Great ground-cover plants
Although pollinator numbers are declining globally due to habitat loss, climate change, pesticides and disease, gardeners can slow this decline by cultivating and maintaining safe environments where winged garden visitors can find sustenance and shelter. Creating diverse habitats by incorporating well-chosen trees, shrubs, perennials and vines will attract and support a wide range of bird, mammal and insect species. Incorporating a strategic ground cover into the mix is a great way to maximize the wildlife benefits your garden provides.
Grasslands are green deserts for wildlife, and areas mulched with bark, pine needles or gravel provide little habitat and no food for beneficial insects and other organisms. In forests, bare soil is rare; It is always covered with vegetation. Then why do we leave so much exposed soil in our garden? Most gardens offer many opportunities to layer ground covers under perennials, shrubs and trees to add beauty and multi-seasonal interest. Look for nooks and crannies in paths, curbs, walls and stairs where pockets of bare soil can be filled with ground cover. Trailing along the edges of hardscaping and container plantings, trailers add fun, whimsy and a sense of completeness to your designs. Add the right ground covers and the pollinators will thank you.
Choose the best ground covers for your garden
With thousands of ground covers to choose from, which one is best for your pollinators? A useful strategy is to choose ground covers that provide a succession of blooms from early spring through fall. While some pollinators are active throughout the growing season, others may only live for a few weeks. It ensures an abundance of nectar and pollen from the time the snow melts in the spring until your garden freezes again the following winter. It is best to choose plants that have flowers of various sizes, shapes and colors. Each pollinator species seeks out specific flower sizes and shapes. For example, hummingbirds appreciate large, tubular flowers, while butterflies need small tubular flowers and a place to rest while feeding. Native bees of varying sizes require many types of flowers to feed on. The greater the diversity of flower shapes, sizes and colors, the more pollinators you will attract.
It is ecologically beneficial to select ground covers with a variety of evergreen systems with different growth habits, including rhizome, sucker, stoloniferous, spreading, and trailing. Covering the ground with a variety of plantings will support insects that are a food source for songbirds, frogs, toads, snakes and mammals. This will promote a rich biomass of healthy soil bacteria and fungi that support overall plant health.
Adding native plants is a guaranteed way to attract and support local pollinators that have co-evolved with these species, seeking the protein and lipids provided by the pollen and the sugar nectar they need for energy. Native plants are the only larval hosts for native butterfly and moth species. However, since not all of our natives have a long flowering period and our small gardens cannot compensate for natural habitat for urban and agricultural growth, we can use non-native plants to fill gaps in nectar and pollen supply. Below are some of the many great ground covers you can incorporate into garden designs to add beauty and provide great pollination benefits per square foot.
1. Virginia strawberry spreads sweetly around tall plants
Pollinating Power: Attracts a variety of bees and hoverflies; Nectar and larval host for dozens of butterfly and moth species
This hardy, vigorous, easy-to-grow landscape is also a powerhouse for pollinators. The white, five-petaled flowers provide nectar and pollen from spring to early summer, and the small, tasty fruits delight chipmunks, squirrels, birds and humans alike from early to mid-summer. Use it under and around tall plants, as a lawn substitute or as a slope stabilizer. In good conditions it can spread almost indefinitely. As the plants grow quickly and spread, it may take time for the rosettes to provide a closed canopy. Virginia strawberry tolerates occasional foot traffic and is deer and rabbit resistant. Plants appreciate evenly moist soil, but tolerate short periods of drought.
2. Rock Soapwort is a small, fragrant powerhouse
Here is a hardy, ancient perennial that forms small carpets of vigorous, semi-evergreen foliage. In late spring and summer, the densely branched plants are topped with lush clusters of small, fragrant flowers that range from bright pink to white, depending on the cultivar. Plant it on average in poor soil with good winter drainage; You will find that it is very drought tolerant. It is ideal for small to medium sized areas in rock gardens, between stairs, paths, slopes and walls. Rock soapwort is deer resistant and tolerates occasional foot traffic.
3.Round-leaf groundsel provides pollen, nectar and spring joy
Roundleaf groundsel welcomes spring with cheery yellow flowers. It adapts to a variety of sun and soil conditions, making it useful for repeated plantings that visually connect different areas of the garden. Its flexibility and rapid growth rate make it an ideal candidate where a tough, easy-to-grow, weed-suppressing landscape is needed. It spreads on both stolons and rhizomes to form dense mats of rounded, semi-evergreen leaves 4 to 6 inches tall. Flat-topped clusters of golden yellow, daisy-like flowers rise on nearly leafless stems 10 to 20 inches tall. Plant roundleaf mulch under trees and large shrubs, near water bodies, along paths, borders, woodlands and slopes to control erosion. It is deer resistant.
4. 'Honey Coral' Trumpet Honeysuckle Attracts Hummingbirds, Butterflies and Bees
Trumpet honeysuckle is a vine much loved for its bright red but sometimes yellow flowers, which bloom non-stop in mid to late spring and throughout the summer. 'Honey Coral' is a valuable smaller form of the species. Although this vigorous, twining vine can grow 10 to 15 feet tall or more, it works well as a large, buzzing ground cover in the absence of vertical structures. Use it on slopes and banks or to cover open areas, uneven ground and unsightly terrain features such as rocks or stumps. Its tubular flowers attract many pollinators, and its red berries are attractive to birds in the fall. 'Honey Coral' is drought tolerant and deer and rabbit resistant.
5. 'Poncha Bass Red' Sulfur Buckwheat is colorful throughout the season
'Poncha Bass Red' Sulfur Buckwheat is related to a hardy dryland Persicaria that offers more water-wise and pollinator-friendly cultivars. This long-lived subshrub is one of the best of the many buckwheat species for a dry, sunny garden. It produces mats or mounds of lush, gray-green to silver leaves with attractive umbels of bright, sulfur-yellow flowers from late spring to early summer (left). In late summer, as the seed heads form, they take on fiery tones of orange and red (right). Buckwheats have evolved closely with many butterfly species, for which they are important nectar sources and often desirable larval hosts; Some larvae can only feed on one species. 'Poncha Bass Red' also attracts many pollinators, and the seeds are prized by birds. This deer and rabbit-resistant plant is useful for non-irrigated areas, heathstrips, dry banks and rock gardens.
6. Silverton Blumate Penstemon provides refreshing color for a warm, sunny space.
This cultivar is a very beautiful selection from the largest genus of flowering plants native to North America. From late spring to early summer, upright 12-inch spikes of tubular, lavender-blue to pale-blue flowers spread over its low, silvery foliage. Silverton® Plumate Penstemon is well suited to dry, sunny conditions and can form carpets 24 to 36 inches wide if provided with adequate moisture and good drainage in cultivation. This deer-resistant beauty thrives in rock gardens and seriscapes, dry slopes and borders, along driveways and path edges.
7. 'Atropurpureum' White Clover is colorful, charming and not too aggressive.
'Atropurpureum' white clover was selected from a widespread turfgrass weed known for its nitrogen-fixing ability and globe-shaped flower heads. This less vigorous cultivar is more compact and decorative than the straight species, with burgundy leaflets forming spreading mats of green. Its abundant white flowers emerge in late spring and persist throughout summer, turning pink with age. It grows best in moist, well-drained soil, but tolerates dry, sterile soil. Try it between paving stones, along paths and border edges, and as a lawn alternative.
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