Vines and Groundcovers
Resilient low-profile plants play key roles in successful landscapes for coverage, color, textural contrast and borders. Vines can also be used effectively as ground covers.
Annuals (8)
Butterfly Attracting (81)
Creative Containers (52)
Drought-Defiant (87)
Midwest Native (84)
Salt-Tolerant Plants (26)
Shade-tolerant (54)
Trees & Shrubs (74)
Acorus gramineus ''Golden Pheasant''
Common Name: Golden Pheasant Sweet Flag
Golden Pheasant Sweet Flag has narrow, strap-like leaves make a stunning appearance with their brilliant gold coloring that remains all season long. The new foliage is chartreuse and will attain the best gold coloring in full sun.
This cultivar is...
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Adiatum pedatum
Common Name: Maidenhair Fern
Delicate appearance belies Maidenhair Fern's toughness. Fronds unfurl fairly late in the spring. Can form large colonies of a pleasant medium green. A deciduous fern....
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Ajuga reptans 'Black Scallop, Caitlin's Giant, Chocolate Chip'
Common Name: Ajuga
Black Scallop, Caitlin's Giant, Chocolate Chip are three of our favorite ajuga varieties. Ajuga is one of the best known and most useful ground covers, suiting many different situations and color schemes.Depending on the variety, the flowers may be r...
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Artemisia schmidtiana
Common Name: Silver Mound Artemisia
Soft, feathery foliage of Silver Mound Artemisia forms a compact, silky, cushion-like mound. It has many applications in the landscape including edging, rock gardens or a filler plant for hot, dry areas. It has long been one of the most popular silve...
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Asarum arifolium
Common Name: Wild Ginger
Arrowleaf Wild Ginger is a native plant that features two smooth, broad spade-shaped, dark green, basal leaves. Cup-shaped, insignificant, purplish brown flowers give the plant its nickname, "Little Brown Jug", and appear in spring on short, ground-l...
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Asarum canadense
Common Name: Wild Ginger
Canadian Wild Ginger is a native plant that features two downy, heart-shaped to kidney-shaped, handsomely veined, dark green, basal leaves. Cup-shaped, insignificant, purplish brown flowers appear in spring on short, ground-level stems....
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Asarum splendens
Common Name: Chinese Wild Ginger
Chinese Wild Ginger features thick arrow-shaped, dark green and gray/silver mottled leaves. Cup-shaped, insignificant, purplish brown flowers give the plant its nickname, "Little Brown Jug", and appear in spring on short, ground-level stems....
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Astilbe X arendsii ''Flamingo', 'Pink Lightening', 'Sprite' and more'
Common Name: Astilbe
Rugged and beautiful, Astilbe cultivar varieties are perfect for shady gardens. Long and colorful spikes are held above divided foliage in summer, when color in the shade garden is hard to come by. Use them in groups in the woodland border, or mass t...
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Athyrium niponicum
Common Name: Japanese Painted Fern
Japanese Painted Fern slowly multiplies to form a large clump twenty four inches across. The fronds are approximately eighteen inches long and are a soft-grey metallic color with hints of red and blue. The center stem is red so the contrast is excell...
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Carex caryophyllea ''The Beatles''
Common Name: Spring or Vernal Sedge
Spring or Vernal Sedge has soft, dark green mop-heads that create interesting ground cover....
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Dianthus gratianopolitanus ''Firewitch''
Common Name: Firewitch Dianthus
Maximum color impact from Firewitch Dianthus, a German cultivar. Firewitch Dianthus offers one of the bluest-foliaged, most heat-tolerant and most tolerant of varying soil conditions of the many types of Dianthus. Prolific blooms extend throughout th...
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Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance'
Common Name: Brilliance Autumn Fern
Brilliance is an improved Autumn Fern. Plants form a colorful groundcover with pink fiddleheads that turn coppery orange as they unfurl. Fronds age to a lustrous dark green and remain well into winter. New growth continues through the season, giving ...
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Euphorbia polychroma ''Bonfire''
Common Name: Bonfire Euphorbia
'Bonfire' Euphorbia is a great spurge cultivar with striking mahogany red foliage. Unlike other Euphorbias that may turn red in the fall, 'Bonfire' displays its smoldering red foliage all summer. Bright yellow flower bracts contrast well with the dee...
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Festuca cinerea ''Elijah Blue''
Common Name: Elijah Blue Fescue
Elijah Blue Fescue is a clumping ornamental grass with outstanding icy-blue leaf color. Heat tolerance, evergreen quality and unique foliage color makes it perfect for edging borders or mass planting as a ground cover. Buff colored flowers rise above...
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Geranium 'Rozanne'
Common Name: Rozanne Hardy Geranium
Rozanne Hardy Geranium is the longest blooming and most prolific blue-flowered geranium. The flowers continue blooming through the heat of midsummer, and the deeply cut leaves remain lovely, on plants that are spreading but not sprawling....
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Geranium maculata
Common Name: Wild Geranium
In spring, this clump-forming woodland perennial forms a mound of deeply cut, palmately-lobed, dark green foliage. Wild Geranium flowers for six to seven weeks with 1 1/4" diameter, medium-pink to lilac, saucer-shaped, five-petaled flowers....
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Geranium sanguineum ''Biokovo Karmina''
Common Name: Biokovo Karmina Bloody Cranesbill
Biokovo Karmina Bloody Cranesbill is an easy-to-grow hardy geranium cultivar noted for its compact growth habit and reddish-purple flowers. Forms spreading mound of foliage. It features five-petaled, rosy-pink flowers and deeply-lobed, dark green lea...
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Geranium sanguineum ''Max Frei''
Common Name: Max Frei Bloody Cranesbill
Max Frei Bloody Cranesbill is an easy-to-grow hardy geranium cultivar noted for its compact growth habit and reddish-purple flowers. Forms spreading mound of foliage. It features five-petaled, rosy-purple flowers and deeply-lobed, dark green leaves. ...
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Helictotrichon sempervirens
Common Name: Blue Oat Grass
Blue Oat Grass is tougher and more enduring than blue fescues, cool season Blue Oat Grass is the best choice for accents. Tolerates full sun or light shade. Prefers fertile, moist soil but will grow in a wide range of soil; good drainage is essential...
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Helleborus foetidus
Common Name: Bear's Paw Hellebores
Unlike most hellebores that have separate stems for blooms and foliage, Bear's Paw Hellebores has blooms and foliage on the same stems. This unusual characteristic creates special winter interest when new chartreuse bloom stalks rise and bloom above ...
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Heuchera 'Rave On'
Common Name: Coral Bells
Rave On Heuchera produces more flowers than any other heuchera in trials. This plant blooms the heaviest in late spring, with masses of deep pink flowers on tall stems. The leaves are deep greenish purple with a very heavy silver overlay. Easy to gro...
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Heuchera 'Citronelle'
Common Name: Coral Bells
Large, rounded, lobed leaves are neon-bright shade of chartreuse. Topped by small creamy-white bells in mid- to late-summer are showy season after season on compact plants....
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Heuchera 'Crimson Curls'
Common Name: Coral Bells
'Crimson Curls' has ruffled and curled warm bronze foliage with contrasting crimson undersides. Sprays of small creamy-white flowers appear in late spring and summer. Excellent in the border, filling between plants and under shrubs and trees....
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Heuchera micrantha 'Palace Purple'
Common Name: Coral Bells
Unique deep purple foliage with dark red stems fade to bronzed green in hot summers. Small pink and white flowers bloom in spring and last into the summer....
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Heuchera X villosa 'Miracle'
Common Name: Miracle Heuchera
Heuchera 'Miracle' goes through several changes in leaf coloration throughout the seasons. In the spring, the young foliage is lime to chartreuse with red accents in the center. As the foliage matures, it turns brick red with a bright chartreuse to g...
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Heuchera X villosa 'Caramel'
Common Name:
'Caramel' is a vigorous, clump-forming coral bells cultivar that features unique apricot foliage and light pink flowers. Its lobed, rounded leaves form a basal mound. Plants spread nicely to fill areas fully. Leaves emerge gray-red in spring and matu...
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Heuchera X villosa 'Southern Comfort'
Common Name: Southern Comfort Heuchera
Southern Comfort is a unique and colorful variety of coral bells with large, nine inch leaves that are a warm golden caramel with hot pink undersides. This variety thrives in intense heat and humidity and tolerates some sun once established....
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Hosta ''Halcyon''
Common Name: Halcyon Hosta
Halcyon Hosta is one of the best and most popular of the blue hosta cultivars. An erect plant that featuring a mound of flat, spear-shaped, heavily-textured, blue-green leaves and racemes of bell-shaped, pale lilac-blue flowers on 26" scapes....
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Hosta 'Fragrant Blue'
Common Name:
Fragrant Blue Hosta is a small- to medium-sized hosta with thick, chalky blue-green leaves. Fragrant Blue Hosta holds its color due to the tendency to produce new foliage throughout the growing season. Fragrant light lavender flowers late summer....
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Hosta 'Red October'
Common Name: Red October Hosta
'Red October' grows in an arching mound to 10" tall and spreads over time to as much as 28" wide. It is perhaps best noted for its showy red leaf petioles. 'Red October' has dark green leaves with pointed tips and open bases. Leaves are silvery-whi...
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Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears'
Common Name: Blue Mouse Ears Hosta
Blue Mouse Ears Hosta has small round, heart shaped blue-green leaves. Dense, mounded habit with moderate growth rate. Thick leaves exhibit a tiny white edge, particularly in early Spring, but evident throughout the entire season. Flowers pale laven...
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Hosta 'Lakeside Elfin Fire'
Common Name: Lakeside Elfin Fire Hosta
Lakeside Elfin Fire Hosta is a dwarf hosta with small, lance-shaped leaves. Lakeside Elfin Fire Hosta leaves have red spotted petioles and a white center flecked with green surrounded by a dark green margin. Purple striped flowers bloom in midsummer....
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Hosta X ''Sum and Substance''
Common Name: Sum and Substance Hosta
You can't beat Hostas as a carefree, enduring ground cover for shade, but certain varieties stand out on their own as specimen plants. One of the best is 'Sum and Substance', which forms huge mounds up to six feet across with deeply veined, chartreus...
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Impatiens hybrida ''SunPatiens''
Common Name: Busy Lizzie Impatiens
Sun-loving Busy Lizzie SunPatiens has exceptional vigour and ability to withstand rain, wind, humidity, scorching heat and cool shade. Busy Lizzie Impatiens is one of the SunPatiens cultivars, all plants of superior qualities: quicker to establish, s...
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Iris cristata
Common Name: Crested Iris
Crested Iris has blue flowers that float above the foliage. Short, dense foliage remains handsome through summer. Good choice for a naturalized ground cover....
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Liriope spicata
Common Name: Lilyturf
Lilyturf is a rhizomatous, grass-like perennial which forms a clump of narrow, arching, glossy, dark green leaves. Erect flower spikes with pale lavender to white flowers arise, somewhat hidden, among the leaves in late summer. Lilyturf flowers often...
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Lonicera periclymenum 'Graham Thomas'
Common Name: Graham Thomas Woodbine Honeysuckle
Vigorous climbing species. Flowers bud white and bloom yellow....
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Matteuccia struthiopteris struthiopteris
Common Name: Ostrich Fern
Ostrich Fern is one of our tallest native ferns. Its bright green deciduous fronds provide a dramatic backdrop to the shady border. Spreads by underground runners, so it's an excellent choice for naturalizing in dappled shade. Prefers shady sites wit...
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Nepeta subsessilis ''Candy Cat''
Common Name: Candy Cat Catmint
Candy Cat Catmint offers sizeable, dense clusters of large, fragrant, pale lavender pink flowers. Unlike other Nepetas, Candy Cat Catmint prefers moist soil....
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Oenothera macrocarpa
Common Name: Missouri Primrose
Missouri Primrose is a showy, trailing plant with large, yellow, fragrant flowers up to 4" across. Plants bloom for a long period from spring through summer and make an excellent front of border or rock garden plant. Foliage stays green much of the y...
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Ophiopogon japonicus ''Nanus''
Common Name: Dwarf Mondo Grass
Dwarf Mondo Grass creates a lush ground cover of dense, dark green grass-like clumps. Dwarf Mondo Grass is an evergreen dwarf form that is only half the size of the species. Excellent as an edging plant or tucked into rocks for a pleasing contrast. F...
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Polygonatum biflorum
Common Name: Solomon's Seal
Small, greenish-white flowers hang from Solomon's Seal's arching stems giving way to blue summer berries. Solomon's Seal's fall foliage turns golden. Develops handsome stands in shady environments, spreading slowly by creeping rhizomes....
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Polystichum acrostichoides
Common Name: Christmas Fern
Christmas Fern has glossy, deep-green, fronds that emerge upright and arch gently. They eventually lay down to cover the ground as they mature....
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Pulmonaria ''Silver Shimmers''
Common Name: Lungwort
Silver Shimmers Lungwort provides a bright spot of color to welcome in the spring. Clusters of relatively large, steel-blue flowers are suspended above the long, wavy foliage which remains low. Silver Shimmers Lungwort leaves are heavily saturated wi...
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Rosa X ''Carpet of Color''
Common Name: Carpet of Color Groundcover Rose
Carpet of Color is possibly the finest of all groundcover roses to date. As its name implies, Carpet of Color Groundcover Rose makes a virtual carpet of color in the garden. Its small cupped and ruffled, semi-double blooms are a striking blend of gol...
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Salvia officinalis ''Purpurea''
Common Name: Purple Sage
Purple Sage has a compact bushy habit with dark purple leaves. Ornamental culinary sage....
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Senecio obovatus
Common Name: Squawweed
Squawweed has loose umbels of bright yellow flowers that bloom atop 12" stems. Foliage basal rosettes are semi-evergreen, with rounded and serrated leaves. Grows well in dry shade and spreads by underground stems....
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Stachys byzantina ''Countess Helen von Stein''
Common Name: Lambs' Ears
Lambs' Ears describes a large and diverse genus in the Mint family that includes a number of valuable landscape plants. Lambs' Ears' bold leaves are so densely felted with white hairs that they appear gray or silver. This species does flower, throwin...
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Stylophorum distichum
Common Name: Celandine Poppy
Celandine Poppy is an early spring bloomer perfect for the shade garden with showy, yellow flowers above lobed green leaves. Foliage attractive into the summer....
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Tiarella cordifolia
Common Name: Foam Flower
Foam Flower is a native clump-forming plant that spreads by runners. Tiny, white flowers with very long stamens appear in airy racemes in spring for about six weeks on numerous wiry stems....
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Waldsteinia fragaroides
Common Name: Barren Strawberry
Barren Strawberry is a good, general-purpose groundcover for full sun to partial shade. Barren Strawberry is a native that forms a slow spreading mat with small, yellow early spring flowers. Foliage is evergreen, but tends to turn bronze cold winter ...
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