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If you want groundcover or colorful perennials, I'd suggest getting rid of the rock mulch. How much sun does that area typically receive? Blue colored evergreens generally require full sun...........and some, like blue spruce, are intolerant of summer humidity.

Blue spruces, Picea pungens, are just not suited for the MidAtlantic area. The climate is not to their liking (prefer cold, snowy winters and hot but dry summers) and they inevitably develop needlecasts and other fungal issues that drastically impact their appearance. If the area gets at least 6 hous of sun, you can try one of the blue upright junipers.

If there is landscaping fabric under the rock, plants are unlikely to be happy planted in the ground there since it interferes with surface roots as well as movement of organic matter, nutrients, air, and water into the soil. If you want the rocks, get some very large planters and install drip irrigation for them.

Whether blue spruce (or any other plant) will do well in your area will depend on where you are. In humid areas it tends to get fungal diseases and if it survives may look unhealthy. In drier, more western parts of the US, its native zone, it tends to do much better.

Would you please tell us you nearest large city and your USDA growing zone.

If you want color there, either get some really large pots and plant them for 3 seasons plus winter berry and boughs, or else remove the rock, remove the landscape fabric and plant. Then mulch with no landscape fabric and use shredded bark mulch. In the eastern half of the US rock mulch really doesn’t work well because dust and organic matter and seeds blow in around the rocks, and with our level of moisture, the seeds sprout. They root under the rock and into the landscape fabric and are really difficult to remove. If it is unplanted, you can use a weed torch or herbicide, but planted is difficult to weed and is likely to have unhealthy plants. Rock mulch works far better in areas with little rainfall.

Follow Babs' advice.