Hardy Ground Covering Plants
I was checking on the garden forum and came across a request for help re growing some Western Australian plants in Newcastle, north of Sydney. The person writing had done his homework and was prepared to create a good mound to provide extra drainage for the plants he wanted to try in the ground. I would have thought he would have had success with what he proposed to do. However someone said that he had not taken into account the humidity of the area. This is something that had not crossed my mind at all.
Here humidity is associated with thunderstorms and changes in weather patterns in the summer. Basically the climate is dry. What I call hardy plants could well turn out to be difficult plants in a humid climate. It certainly pays to think about atmosphere as well as soil conditions and moisture in the overall picture of growing plants. Some plants will adapt when they are grown in the open with good air flow around them, rather that being part of dense undergrowth. Otherwise they are subject to fungal attacks.
I decided to actually make a few lists of plants and then find information about the plants, rather than find then one by one.
Hardy Ground Covering Plants
Brachyscome multifida ‘Amethyst’ (Cut leaf Daisy)
Brachyscome multifida ‘Breako’day’ (Cut Leaf Daisy)
Leucophyta brownii (Cushion Bush)
Calothamnus quadrifidus prostrate form
Chrysocephalum apiculatum (Yellow Buttons)
Correa alba low forms (White Correa)
Correa decumbens (Mt Lofty Correa)
Correa ‘Dusky Bells’
Dampiera diversifolia
Eremophila glabra prostrate, yellow flowers (Emu Bush)
Goodenia varia (Sticky Goodenia)
Grevillea lanigera (Woolly Grevillea)
Grevillea thelemanniana ‘Sea Foam’
Grevillea thelemanniana prostrate forms
Halgania cyanea (Mallee Blue-Bush)
Myoporum parvifolium (Creeping Myoporum)
Rhagodia spinescens (Hedge Saltbush)
Scaevola aemula (Fan Flower)
Scaevola ‘Mauve Clusters’ (Fan Flower)
Related Articles
- Twenty Drought Tolerant Plants here.
- Frost Hardy Plants here.
- Hardy Eremophilas here
I have planted quite a few eremophilas in the past 18mths and they are all doing exceptionally well, glabra and maculata varieties – clay soil with some gypsum mixed in but growing on mounds using a mix of soil and native plant mix then mulched. Very hot and humid in summer with strong winds very often, so have staked some maculatas which are about 6ft high. yellow “Balalla Gold” groundcover doing particularly well. Central Coast NSW. Grevillias and Fan Flowers also growing really well. Rainforest trees not so well, but then I don’t want them too big.