27 Best Ground Cover Flowers for Your Yard (With Photos)

If you’re thinking of adding common ground cover flowers to your lawn or garden then you’re probably making a great decision. There are tons of options to choose from, and they’re far easier to care for than just about any other plant out there.

Because they’re so easy to care for they are an excellent choice for supplementing flower beds, gardens, or even entire lawns. That’s why we devoted a guide to some of the most common ground cover flowers out there.

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27 Common Ground Cover Flower

There are dozens upon dozens of ground cover flowers out there for you to choose from. But to help you narrow it down a bit we decided to break down 20 of the most common options you have to choose from.

1. Flowering Thyme

Flowering thyme, also known as creeping thyme, is an extremely popular ground cover flower. It’s a cousin of the herb you use in your kitchen. Like its cousin it’s an edible flower, although it doesn’t taste as good as traditional thyme.

Another advantage of going with flowering thyme is that it gives off a sweet aroma when exposed to light foot traffic. Still, you don’t want to step on flowering thyme too much, as the flowers can’t recover from repeated trampling.

2. Bugleweed

Bugleweed is another ground cover flowers with a nice aromatic scent. Instead of a thyme scent though, bugleweed gives off a minty aroma. It grows great in both full sun and partial shade as well, making it an excellent choice for a wide array of applications.

Bugleweed ranges from blue to white in color, and tops out at about six inches high. They bloom from May through June, but even during non-bloom seasons they give off a pleasant appearance that many people love.

3. Alyssum

While you likely don’t want to use alyssum to fill in your entire garden or lawn, it’s a great choice to fill in gaps. It’s an extremely drought and heat resistant plant, which makes it a great choice for southern climates.

Alyssum blooms white flowers, but most of the plant is the green foliage. That doesn’t mean it’s not a beautiful plant, but if you’re looking for something that adds a ton of color, this isn’t it. Still, it is incredibly easy to care for and grow, so if you don’t have a green thumb it’s still a good choice.

4. Canadian anemone

While Canadian anemone isn’t nearly as short as other ground cover flowers, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great choice. They grow between one to two feet in height and have a white blossom. Just keep in mind that they spread with ease, so if you’re trying to keep them in a controlled area it’s going to take some work.

It’s a hardy cover flower though, and it’s relatively easy to grow. Once you plant the flowers, you should be good to go with just light watering, depending on your hardiness zone.

5. Candytuft

Another heat and drought-resistant flower that you can use as a cover flower is candytuft. It grows to about 12-inches in height, and if you’re in a warmer climate you’ll never see the flowering buds.

These white flowers give off a sweet scent when they bloom, which is where candytuft gets its name. They bloom from April to May, which is a shorter season than others, so for most of the year you’ll only see the green tufts.

6. Sedum

If you’re looking for a plant that gives your ground cover a splash of color year-round, then sedum is an outstanding choice. It’s also known as dragon’s blood because of its red color, and since it doesn’t bloom like traditional flowers it even keeps that splash of color year-round.

Even during the winter months when other plants struggle to stay green, sedum keeps a red color that helps your flowerbed or yard look better than ever.

7. Delosperma

While there are plenty of bright-colored flowers to choose from, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a brighter and more vibrant variety than delosperma. It comes in orange, fuchsia, and white colors, and since you can intertwine them, this gives you an extremely colorful ground flower.

8. Creeping Phlox

One of the easiest ground flower varieties you can grow is creeping phlox. Creeping phlox comes in three color choices of pink, blue, or white, and they have leaves that stay green year-round. Even better, creeping phlox can handle light foot traffic, which means it’s a great choice in gardens you occasionally walk through.

Finally, creeping phlox stays between two and six inches in height, which makes it an excellent choice if you want a cover flower that doesn’t look like it’s about to take over your entire garden.

9. Deadnettle

Deadnettle isn’t the most colorful ground flower out there, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a beautiful appearance. They have green leaves with splotches of white throughout.

They also have purple and white flowers, but they’re smaller in nature and only add a splash of color – they’re not the focal point. Deadnettle can reach up to two feet in height, but it grows and spreads in a creeping pattern. It’s extremely hardy, but it doesn’t do well in warmer climates.

10. Black Mondo Grass

If you’re looking for a different way to spice up your garden or lawn, then black mondo grass makes an outstanding choice. As the name implies, it’s a black grass, and it retains its colors even through the winter months.

Many people use black mondo grass to make the colors of the surrounding plants and flowers pop further, but it also makes a beautiful standalone plane in the right background.

11. Liriope

Liriope, also known as lilyturf, is a cover flower that looks like nothing more than grass throughout most of the year. However, when it does bloom it creates purple shoots that stick out the middle of the grass-like tufts.

The grass coloring stays throughout most of the year, but the purple tufts are a perennial that comes back year after year.

12. Lily of the Valley

Lily of the valley is an extremely popular cover flower that grows great in partial shade conditions. It’s an extremely sweet-smelling flower. But while lily of the valleys do best in partial shade, if you plant them in a full shade area they can still grow. This makes one of them the view varieties that can grow well without any direct sunlight.

13. Spotted Dead-Nettle

If you’re looking for a cover flower that stays in bloom for an extremely extended period, then spotted dead nettle might be precisely what you’re looking for. Don’t let the name scare you off, spotted dead nettle produces a bright purple or white flower, and it’s extremely beautiful throughout most of the year.

It’s also deer and rabbit resistant, so if you live in an area prone to wildlife then this is a great choice. It blooms from early spring to early summer, and during that time it’s an extremely aesthetically appealing flower.

14. Blue Star Creeper

Blue star creeper is an extremely easy to grow cover flower that produces light blue flowers. These flowers bloom from spring all the way to fall, which means they’re one of the longest blooming color flowers on our list.

They do best in partial and full sun, and they can handle hardiness zones five through ten. This means they can thrive in most, but not all, regions of the continental United States.

15. Lamb’s Ear

While lamb’s ear might not be the most aesthetically pleasing cover flower, when you pair them with other varieties they really pop. The leaves are green, but they have a silver tinge to them, and they have a purple flower in spring.

Lamb’s ear is a cousin to the mint plant, but don’t expect the same minty aroma that a regular mint plant has.

16. Violet Freckles

Violet freckles is a moss-like cover flower that thrives in shaded areas. While the flowers that come in mid-spring are white, they have violet flecks throughout, and that’s how they get their name.

Violet freckles thrive in hardiness zones four through eleven, which means that you can grow them almost anywhere in the continental United States. Just keep in mind that they don’t flower very often, so throughout most of the year you’ll have nothing more than the green foliage.

17. Hosta

If you’re looking for a different-style cover flower to add to a garden or lawn, then Hosta is an outstanding choice. They come in plenty of color varieties including, white, green, and purple. All the flowers have a sweet scent, but it’s not as powerful as many other flowers.

They typically bloom from May through July, so they’re an excellent option for those that want a summer-blooming cover flower. Just keep in mind that many varieties reach over two feet in height, so they’re not the best if you’re looking for a lower plant.

18. Horned Violet

Horned violet is another covering flower option you have for your garden or lawn. However, horned violet looks more like a typical flower variety, even if it creeps in nature. They do great in partial or full sun, and they’re a relatively hardy variety.

They typically have blue and purple blooms, but you can tweak these colors a bit depending on the exact variety you plant.

19. Pig Squeak

A pig squeak is a cover flower that reaches over 12 inches in height with pink blooms. They’re a drought-tolerant plant, but they don’t do well in extreme heat. In fact, they prefer partial or full shade areas.

And while they might have pink flowers, that’s not where they get their name. That comes from the fact that when you rub the two flowers between your fingers it creates a squeaking sound. It’s not something you’ll want to do often, but it’s a neat trick to show the kids!

20. Spike Speedwell

Spike speedwell is another summer-blooming cover flower you can add to your garden or lawn. They typically bloom from June through August, and the blooms are a bright purple, pink, blue, or white in color.

The average height is over 12-inches. You can plant them together to create a wide swath of color, and they also look great in baskets.

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Final Thoughts

If you’re thinking of adding a ground cover flowers to your garden or lawn then there are plenty of choices out there. Just take your time and browse through this list again. While they might be easy to take care of, that doesn’t mean you want to plant and replant different options until you find what you want.

Finding the right choice the first time, and allowing them to thrive in your garden or lawn is the best way to go, and it’s not even close.

FAQ

If you still have some questions after reading about some of the most common ground cover flowers out there, you’re not alone. That’s why we decided to answer some of the most frequently asked questions out there here.