Re: ground cover/full sun

Now that Rich reminded me about salvias, Salvia chamaedryoides the germander sage, makes a great, low growing groundcover in full sun and takes almost no water. Plants grow 6 - 8" tall and spread as stems root where they touch the ground. Leaves are soft gray and flowers are the most beautiful shade of deep, sky blue. No pests. Flowers most of the year in my area. In one area of my yard, these plants get water once a week. In another, watering is once a month (whenI remember) in the summer water and otherwise, ambient rain (11 inches per year in a good year).

I also like bulbine frutescens, a succulent in the lily family. There are two kinds I know of, both fine leaved with terminal clusters of flowers most of the year. The species reaches a foot or two tall, with yellow flowering terminal clusters. 'Hallmark' is a more diminutive variety that reaches about 8" in my garden and has sherbet orange flowers. Both bulbines spread into large patches and are again bulletproof and low water, full sun. In fact, many years ago, someone gave me a piece of her bulbine that she pulled from the ground. It ended up stashed behind some other plants and several months later, I found it, still green. I stuck it in the ground and within no time, it had perked up and made a huge patch. I dig pieces up and give them away all the time.

Fun to think of new and different ideas for ground covers!

Nan

Nan:

Salvia chionophylla will make a deer resistant ground cover that will be
full if the soil has a reasonable amount of humus.  Otherwise, it will work
in a mix pretty well.

In rich soil, it acts like a giant wooly thyme (average height, 4 - 6
inches).  The plants went crazy set in pure leaf mold at the Norfolk (VA)
Botanical Garden several years ago.  I would expect it to be more compact in
California, especially in sun.


Richard F. Dufresne

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Nan Sterman			Plant Soup (TM)
PO Box 231034
Encinitas, CA 92023		760.634.2902 (voice)
Talkingpoints@PlantSoup.Com	760.634.2957 (fax)

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