Tough ground covers to consider

Every year, Plant Select chooses new plants to introduce into the program because they are durable. They hold up under our Colorado extreme weather conditions. The Plant Select Program has a diversity of various plants such as trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and ground covers.

In 2019, Plant Select introduced a hardy ground cover called Indigo Blue Dragonhead, Dracocephalum ruyschiana. This plant reaches a height of 14 to 16 inches when in flower. The flowers are a vivid blue. This plant seems to be a low-maintenance plant with its low to medium water requirement and its ability to tolerate a wide range of soil types. However, it can be planted in a dry meadow or rocky garden. If you have a perennial bed with other drought tolerant plants, place this in the front border.

Another hardy ground cover is Pink Cotton Lamb’s Ear, Stachys lavandulifolia. This plant will turn heads. It is not like the Lamb’s Ear that you are used to seeing. The foliage on the plant has narrow, glossy green leaves with flossy clusters of pink trumpets all over the flower stalk. Surprisingly, it is a slow creeping matted plant, again unlike the Lamb’s Ear, which is more prevalent in our gardens. When in flower it reaches 10 inches in height and about a foot wide. It would make a wonderful addition to any garden for a spring blooming show that goes into early summer. As an added benefit, it is found to be resistant to rabbits and deer. According to Plant Select, this perennial is “a superior selection of a Turkish wildflower for the front of the garden border, or in a xeriscape garden.”

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