Shade-Loving & Steppable Groundcover Plants With Fern-Like Foliage
January 12, 2020
When you understand precisely what you have to have in your garden, plant options narrow and the selection is far easier. In a shady area of your garden which needs a hardy groundcover, adding texture using fern-like foliage is an attractive option. Before selecting your plant, review your options to ensure the plant fulfills your specific requirements.
Shade Definitions
When choosing a fern-like groundcover to support a heavily traveled area, understand the sort of shade your garden offers. Color is not an all-encompassing phrase. Instead, it has variations from partial shade to full shade. For gardening functions, even complete shade receives some lighting, typically two hours or less. The lighting does not need to happen all at one time. Light may filter through canopy cover or happen briefly during the morning and again in the afternoon. The secret is that the total amount of hours of lighting that the area receives. Partial shade receives extra light exposure, typically over 2 hours, but not more than 4 hours total.
Hardiness
When you’re planting a groundcover that needs to react well to foot traffic, hardiness is a crucial component. Planted among stepping stones or bordering a walkway, this low-lying plant needs to bounce back after a ball rolls over it, people step onto pets or it romp. Brass buttons (Leptinella squalida) fulfills the need for hardiness in a shady location whilst also providing delicate fern-like foliage. This mat-forming perennial, as the Missouri Botanical Garden calls it, requires well-draining, acidic soil to thrive. It grows well in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 10. Brass buttons rises to only 3 inches tall, so that it functions well when planted between stepping stones in a walkway.
Dramatic Appeal
Brass buttons provides a couple of alternatives to consider when planting. “Platt’s Black” (Leptinella x “Platt’s Black”) includes all the main characteristics of this species: hardiness, fern-like foliage and shade tolerance. It adds another component of texture, however, with dramatic black and green foliage. “Platt’s Black” is hardy in USDA zones 4 through 9. It grows as many as two inches tall and spreads quickly to fill at a walkway place.
Tiny Leaves
Miniature brass buttons (Leptinella gruveri) is a miniaturized version of metallic buttons. With tiny leaves, this fern-like, hardy perennial adds a carpet of texture set against flagstones or stone walkways. It is very low-growing, to just about 1 inch tall, mitigating any potential trip hazard when planted among pavers. It is fast-growing, quickly forming a solid mat of light green at a shaded, moist part of your garden.