Vinca, A Hillside Groundcover

If you’re looking for a low-maintenance groundcover that also flowers, look no further than creeping lilyturf. This tough perennial has thick, blade-like foliage and forms attractive clumps. In this article, I’ll share more details about creeping lilyturf, along with how easy it is to grow and care for.

It can be hard enough finding suitable shade plants, and choosing the best plants for shady slopes is even harder. The plants need to be be sturdy enough to cling to a slope and also tolerate low light. They are out there, though, if you know where to look. Erosion control shade plants may be bushes, grasses or low groundcovers, and should be adaptable to the site conditions.

When it comes to gardening, hillsides are hard. Steep slopes are difficult to plow, to mow and to irrigate. But unplanted or inappropriately planted, a hill is prone to erosion.

Latin scientific names can be challenging to pronounce but are tremendously important. We can communicate without ambiguity because each plant has only one scientific name. In contrast, a plant may have more than one common name, and common names may vary by region. Although easier to pronounce, using common names can result in a great deal of confusion and even frustration.

Perennial vines in the genus Vinca have proved to be sturdy and seemingly indestructible groundcovers for the Southeastern Unites States. However, over the past few years, vinca leaf-folder caterpillars have been ravaging landscape plantings of perennial vincas (Vinca major andVinca minor). Both can be infested, but V. major seems to sustain more damage. According to Dr. Matt Bertone, Entomologist at NC State University, this pest is likely Diaphania costata.

Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) is sometimes referred to as Goldenstar. It is a native groundcover that grows to four inches tall and does well in dappled shade or morning sun and afternoon shade. It is related to asters and sunflowers. The plant grows like a strawberry with a rosette of leaves and creeping stolons that root at each node and give rise to new rosettes of leaves and flowers.

Geranium macrorrhizum, the big-root geranium: I wonder how many square miles of this plant I have grown. The bigroot geranium is so named because instead of a clumping habit, it grows from a ropelike rhizome that seems to barely need to touch the ground to thrive. Its attractive foliage has an aromatic, spicy scent, and is nearly evergreen even in my Zone 5B garden.It will survive, I think, except in the wet; sun or shade, and even dry shade. All I give it is an annual haircut, and I do that when spring is turning to summer, the flowers have gone by and the leaves are stretching upward. Deadheading would be another option, but just shearing the whole plant is faster in masses, and also keeps it tighter and denser.The straight species is pink (but not pastel); if Pepto Bismol isn’t going to

LOST ANYTHING IN THE GARDEN LATELY (besides your mind)? That’s the question Forum member Boodely poses in the Urgent Garden Question Forum this week, and I’m confessing to eyeglasses, every manner of tool and more. (Usually my MIA items turn up when I turn the compost heap.) Lost anything in your garden? On the very practical side comes a twist on the groundcover question, which usually includes the words “for shade.” Not this time.

THE TALK WAS OF LIVING MULCH, meaning groundcovers, on this week’s Robin Hood Radio podcast, because it’s the perfect time to divide your best ones up (or buy some!) and get some needy areas of the garden covered in weed-thwarting beauty.

IAM THINKING OF SIMPLIFYING SOME OF MY BIGGEST GARDEN BEDS this year—spots where the shrubs have grown in and are just crying out for a simple groundcover or two at their feet. In a slideshow, then, some of the tried-and-true choices I’ve got plenty of here to choose from come spring (including Geranium macrorrhizum, above).

IF THE WEATHER EVER COOPERATES here, I know what I plan to do: divide and conquer! (Conquer beds, that is, with divided-up groundcovers.) A recap of some favorites that I rely on:2 Ferns With More Lasting Color Than Any Flower (above) A Golden Grass for Shady Spots: Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’ 10 Great Groundcovers to Rely On (a Slideshow) The Toughest of All: Groundcovers for Dry Shade Categoriesgroundcovers

This is the 12th of our monthly Urgent Garden Question Q&A shows, and we thank you for your support—and for your questions most of all. You can keep them coming any time in comments or by email, using the contact form, or at Facebook.Read along as you listen to the Jan. 1, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Plus: Enter to win a copy of Ken’s n