Ground cover planting

Pinkpepper

Please could you offer some advice on what I could plant in this bed (see photo). It's shady with dry soil. I'm after something low maintenance and ground covering. Evergreen, preferably with flowers, would be great and my favourite garden colours are purple, white and pinks. Many thanks.

nutcutlet

Geranium macrorrhizum would do well, I have it in a similar situation, comes in several shades of pink

Fairygirl

The saxifrage (urbium?) London Pride will also survive - it prefers moisture to do really well, but once established, it'll grow and cover a good area. Easy to propagate too. Small pink flowers on tallish stems. Vinca is the same - once established, it'll cover most things. Purple flowers mainly. There are several varieties. 

Ladybird4

There is also a white variety of Geranium macrorrhizum. After their first flowering of the year I chop mine right back to the ground and then I get a second flush of flowers.

Last edited: 24 September 2016 17:06:54

hogweed

Vinca minor has dark purple flowers and I think there is a white one. Vinca major has bluesy purple flowers. Alchemilla  mollis would do ok and will self seed around.  

Fairygirl

There is a white variety of vinca, hogweed, but I don't find it very robust. Might be too wet for it here though. 

The geranium 'Biokovo' is almost evergreen. It's rampant in my front garden just now. Very pale pink, almost white  flowers. It grows almost anywhere. 

nutcutlet

my white macrorrhizum is so slow and fragile I couldn't recommend it as ground cover. Nice, but not robust. Not like the deep pink ?Bevan's variety which could fill that area in a couple of years

BobTheGardener

I would also suggest Vinca minor which is evergreen and will thrive in such an area where few other plants will do well.

Angela Yeomans

Thank you pinkpepper for this post. I'm looking to cover a similar section in my garden.

Pinkpepper

Thank you folks for your replies, both the Geranium Mac and Vinca Minor seem good options. Not sure which i'll go for, do you think they would thrive together if I did a mix of the two or is it better to plant just one variety en masse? What time of year should these be planted in the garden? Thanks.

hogweed

They are both fairly rampant in their own way - vinca minor probably the slower of the two to seek world domination. If you started off with say half a dozen plants of each, depending on your budget of course, in a few years you should have a good spread and be able to take off sets from the geranium to colonise bare bits.