Hi Don! Nothing beats covering dirt, in record time, like Gingko Craig! It makes a great candidate for underplanting or what I call a ground cover hosta. It is a small, doesn't get that tall, is a vigorous grower and looks great to boot. Another one would be Golden Tiara and Golden Scepter. I have at least 4 GS's simply from divisions...can't tell which was the original by looking at them. These two are from the same family so you can't go wrong with the tiara line at all. I wish someone would come up with a Plantagenea that is a shorter version of mama...I would love a double-decker display of that one---as an underpinning to the taller one. :-) I'm sorry I don't have any examples of actual under planting but will show pics of my recommendations. On the plus side, these are probably on the cheap side as they have been around for a while. This trio is not the best pic I have but two for one as Golden Scepter is on left and Gingko Craig on right. Blue cadet is in the middle btw.

I'd second the above suggestion. I'm not sure what the problem is and hopefully someone can answer but if you don't find out, I would dispose of the plants with the problem. Lucky you to have so much EWG!! I'm jealous! I want to buy some for my woodland garden but it is SO expensive around here. I just can't bring myself to pay the prices the local nurseries are asking. I usually don't flinch at pricing if it's something I really want but the European wild ginger is really pricy for a groundcover type plant :( I think the best I've seen it is $25 for a SMALL pot. Good luck!

I love all of the pictures. Lots of inspiration. My favorite combination with hostas is with my baptisia. I tucked the hosta (this one is a no id, I inherited him when we bought this house) in close, and the baptisia sort of creates a canopy over the hosta. The only catch is that around midsummer, I have to tie up/stake my baptisia so that it doesn't collapse on the hosta.

Dwarf mondo grass, partridgeberry? Might not be any easy, and economical choice, for those conditions. The ginger's probably not a good choice for between stepping stones, if it likes the conditions, it would get too large, if it doesn't like the site, it just won't grow and spread much at all. What about the ginger on the sides of the path, and the dwarf mondo grass between the stones, that would be cool! Just not sure how they might handle it, if it stays soggy too long. They both seem to do well being on the dry side.