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flowering groundcover

Tina Buell (Z9b)

8 years ago

I live in Sacramento, zone 9, and am looking for a perennial that I can plant as ground cover with white flowers, in FS, preferably the longest blooming perennial I can find. (I've seen websites that claim that some perennials supposedly last for 3 seasons.) Any suggestions? The below picture is an exaggeration of my what I'd like my groundcover to look like, but you get the idea.

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Comments (5)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
some perennials can last decades ...

what height are you looking for?? ... the pic is not a ground cover .... as we use the term ...

what is ... 'in FS'? ... per above?

you might get your best suggestions .. if you gave us a pic of the spot ...

you sound like a newb ... there arent many things.. that bloom all season .. and to get around that... you plant things from a bunch of different families... that bloom.. early .. mid.. and late .. etc ....

it will help if you add sunlight.. soil ... available water.. and any other info that might help us...

are you wanting to become a gardener ... or are you looking for a plant and forget plant .. or 3 ...

ken
User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Instead of thinking it has to be 3 months of flowering you might consider leaf color for effect. I assume FS means full sun. In your zone there are lots of possibilities for year round color.

Choices for 'white' would be Artemisia mauiensis (Maui wormwood), Centaurea cineraria 'Colchester White' (so silvery its almost white), Helichrysum italicum (Curry Plant), Stemodia lantata (Wooly Stemodia--low growing and mat forming), Dalea greggii.

White flowering & long blooming: Nierembergia linariifolia 'Mont Blanc' is white. I've grown two types and both bloomed non stop all season, even in extreme heat, until frost cut them back, there are several colors.

Lantana montevidensis 'Nairobe Blush' or > montevidensis (Lavender Trailing Lantana). Lantana bloom as long as its warm or hot, year round in warm zones.

Sun Coleus would give you constant bright color with several variations to choose from.
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Combining various types of groundcovers in a single area can be risky - one is invariably more aggressive than the other and will eventually overtake the weaker selection. Selecting by flower color is also problematic, as bloom times may differ widely. That said, yellow flowering GC's include Potentilla aurea or neumanniana, various Hypericums (St. John's wort), Lysimachia nummularia (creeping jenny), a number of stonecrops and Lamiastrum (yellow archangel). None can be reliably counted on to bloom simultaneously to the ajuga and both the hypericum and lamiastrum are very aggressive spreaders, taller than the ajuga and will easily overwhelm that planting in time. If happy, the ajuga will likely win out over the others in time, as well. You might do better selecting some taller and more robust type of yellow flowering perennial to compliment the ajuga. In my area, ajuga blooms about the same time as late flowering daffodils - ajuga never forms a dense enough mat to deter bulbs coming through, so that may work also.
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Tina Buell (Z9b)
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
@ken_adrian, any height would work, whether it be low to the ground or 2 ft. high. FS is Full Sun. The picture I posted with my question is the vine, Sweet Autumn Clematis, and was only meant to serve as a visual example of a white flowering groundcover. I'm not looking for something that blooms year-round, I'm looking for something that blooms longer than a season.
0
Tina Buell (Z9b)
Original Author
8 years ago
@texasranger2 Thank you for the great suggestions. Nierembergia linariifolia 'Mont Blanc' is quite nice!
0
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
8 years ago
Tradescantia pallida.
0

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