10 award-winning (AGM) groundcover plants
Groundcover plants are some of the hardest-working elements of a garden. Choose wisely and they’ll give you year-round interest and form
Groundcover plants are invaluable. These are plants that make a dense low cover – some in sun and some in shade, some
They play a long season role in our beds and borders, and their foliage is the key element. The foliage and flowers can create a harmonious background to other plants, working together to enhance the overall value of our plantings. Therefore, it makes sense to choose plants whose foliage is especially attractive. Here are ten choices, each of which has received the prestigious RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
Hostas are some of the most effective ground covers you can grow and more than 90 have been awarded AGMs. Hosta ‘Francee’ (fortunei) has leaves edged in bright white which repeatedly overlap to create a dense cover that weeds rarely penetrate. It’s also one of the toughest and, unlike some hostas, is widely available and not expensive. Plant with other varieties or in groups of three or five in shade. 70cm (28in). Hardiness rating H7.
The ultimate ground covering fern is bracken, but no one wants that in their borders. The oak fern, Gymnocarpium dryopteris, is very different. It’s the perfect shade-loving woodland garden perennial, ideal for weaving a carpet of fresh foliage around and between choice shade lovers. The goldish-green fronds of this British native interknit prettily and are perfect around trilliums and other special woodlanders. 25cm (10in). Hardiness rating H5.
Many hardy geraniums make good groundcover plants – and a number have impressive foliage – but Geranium renardii stands out. The lobed leaves have the greyish colouring of sage, are soft to the touch, intricately veined, and develop into a dense mound of foliage. Purple-veined white flowers open above the leaves in late spring. Happy at the front of a sunny border, poor dry soils encourage greyer foliage. 35cm (14in). Hardiness rating H5.
In lime-free soil and full sun, heathers are ideal low and neat evergreen ground covers with the bonus of summer flowers. Calluna vulgaris ‘Wickwar Flame’ not only features bright yellow foliage throughout summer, but in winter the whole plant develops vivid reddish-orange tints. What’s more, from August well into autumn, the stems are lined with small pinkish bells. A spring trim with shears keeps the plants neat and dense. 50cm (20in). Hardiness rating H7.
This is the plant that took the old shade-loving standby Brunnera macrophylla into a different class. The striking, heart-shaped foliage always had a few silver spots, but in Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, almost the entire leaf is silver and attractively veined in dark green. It forms dense clumps, can even tolerate dry shade once established, and there is the bonus of clouds of small forget-me-not flowers in spring. 40cm (16in). Hardiness rating H6.
When the RHS grew over one hundred bergenias side-by-side, Bergenia purpurascens var. delavayi was one of the standout AGM winners. The large, leathery evergreen leaves we expect from bergenias emerge bright green and mature to bronze purple by winter, with their undersides showing a bright, livery pink. Spreading steadily, the foliage is rather upright but the cover is dense and enhanced by crowded clusters of bright pink flowers in spring. 30cm (1ft). Hardiness rating H5.
Some ground covers are bold and vivid, evergreen Asarum europaeum is more demure in its appearance but attractive and effective. Its prettily waved, rich green, heart-shaped leaves are solid and resilient in texture and attractively veined in pale creamy green. They overlap into a low dense rippling carpet and hide the tubular ground level purple flowers, which are more intriguing than flamboyant. The roots smell strongly of ginger. 15cm (6in). Hardiness rating H6.
Nothing shines quite like Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Nana’. Overlapping silvery-white stems lie low across the soil, each stem lined with shimmering leaves split into slender, flat filaments which are gathered more tightly towards the tips, almost forming a rosette. Ideal in gravel in the sun, where it makes a fine companion for choice spring bulbs, it usually retains some foliage though the winter. Artemisia schmidtiana too, has an AGM. 30cm (9in). Hardiness rating H5.
There are relatively few plants with blue foliage, even fewer that are effective ground cover, and many of those are junipers. In fact, the sharp needles of Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Carpet’ are a lovely silvery aqua blue green and crowd the slightly rusty coloured branches that stretch out flat across the soil, branching as they go. Needs sun, and lovely with taller and more rounded foliage plants. 30cm (12in). Hardiness rating H7.
Pachysandra terminalis ‘Variegata’, commonly known as
