I agree hoovb, the drainage is probably more important. All the advice says good drainage but then I have read not to amend natives. So that is confusing especially when I tell the nursery it's rock hard clay. Plenty of rocks and sometimes it's like digging into granite. They say that's ok just throw it in there. So after digging the holes before planting, I filled with water and only took about 15 minutes to drain. I have read concha and my tessjara blue can tolerate some summer water. My carmel creeper is on a slope with nothing watered above it but gets sprinkler overspray. My concha are in their own watering zone so that is easy to control and were just put in last fall. They did flower a little this spring but of course still receiving water. A friend has yankee point which gets tons of water for 15 years now.

Ian is right in that they'll grow back and pretty darn rapidly too. But I've found they can take some pretty drastic pruning as well. Before I knew exactly what monstors these could grow into, I planted two, very cute 1 gallon Victoria's along my drive. Some 18 years later (don't believe that short-lived fairy tale, either) these behemoths are easily 8 feet tall and equally wide, if not wider. Backing out of the drive without pruning them radically at least once a season is a bit of a suicide mission :-) They have always responded beautifully to this treatment, virtually the only care they receive. I have never pruned down into the wood other than to remove an entire branch at point of origin and wouldn't recommend quite so severe an approach, but hard pruning - reducing size by 1/3 to 1/2 - is quite doable. These really are misplaced in my garden but I won't remove them. They bloom expansively in late spring and I find the sky blue color very appealing. And when in bloom they are so heavily visited by bees the entire shrub quivers and hums. I've watched passersby just stop and watch them in fascination. btw, Victoria is used as a hedge in a commercial parking lot just down the road. They get pruned several times a season, look great and bloom like crazy.

Bonjour Je ne connais pas non plus de couvre-sols jaune satisfaisant. Tu peux essayer le Suneva de chez décorosier mais je ne te garantis rien. Sinon dans les ton jaunes orangers je te conseille le Lovely Meilland. Ou sinon pourquoi pas trancher completement avec un blanc pur du style de "blanc meillandecor" ?

Looking again the last time I was there at the one I planted on Camano at the moment the central point is actually something more like 2 ft. high and the main hanging drape of branches is more like 4 ft. long. If you have perennial weeds of much consequence you will have to clean them out before planting ground covers otherwise many of them may persist even after the planting fills in. Also you will want to choose ground-covering plants growing at least 2 ft. tall in order to minimize nuisance plants seeding into the planting even after it has been established for many years. For instance in my area red alder trees, more than one species of blackberry and giant morning glory (Calystegia) are examples of things that may often be seen to have come up through even quite dense ground covering plantings. If you are thinking you have to be able to dig organic material into your beds it is actually better to simply apply it as mulch - as Nature does. The main exception is when ground is being worked and amended before the planting of annual flowers and annual vegetables. But plantings of longer lived subjects should always consist of loosening the existing soil, planting in it without attempting to modify the texture with any additives and then mulching well immediately after planting. If an existing soil is thought completely unsuitable for a particular kind of woody or perennial plant then that soil needs to be replaced, rather than merely amended. As in digging out beds entirely and filling them with suitable soil, or placing layers (berms or mounds) or suitable soil on top of the existing soil. And planting in these added layers without blending them with the existing soil underneath. Which would defeat the purpose of bringing in different soil.