Wild ginger is another pretty common native groundcover. I have a lot of it in my yard, and if it ever grows where I don’t want it I just dig it up and tuck in a dark corner somewhere.

It’s great because it tolerates drought and shade pretty well, and it’s always nice to have something green in an otherwise muddy or dusty corner. The flowers aren’t easily seen (you have to lift them out from under the leaves), but they’re interesting when you find them.

I purchased this native about 25 years ago from a local nursery (as ‘Girard’s Rainbow’) and planted it under the hemlocks in back. I’ve always enjoyed seeing the variegated leaves, bronze new foliage, and the long white strands of flowers in the spring.

It’s evergreen, so the color is nice to have in winter as well. I only wish I had given it more space — the clump is probably three feet tall by twelve feet wide and encroaching on the Geranium macrorrhizum and Cimicifuga ‘White Pearl’ (that’s right, I called it a Cimicifuga, you taxonomic heathens).

It did so well that I went on a Leucothoe kick in 2002/2003. I bought L. fontanesiana ‘Nana’, L. keiskei, L. keiskei ‘Royal Ruby’, and L. racemosa. Of all of those, only L.keiskei survived and continues to limp along under the shade of a cedar..

But maybe I’ll have to try again. I really do like this genus.

The ubiquitous jack-in-the-pulpit. You can find him evangelizing the benefits of native plants everywhere throughout my garden.

I don’t even know which one was the original. He’s been fairly promiscuous despite his preachy ways, and he has a lot of children throughout the garden. I’m actually not even sure if some of these are the straight species or hybrids with other aroid species.

They all pretty much looked the same until Arisaema sikokianum came and visited for twelve years. About four years ago it was suddenly gone, but all kinds of new jack-in-the-pulpits started coming up with really dark striped spathes. Now I have some that are almost solid black with green spadixes, some that are striped black and green, some that are pure green… I don’t know. They’re everywhere, but I like them.

4-6″ high x indefinite

I bought two of these from Menards in 2017. I had tried one the year before, but waited too long to plant it and the poor thing never really got established.

These, however, took off. They have such a fine texture that they work wonderfully as a groundcover below large-leaved Hosta, and the color pairs well with the neighboring pink azalea.