Perennial Ground Covers

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About Perennial Ground Covers

Product Description Ground covers take on new meaning in this enlightening book designed to make gardeners' work easier. Hostas, stonecrops, smaller rhododendrons, prayer plants, pyracanthas, box huckleberry, hellebores, daylilies, grasses, alpine willows, and unsupported climbing vines are just some of MacKenzie's imaginative suggestions. Even Gunnera manicata, a 6-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide plant, is suggested for some situations! Review "If I need to plant a large section of groundcover among Japanese maples and I want something more interesting than the old standbys, I can pick up Perennial Ground Covers, by David MacKenzie, page through excellent pictures, and find a plant that I had forgotten or never thought would work." —Donna Williamson, HortResources newsletter, January 2004 Book Description Ground covers take on new meaning in this enlightening book designed to make gardeners' work easier. Hostas, stonecrops, smaller rhododendrons, prayer plants, pyracanthas, box huckleberry, hellebores, daylilies, grasses, alpine willows, and unsupported climbing vines are just some of MacKenzie's imaginative suggestions. Even Gunnera manicata, a 6-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide plant, is suggested for some situations! About the Author David MacKenzie owns and operates Hortech in Spring Lake, Michigan — one of the country's largest and most progressive wholesale ground cover nurseries. When he was just out of college, David discovered in a homeowner's backlot and registered the new Ottawa weeping white pine. He has since reproduced the tree using the grafting method. He has been hybridizing, photographing, researching, lecturing on ground covers, and generally creating plant magic since 1983. David has written several articles for American Nurseryman. He also speaks about landscape photography, native plants, plant research and ecology, as well as his love of ground covers and gardening in Michigan (zone 5). His audience includes master gardeners, serious amateur gardeners, landscape contractors, designers, architects, and horticulture educators. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Native plants are sometimes scorned as unattractive, untamed, too common, or too boring for landscape use. Many people fail to see the purpose of planting something in their yard that they could go out and dig up anywhere. People refer to building contractors — many of whom bulldoze every plant in their path — as being in the development business. Cleared land to many people is "improved land," and for them, native settings are seen as unattractive representations of chaos. Is it possible that these popularly held notions are wrong? I think so. Native plants do not grow chaotically. Instead, they grow in well-defined ecological niches. As to being unattractive, natives are often beautiful beyond description. Indeed, North American natives such as Point Reyes ceanothus and blue lyme grass are among the showiest of all ground covers. Once tried, they soon dispel the myth that a plant must be an unusual introduced species to be colorful, interesting, or worth growing. Another reason to recommend natives is because they look right. In other words, they appear to be at home in our landscapes. Here are some examples of North American natives that may surprise you with their beauty, diversity, and adaptability. Virginia creeper, a robust native vine that often ascends to 40 feet, also makes a splendid, sturdy ground cover. It sprawls about the woodland floor, displaying glossy, deep green to blue-green, richly-textured, massive, five-parted foliage. Although its flowers are tiny, they yield attractive blue grapelike fruit that helps to feed numerous woodland creatures and birds. The lady fern was named for its grace and beauty. From central and northeastern North America, this plant has few equals when it comes to charm. No, it does not boast showy flowers — merely subtly beautiful horseshoe-shaped clusters of brown spores