant Dictionary - Search Page : Pulmonaria
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The Rot Web
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Gardening in Shade
