GROUND COVERS - THE UBIQUITOUS VS. THE UBIQUITOUS

After sorting through the twenty or so ideas I had for this week's post I settled on ground covers, mainly because one of my favorite natives that I've recently become obsessed with is flowering right now and I needed an excuse to showcase it.

Now to unpack the title..... over the past decade of observing trends and through the course of my own horticultural evolution, I can't help but notice how easily we ignore the plants we grow up with. Little by little, we gradually become blind to the plants we see on daily basis to the point where we don't even notice them. Familiarity breeds ambivalance, and soon they dissapear all together. And so instead of noticing the splash of pink or yellow, or lush patch bold foliage thriving in a ditch that we drive by on our way to school, work, or wherever our daily routine might take us, when we actually decide to think about planting something we head right down to our local nursery to buy one of a handful of non-native ground covers that can be found in almost every nursery and big box store in the northeast and mid-atlantic (Vinca spp., Pachysandra termanils, Hedera helix, Liriope spp., Juniper spp. and the occasional Epimedium spp., Ajuga spp., Convillaria majalis, and Lamnium spp.). This isn't to say I'm downing these plants. Their utility and vigor are unsurpassed, but because they are just so damn easy to grow they have inevitably become as benal and identity-less as the landscapes they are planted in.

As a designer I understand the temptation to use them (and can probably be caught with them on a plant list or two every now and again). But if you're a fellow gardner/designer in southern New England, the next time you get tempted by images like this:

.....here are a few plants to help you resist the urge in no particular order:

Erigeron philadelphicus (Common Fleabane) and E. pulchellus (Robin's Plantain) - My new favorites



Packera aurea (Golden Ragwort)



Maianthemum stellatum syn. Smilacina stellata (Star-flowered, Starry, or Little False Solomon's Seal)



Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive Fern)



Viola spp., (Violets)




Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower)




Eurybia divaricata, formerly Aster divaricatus (White Wood Aster) and Symphyotrichum cordifolius, formerly Aster cordifolius (Blue Wood Aster)




Symplocarpus foetidus (Skunk Cabbage)