Ground cover plants with yellow flowers can be what you need to fill a large area without sacrificing the beauty of your landscape. The yellow blooms contrast beautifully with your other plants, and the ground cover spreads quickly to fill the bare spots in your garden.
Our experts suggest 15 plant species that you can successfully grow as groundcovers.
A List of Yellow-Flowering Plants That Grow as Ground Covers
1. Ice Plant
This plant has succulent-like fleshy leaves to withstand various weather conditions, and in warmer climates, it’s considered evergreen.
– Characteristics
The plant gets its name from the tiny hairs on the foliage as they reflect light, looking like tiny ice crystals. It can even be grown as a hedging shrub, reaching 6 inches tall in optimal conditions.
– Planting Options
Growing the Delosperma cooperi as a ground cover in rock and succulent gardens works, as it has a fast-growing rate. When grown in mid-summer, it fills your garden by fall, although you should plant it in fall if you live in a hotter climate.
You can pair it with Stachys byzantina, known as lamb’s ear or creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum).
– Flowering
The brightly-colored flowers of the yellow ice plant appear in springtime, but they continue to bloom throughout the season. Depending on the variety, they can be yellow, orange, red, pink or purple.
– Growing Conditions
Picking a location with dry but well-draining soil is excellent for this plant. It thrives in sunny but sheltered gardens. Depriving this plant of light affects blooming, and it should be watered sparingly once established.
2. Perennial Peanut
The Arachis glabrata is a popular choice for sunny and hot locations. Besides being popular in landscaping, it is also used as a crop.
– Characteristics
It blooms all summer with yellow-golden flowers, and you can grow it in flower beds or even on a lawn, as long as it doesn’t receive much traffic. This tough plant will thrive in hot locations where other plants will struggle.
– Growing Conditions
It grows a dense mat that helps deter other weeds and thrives in humus-rich soil. Once established, this plant will become drought-tolerant, and you can water it during dry spells.
It can tolerate some shade, but it flowers best when it receives full sun.
– Features
This plant can be grown for its ornamental value and function, is evergreen in frost-free zones, and can help amend the soil and hold it together. It can also be used as feed for livestock. The yellow blooms have a nutty flavor and can be added to salads.
3. Golden Creeping Jenny
This plant grows small yellow flowers, but they don’t last long, so most people grow it for its beautiful foliage.
– Characteristics
The plant leaves look like coins, so many people call it moneywort. The plant thrives in full sun but can tolerate partial shade, and the color of the leaves changes depending on the amount of light it receives, so the foliage will be golden-yellow in full sun.
– Pairing
When planted in the spring, this plant will quickly spread to soften any hard edges in your garden.
You can pair it with other ground cover plants like the Liriope spicata or creeping lily, Liriope muscari or blue lily turf and wild ginger.
– Growing Conditions
The Lysimachia nummularia prefers moist, well-draining soil and can even survive in wet soil, so it can be a good groundcover that you grow next to a pond or another water feature.
– Issues
This creeping plant can quickly take over your garden if you don’t keep it under control. So, you need to monitor it, as the roots spread fast to deprive nearby plants of nutrients. For this reason, many people plant it in hangers and containers, where it hangs beautifully without threatening other plants in your garden.
4. Evening Primrose
If you’re looking for an attractive ground cover for your moon garden, you won’t go wrong with this plant.
– Flowering
Also known as the fever plant, it grows well in USDA zones 4 to 9, with delicate yellow blooms that appear in summer and fall. The flowers open at night, but you can still enjoy its fantastic foliage throughout the day.
– Propagation and Pollinators
Despite its attractive appearance, many gardeners consider this plant invasive because it can quickly spread by self-seeding.
The fragrant flowers are lemon-scented and will attract bats, moths, and other night pollinators to your garden.
– Pairing
You can grow it with flowering shrubs like the Cotoneaster horizontalis or rock cotoneaster, where the yellow flowers contrast beautifully with the red berries, or Isotoma fluviatilis, known as the blue star creeper, for a pastel effect.
– Growing Conditions
Well-draining soil is essential for this plant, and you can add mulch to keep the roots cool in the summer. This plant needs regular watering, especially in hot climates, and can benefit from some fertilization if the soil is bad. Despite being a night bloomer, this plant loves the sun and should receive at least six hours of sunlight to stay in perfect shape.
5. Horned Violet
There are hundreds of species in this plant family, but the Viola cornuta is characterized by its pansy-like two-toned flowers.
– Characteristics
This plant has rosette leaves between 6 to 10 inches tall and grows as a spreading perennial with 1-inch blooms. Spreading varieties of this plant should be planted about 12 inches apart to allow the roots to spread. These flowers are edible and are usually used to garnish salads.
– Growing Conditions
They thrive in moist, humus-rich soil, and you must amend your garden with organic matter if the soil is poor.
You should water this plant regularly but allow the soil to dry out. These plants love the sun, but they thrive in cold temperatures.
– Flowering
Different hybrids can grow yellow, purple, violet, orange, white and blue flowers. They bloom in spring and fall, as they don’t tolerate the hot weather. They might also stay in bloom throughout winter.
– Pairing
The plant self-seeds, so it will come back for several years. It pairs well with other mat-forming plants like the periwinkle or Vinca minor and Cerastium tomentosum or snow-in-summer.
6. Yellow Alyssum
This spreading plant grows clusters of small yellow blooms appearing in spring. It is also called basket-of-gold due to its appearance.
– Characteristics
It has attractive blue-gray foliage, but the flowers smell bad. Also known as the golden tuft plant, it spreads to create a dense mat in your garden, reaching a height of 12 inches in optimal conditions.
– Landscaping Options
It’s an excellent choice for cottage and rock gardens, where the plant cascades over stones, rocks and other hardscape elements to soften them.
– Growth Requirements
It’s quite hardy and thrives in well-draining soil that should be allowed to dry out.
It can tolerate rocky soil and appreciates the full sun, but afternoon shade is recommended in hot climates.
– Planting
You can grow the Aurinia saxatilis from seeds in late summer or early fall when the ground is still a bit warm. It also successfully grows from seedlings when kept indoors in the winter. Plant these seedlings in the spring, after the last frost, when the soil has just warmed up. You’ll have to do some pruning to keep it looking neat.
7. Angelina Stonecrop
This evergreen perennial forms a low-growing mat with succulent-like leaves. Thanks to the golden-bronze color, the Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ plant contrasts beautifully with dark foliage species.
– Landscaping Options
It gets its name from the ability to grow in rocky and gravely areas, making it an excellent choice for rock gardens. This spreading plant provides an all-year attraction in your garden, with needle-like foliage that becomes almost greenish-yellow or golden with sun exposure.
– Flowers and Foliage
The blooms of the yellow stonecrop plant appear in the summer, and the foliage turns bronze or rusty in the fall.
This plant takes about two years to flower, but it has a fast-growing rate.
– Growing Conditions
It grows in retaining walls, hanging baskets, and containers to cascade without much maintenance. Although it can become invasive without maintenance, this plant has shallow roots that you can easily remove. It requires full sun exposure, well-draining soil, and regular watering until it gets established.
– Pairing
Angelina sedum rupestre can be a good border plant when mixed with the moss phlox, Phlox subulata, or creeping phlox, Phlox stolonifera. You can also grow it with other members from the same family, like the Sedum spurium or dragon blood stonecrop.
8. Candytuft
The evergreen Iberis sempervirens is a woody shrub that grows as a perennial ground cover that dies every winter.
– Characteristics
This plant is a slow grower and can take about ten years to reach its mature size. But, it’s one of the longest-living plants in your garden, and with optimal care, it can reach a height of 3 feet tall.
– Growing Conditions
This plant thrives in moist and somehow gravelly soil that resembles the soil along the Mediterranean coast, where it originally comes from. Excellent drainage is a must, and this plant will become drought-resistant once established.
It can tolerate different light conditions, but regular pruning is essential to prevent it from getting too leggy.
– Foliage and Flowers
This plant has leathery green oblong-shaped leaves and grows lovely white flowers with yellow centers. Some varieties also grow pink blooms, but they have an unpleasant smell.
– Pairing
The plant has a low-mounding growth habit and can be a great choice for moon gardens as the light-colored flowers contrast beautifully with the dark foliage, mainly when grown with sweet woodruff or Galium odoratum, or Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, known as blue leadwood.
9. Moonbeam Coreopsis
The Coreopsis verticillate or tickseed plant has thread-like leaves and pale yellow flowers that soften the hardness of rocks and stones in rock gardens.
– Landscaping Options
This yellow flowering plant is also a good choice for xeriscaping, where it’s used to cover the ground or as a bordering plant. When it comes to ground cover plants full sun low-maintenance options, this perennial works well for novice gardeners and can grow to 2 feet tall in optimal conditions.
– Flowers and Pollinators
The light yellow blooms appear in early summer and stay in bloom till fall.
They’re deer resistant but will attract bees and butterflies.
– Growing Conditions
This plant thrives in loamy, well-draining soil and has low watering needs. It becomes drought-resistant once established and needs full sun to bloom. However, in hotter climates, it can benefit from some partial shade.
– Plant Varieties
In addition to the moonbeam cultivar, there are other varieties that you can also grow in your garden. The Golden tickseed, or Coreopsis tinctoria, is a hardy plant found along the roadsides, and it has yellow flowers with red centers. The Coreopsis rosea is a short plant that thrives in cold climates and has pink flowers with yellow centers.
10. Yellow Archangel
The Lamiastrum galeobdolon, also known as the yellow deadnettle or aluminum plant, is an ornamental perennial flowering ground cover that quickly spreads to form a bright mat in your garden.
– Characteristics
It features toothed leaves with erect stems, carrying yellow-orange-flecked flowers that appear in the spring. This plant is a close relative of the spotted dead nettle or Lamium maculatum and is characterized by its deep green foliage, but some cultivars can be variegated.
– Landscaping Options
It’s an excellent choice for a shady area and is a good choice for woodland gardens because it grows in areas where other sun-loving groundcovers will struggle.
It’s also deer resistant.
– Growing Conditions
This plant thrives in moist but not soggy soil and will tolerate various soil types. It prefers partial shade but can tolerate full shade, which other flowering plants won’t withstand. It becomes drought-tolerant once established, but you might need to water it more frequently in hot weather.
– Maintenance
Cutting back the plant will retain its compact form if it becomes too leggy. When neglected, this plant can become invasive, so it needs occasional maintenance and care.
11. Creeping Buttercup
Ranunculus repens is a flowering plant from the buttercup family. It can be found in the wild, where it forms beautiful carpets in forests.
– Characteristics
It grows to reach a height of 20 inches with erect flowering stems and yellow blooms. The leaves and the stems are covered in fine hairs, and the flowers attract pollinators to your garden.
– Growing Conditions
This plant grows well in moist soils, where other plants might struggle to grow. Yet, it might thrive in gravelly soil as long as you provide it with enough moisture.
This plant can tolerate saltiness, grows next to beaches with sea thrift or Armeria maritima, and can live in sunny and shady locations.
– Issues
This plant is poisonous to livestock and can become invasive in your garden if you don’t keep it under control. However, digging out the roots might not be easy, so chemical control should be used. It can suffer from root rot when left in soggy soil for long periods.
12. Brass Buttons
The Leptinella squalida, or golden buttons plant, is a flowering ground cover native to New Zealand, but it can adapt to different locations and climates.
– Planting Options
You can plant it in spring or fall, and it spreads quickly in your garden. However, it can become invasive if not monitored. This short perennial forms a dense mat that reaches a height of 2 inches only, making it a suitable groundcover for fairy gardens, flowerbeds and terrariums.
– Growing Conditions
This plant has shallow roots that need access to light, so you should avoid heavy and clay soil when you’re planting it.
It thrives in sunny spots but appreciates some partial shade in hotter climates. Because it grows in damp areas in its native habitat, you need to water it regularly to keep it healthy.
– Benefits
It’s characterized by its beautiful purple-green and sometimes green foliage and the contrasting yellow booms that appear in spring. It’s also appealing to novice gardeners because it’s easy to grow and maintain.
13. Wishbone Flower
The Torenia fournieri is an attractive compact ground that usually grows as an annual. Two stamens appear in the center of every flower, looking like a wishbone and giving this name its common name.
– Characteristics
It grows trumpet-shaped flowers in spring and summer, and they’re typically bicolored with blue-purple petals and yellow centers. However, different cultivars can also be yellow and dark purple, pink and white and white and dark purple flowers.
– Planting Options
It’s an easy-to-maintain plant and doesn’t need pruning or deadheading, so it’s a good choice for lazy gardeners.
You can grow it with the bugle herb, Ajuga reptans, or Convallaria majalis, known as the lily of the valley.
– Growing Conditions
Also known as the clown flower, this plant actually thrives in shady locations, unlike most flowering groundcover plants. It prefers growing in rich, loamy soil and needs moderate watering. You should pick a shady spot for your plant if you live in a hot climate to protect the leaves and flowers.
14. Barren Strawberry
The Waldsteinia fragarioides gets its common name from the resemblance to the edible strawberry plant, although it has inedible fruits.
– Characteristics
It’s one of the drought-tolerant flowering ground covers and can quickly spread in your garden, working for less experienced gardeners. Nevertheless, this plant can become invasive if you don’t keep it under control.
– Climate
The yellow strawberry or dry strawberry plant provides an all-year-round attraction, as the green foliage turns bronze in the fall.
It dies in winter and greens in spring as the temperature rises. This plant can be evergreen in warmer climates.
– Landscaping Options
This plant can be grown as a border plant because it deters deer. It also works for flowerbeds because it remains short, with a height between 3 and 6 inches. It thrives in different types of soil, including clay soil, as long as it’s well-draining and it can tolerate some shade.
15. Woolly Yarrow
The Achillea tomentosa, or woolly yarrow plant, is a clump-forming plant that gardeners usually grow in rock gardens.
– Characteristics
Unlike other members of the yarrow family, this plant grows close to the ground, reaching a maximum height of 8 inches in optimal conditions. In addition, this plant is deer and rabbit-resistant and can tolerate some foot traffic.
– Flowering
The golden flowers of this plant grow in clusters called corymbs, and they contrast beautifully with the gray-green foliage.
These flowers stay in bloom in spring and summer and are perfect for borders and containers.
– Growing Conditions
This plant can grow in various well-draining types of soil and is drought-resistant once established. It thrives in USDA zones 3 to 7, where the colder temperatures might be too much for other flowering plants. It withstands dry areas, so it can be a good choice for a gravelly path and needs full sun to stay healthy. However, this plant can’t tolerate excessive heat or humidity.
Conclusion
Growing ground covers will allow you to connect different elements in your landscape design, and the yellow-flowering choices will add a pop of color, contrasting with the other planting choices in your garden.
- Most ground cover choices are sun-loving plants, but some can thrive in the shade, like the yellow dead nettle plant.
- Plants like the yellow strawberry will provide an all-year-round attraction.
- The foliage of some plants, like the creeping jenny and yellow stonecrop, changes color when exposed to the sun.
- Some ground cover plants, like violas, have edible flowers.
There are also other options for ground covers, such as the wild and beautiful Euphorbia rigida, Epimedium grandiflorum or creeping dogwood (Cornus canadensis), the latter which, despite not having yellow flowers but white ones, can be a great addition to any garden. So, which plant are you choosing for your landscape
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