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Index : Landscape Plants
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- 22. Lush Ground Cover Plants for Tucson Landscapes - Top
- The selection of low, spreading plants, called ground covers, is somewhat limited among the true desert plants. But there are some lush imports that grow well here in Tucson and are deserving of wider usage in home landscapes. Here are a few of the best:
Purple Heart (Setcresea purpurea) is one of the most colorful ground cover plants available. It’s broad, strap-shaped leaves and pencil-like stems are a vibrant purple. Small pink flowers form at the stem tips, providing a pleasing contrast with the leaves. Both stems and leaves are thick and succulent in appearance. Purple Heart has an open growth habit and coarse texture. Plants grow to a height of 12 inches and spread of 18 to 24 inches. Like many succulents, Purple Heart has a thick, milky sap that can be irritating to the skin. It’s easy to start new plants from stem cuttings. Just be careful to avoid getting the sap on your hands.
Purple heart grows best in medium to light shade. It requires twice weekly watering from spring to fall and weekly during the winter months. Purple heart can be damaged by freezing temperatures, but recovers rapidly in the spring. Covering with sheets or frost cloth on frosty nights will minimize damage.
Asian Jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) is a lush, dense, leafy plant excellent for use in shaded locations. The small glossy, dark green leaves form a dense mat 4 to 6 inches above the ground. The variety ‘minimound’ is a particularly small-leafed, low growing form.
Asian Jasmine enjoys morning sun, but must have mid-day and afternoon shade in the summer to prevent leaf scorch. It’s winter-hardy even in the coldest parts of Tucson and adapts well to alkaline soil conditions. New plants are formed as stems root and sprout new shoots. So, to encourage plants to spread grow them in a bed with a light mulching of organic matter such as compost of fine wood chips.
Wedelia (Wedelia trilobata) is a luxuriant leafy ground cover with interesting three-lobed grassy-green leaves. Yellow, daisy-like flowers on long stems dot the dense foliage with color from spring to fall. A native to Mexico and the West Indies, Wedelia is a tropical plant that will freeze back in Winter, but regrows rapidly in the Spring in much the same way as Lantana. It’s long arching green stems give the plant a cascading form, making it ideal for hanging baskets, planters or ground cover beds.
Wedelia grows to a height of 18 to 24 inches and a spread of 24 to 36 inches. It preforms best when planted in medium shade to full sun locations. Water 2 or 3 times weekly during the growing season and 2 or 3 times monthly during the winter.
Dwarf Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa ‘Green Carpet’) is so named because of it’s small plum-shaped fruit that are edible with a taste similar to cranberries. It’s thick, round, waxy-green leaves are nickel-sized and tipped by a spiny point. Showy, white, star-shaped flowers appear in late spring and periodically through the warm months. Natal plum are available in upright and spreading forms. The best ground cover varieties are: Green Carpet, Horizontalis, Minima and Prostrata.
Natal plum grows best in full sun to partial shade. Water weekly during the summer and twice monthly in the winter. To protect plants from freeze damage, cover them with frost cloth or sheets when temperatures drop below 30 degrees.
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161. - Updated: September 11, 2005
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