Both are herbaceous, so not going to offer much in the way of a compliment when the bulbs are present. I'd recommend Veronica umbrosa (aka V. peduncularis) 'Georgia Blue', also a Great Plant Pick - it has a mostly evergreen presence, turns some nice ruddy shades in winter, tiny, bright blue flowers over a very long season and is not an overly aggressive spreader nor is it very dense, allowing bulbs to grow through easily.

Here is a link that might be useful: Veronica 'Georgia Blue'

You want low things like pansies, aubrieta, forget-me-nots. The veronica would certainly be short enough. Watch for slugs hiding in the groundcover and getting up on the daffodils at flowering time.

I plant daylilies with a lot of my bulbs, they grow up and sort of hide their fading foliage. Hostas too.

I like forget me nots with bulbs too.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I had not thought of using the Veronica. I read the description on great plant picks & assumed that a couple of plants I see in my neighborhood were creeping veronica. Now that I have gone & looked at the leaf I see it is something different. I wonder what it is? Blue flowers in spring, but it gets very rangy, & isn't that nice when not in bloom.

Samples in the photo are Lithodora diffusa. A decent enough groundcover but requires nearly perfect drainage to avoid browning out in the center in winter. And would appreciate being sheared back after blooming to keep dense and compact. No need to do so with the veronica.

I know what you mean about the daylilies :-) Hasn't happened for me either.

Thanks for the ID garden gal. That's it all right.

The one daylily I had (given to me by a neighbor), seems to have been stomped to oblivion by the fella that was helping me plants trees.

Darn.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't like day lilies! It seems to me that the flowers are either not yet open or are finished. Always look messy. I do have one tht seems to have blooms -- it's a lovely yellow.

misslimone - pachysandra is wonderful and would be great in your yard, but as you suspect, too dense for your needs. Columbine seems to time out pretty well in our area for covering growth.

I second the lithodora vote - it's wonderful, but turns brown in the center - seems to be best spilling over a somewhat sunny wall.

knickinick (sp) is nice - evergreen and has those cute little pink flowers, but it does fill in and give you a fight. What I really love for the purpose is Virginia blue star creeper. It spreads quickly and has long-lasting little blue flowers.

I'd rather have a pachyderm. A small one I could walk around the neighborhood. Do you mean Laurentia? That used to be one of my favorites. I never see it in the neighborhood, so I guess I assumed it wasn't hardy here in the PNW, or had just forgotten about it.

misslemonverbena wants a smallish pachyderm. If she finds one, I hope she will breed from it. I'd love to have a puppy(?) (baby?) (pachydermite)?) Then I would walk it around my neighborhood too!

I like Campanula portenschlagiana, or Dalmation bellflower. Nearly flat to the ground, semi-evergreen, not too competitive (does self sow a little).

Yeah, but westgate wouldn't having pachyderms be zonal denial on a grand scale?

I like that Campanula too silver creek. My experience with it though, is that it has been extremely slow growing. Just sits there in a cute little lump. I think other people have found it invasive. Weird huh?

Anyone else tried Acaena, New Zealand Burr? I have a purple form and a blue-green form and they are spreading well and staying flat. The burrs are somewhat problematic on the blue-green one but I haven't seen any on the purple one. I'm hoping for it to be the groundcover stronger than weeds.

Another groundcover with pluses and minuses is Ajuga, maybe the small leaved form will be better than the regular ones. It seems a little too aggressive.

Although I don't have bulbs growing up through it, Phuopsis stylosa is very pretty, stays evergreen here in the winter and has pink pom pom like flowers to boot. It does give off a musk like fragrance at times. I have a variegated grass and Astranthia growing through it. Google images has lots of photos.

aftermidnight, what kind of maintenace Phuopsis stylosa requires?

Hi galcho,

As to maintenance, it's an easy care plant, myself around this time of year I clip it right down and then I get shiny new growth to look at and later the flowers are a bonus, I believe it's related to Galium odoratum (Sweet Woodruff). Phuopsis stylosa likes moist,sandy soil ,sun or part shade. It's a very easy plant to grow. It forms a creeping underground rootstock and I just rip it out where I don't want it to go. I don't find it invasive at all. The P.s is at the lower left of the picture.

A......

Here is a link that might be useful:

Nice combination. What's the name of plant to the right that has pink flowers as well?

The plant at the right is Astrantia major "Hadspen Blood" and it's a lot darker in colour then the picture shows, more of a wine colour.

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Hi, Aftermidnight,
I am looking for ideas for planting 2' X 8' border along dry stream where bulbs are planted now. I am considering phuopsis stylosa as groundcover, but want to add couple small evergreen scrubs for winter interest. Will appreciate all ideas. thanks

Good morning Galcho,

Sorry I can't help you in that department, evergreen shrubs are not my thing YET. If it was my border I would be more inclined to plant deciduous shrubs, ones with interesting form and coloured bark, which I'd then have to reserch to find something I liked. I'm hooked on deciduous for one reason only, if the foliage looks like crap one year, next year is a new beginning. I'm sure there is someone out there can give you some really good sugestions.

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galcho - a 2' depth is a pretty spare planting bed for any type of shrub, even some of the most dwarf ones. Pretty much any of them (as well as most perennials) will have a spread that exceeds 2 feet pretty rapidly. If you cannot enlarge and are still looking for some evergreen contributions - which personally I think is essential for 12 month garden interest - look for some dwarf columnar evegreens - Ilex 'Sky Pencil' (can be pruned to mantain height and width), various dwarf forms of Lawson cypress or even some smaller Hinokis. You could even try Nandina 'Harbor Dwarf' but it's going to get at least 2' wide as well and fairly rapidly.

Another consideration is the addition of an evergreen ornamnetal grass - some of the carexes and dwarf forms of NZ flax or dianella will provide verticality without a lot of spread.

Gardengal48-Evergreen ornamental grasses, now you've got my juices going. Off to the garden centers I go. I've got a few grasses but no green ones.

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Galcho- The hardy Hebes like pinguifolia sutherlandii remain a small neat mound of perfect foliage. Mine are on a slope so are pretty well-drained and don't get watered much. Daphne x caucasius Summer Ice is a fantastic plant with flowers appearing all summer and variegated leaves. It gets to be a rounded 3'. Both probably like good drainage in winter, would it be very wet there? My dwarf Nandina has stayed very small, a little under a foot tall.

Gardengal and hemnancy, thanks for good ideas. I'll check plants that you recommend. The area has a small slope, should not be very wet in winter.

aftermidnight, just wondering what evergreen ornamental grasses did you find? (saw your message about running to Garden Centers).

Galcho, have't got there yet, I want to see if I can find some that grow taller then the one's I have which are Carex "the Beetles", Acorus gramineus, it's green and white striped, a beige one I think is Carex buchananii, look like our Cairn terrier, I have to have my glasses on to tell the difference (I use the dog comb on this one), works like a hot d..., "lightbulb just came on" these might look good in your dry stream bed. I also grow black mondo grass (Liriope)"Ebony Knight" amongst them. They're all fairly short and mounding types. I rather like the effect.

Later.........A......

Hi, aftermidnight,
I am a complete "pre-beginner" in ornamental grasses and actually in all non-editable gardening.
Last year i have redesign our frontyard that was just plain lawn but i have not done any planting. Trying to do some research on evergreen small shrubs mainly draught tolerant, perennials and will look at grasses too. Are you Carexes draught tolerant? well, i understand that first year or two i still will need to water everything, but after this i want to be able to water only maybe once a month.

I like a bulbs in the meadow look in the spring and one of my favorite groundcovers is Selfheal, Prunella vulgaris. The seeds germinate and the plant grows during the winter, the bulbs come up through it. It blooms sort of mauvey purple- with poor gravelly soil the blooms are quite purple, better soil and they are lighter. It's a light enough plant that other perrenials can come up through it. After it has set and scattered its seed, it dies and the rest of the garden is already coming up and covering it over.

I've found it to be no more invasive than Johnny Jump Ups which look good in combination with it.

Hi back at you galcho,

I find the Carex is a very easy care plant, all my grasses are planted along and in gravel paths, they get an occasional squirt of water but pretty much look after themselves.

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Aftermidnight, that's *very* pretty. When does it come bloom?

misslemonverbena, now that you have your pachyderm, you no longer need a groundcover, right?

It seems to me that a lot of things mentioned here come up too late to partner with bulbs. Columbine timing is good, but it isn't exactly a ground cover. Blue star creeper, thyme, periwinkle, bark (!), grass, and phlox all work. The phlox fights back a bit, though. How about ground cover bulbs - scilla and the like?

You know what else is nice? Oxalis crassipes and soapwort...IF you can find them. But you can find other types of oxalis, and it does well here. AND it's loose enough for bulbs to make it through. I want some, too!

I like Oxalis & that crassipes is beautiful, but will Oxalis stay perky in Portland's summer heat? Anybody here growing it? I'm not necessarily looking for something that blooms at the same time as the bulbs, more something that will look good most of the year, and that's loose enough to let bulbs through.

I really like Aftermidnights whole planting scheme there with the phuopsis, astrantia, & carex. Come on, AfterM might as well tell us what else is in there so we can copy you. But you're probably out in the garden watering your terrier, & petting your grass.

The really sad thing is I didn't plant any bulbs this year, because the yard is still a big pile of dirt.

There is a wonderful essay on soapwort, called "Not-So-Bouncing Bet" in Allen Lacy's book Farther Afield, including a hilarious explanation of how it got it's common name.

The grass that's planted with the Phuopsis is not an evergreen, not sure of it's botanical name, common name might be granny's garters. In the cement planter on top of the tree stump there's Kenilworth ivy (Cymbalaria mularis), Labrador violets (Viola labradorica) and 3 pitiful Hyacinths. In late spring I plunk my Brugmansia Peaches & Cream on top of them. It works for me.

Beside the stump there's a patch of Euphorbia, amygdaloides robbiae I think,
lost it's tag. I planted a 'Graham Thomas' Rose in there as well the only trouble with that is, it's not Graham Thomas. Lesson learned, from now on I'm only buying Roses from The Old Rose Nursery on Hornby Island.

In the same small area I have a Annabelle Hydrangea that hasn't done it's thing yet, a scraggely Nandina and a clump of Hymalayan Honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) a shrub for height, it gets those great berries in the fall, the bees love it and so do I. On the fence in that same little area I have Clematis Guernsey Cream, Mrs P.T. James and Haku Ooakan this one is on it's last legs, must get another I love it. There's Pulmonaria rubra and some other little tidbits in there, but off hand I can't think of their names.

I had to get the books out to give you the botanical names for a couple of these, I refer to most of my plants as you mean that thingy on the fence with the yellow flowers. Mmmmmm that's one for fragrance in the garden.

Later,

A......

mkirkwag, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner,*very pretty* were you refering to the Phuopsis. If so it blooms in the summer.

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galcho, just another thought, how about Liriope for your dry stream bed? There are several different varieties of these and they would look good all year. I've just been out spreading gravel on our paths and the black Mondo grass is looking really good along the edge. I'm going to look for some other varieties myself.

aftermidnight, I *think* that's what I meant...whatever was blooming in that picture - and also the whole combo.

That my sort hardy mums, which I tend to distain and then be glad for, remained green and are in front of my upcoming thalias...and will be in in front of the dying foliage later. They won't be a complementary bloom, and aren't a ground cover, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway.

Grape hyacinth turns itself into a good groundcover for bulbs.

mkirkwag, I think the photo was taken about the end of June, the Brugmansia didn't start blooming till around the end of July, it kept on blooming into October.

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