When designing a beautiful, low-maintenance garden, ground cover plants play a vital role. These lush, creeping plants fill empty spaces, suppress weeds, and create a seamless carpet of color and texture. What makes them even more appealing is when they return year after year, saving you time and effort in replanting. If you’re looking to enhance your garden beds, pathways, or slopes with unique, hardy greenery, check out these 8 unique ground cover plants that come back annually.
1 Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia)
Creeping Jenny is a fast-spreading, low-growing perennial known for its striking chartreuse to bright green foliage. It’s ideal for covering bare spots under shrubs, around stepping stones, or cascading from containers. Thriving in both sun and partial shade, it tolerates a variety of soil types. Creeping Jenny forms a dense mat that chokes out weeds and returns reliably every spring. In colder climates, its leaves may die back, but it quickly regrows, bringing a burst of fresh color to your landscape.
2 Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum)
If you have a shady or woodland garden, Sweet Woodruff is an excellent ground cover choice. This charming perennial produces delicate, star-shaped white flowers in late spring, paired with whorls of fragrant, emerald-green leaves. It thrives in moist, well-drained soil and naturalizes easily, creating a lush green carpet under trees or along shaded borders. Its sweet-smelling foliage adds a lovely aroma to your garden, especially after rain, and it returns effortlessly year after year with minimal care.
3 Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans)
Bugleweed is a hardy, fast-spreading ground cover valued for both its attractive foliage and colorful flower spikes. This perennial thrives in sun to partial shade and features glossy leaves in shades of deep green, bronze, or burgundy. In late spring, it sends up blue, purple, or violet flower spikes that add vertical interest to ground-level plantings. Bugleweed covers soil quickly, suppressing weeds, and its ability to return year after year makes it a favorite for rock gardens, slopes, and beneath shrubs.
4 Deadnettle (Lamium maculatum)
Deadnettle is a unique, shade-loving perennial ground cover prized for its silver-patterned leaves and vibrant blooms. It’s ideal for brightening dark garden corners with its silvery foliage, which contrasts beautifully against darker greens. In late spring to early summer, Deadnettle produces small, hooded flowers in shades of pink, purple, or white. It tolerates poor soils and drought once established, making it a practical, reliable ground cover that regrows year after year with minimal intervention.
5 Thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
Not only is creeping thyme a beautiful ground cover, but it’s also wonderfully fragrant and edible. This low-growing herb forms dense mats of tiny, aromatic leaves and bursts into bloom in early summer with clusters of pink, lavender, or white flowers that attract pollinators. Perfect for sunny spots, between stepping stones, or along borders, creeping thyme tolerates foot traffic and drought. It’s a perennial favorite that comes back stronger every year and requires little more than occasional trimming.
6 Sedum (Sedum spurium)
Sedum, or Stonecrop, is an incredibly tough and drought-tolerant ground cover plant, perfect for sunny areas with poor, rocky soils. It features fleshy, succulent-like leaves in green, bronze, or red shades, depending on the variety. In summer, Sedum produces clusters of star-shaped flowers in pink, red, or white. Its low, spreading habit quickly fills garden gaps and retains its appeal throughout the growing season. Sedum dies back in winter but reliably returns in spring, often spreading wider each year.
7 Vinca Minor (Periwinkle)
Vinca Minor, commonly known as Periwinkle, is a vigorous evergreen ground cover that thrives in both sun and shade. Its glossy, dark green leaves remain attractive throughout the year, and in early spring, it produces charming violet-blue, lavender, or white flowers. Vinca Minor spreads rapidly, making it ideal for covering large areas, slopes, or under trees where grass struggles. It’s low-maintenance, drought-tolerant once established, and comes back annually with very little fuss, making it a reliable garden staple.
8 Snow-in-Summer (Cerastium tomentosum)
As its name suggests, Snow-in-Summer covers the ground in a stunning blanket of tiny, pure white flowers in early summer, resembling a fresh snowfall. This drought-tolerant perennial thrives in full sun and well-drained soils, making it ideal for rock gardens, borders, and dry slopes. Its silvery-gray foliage adds texture and color contrast throughout the season. After blooming, it can be sheared back to encourage a tidier appearance, and it reliably returns year after year, bringing brightness to your landscape.
Conclusion
Choosing ground cover plants that return annually is a fantastic way to maintain a vibrant, low-maintenance garden year after year. From the bold foliage of Bugleweed and the fragrant charm of Creeping Thyme to the silvery allure of Snow-in-Summer, these plants not only beautify your outdoor spaces but also offer practical benefits like weed suppression, erosion control, and habitat for beneficial insects.
With a thoughtful mix of sun and shade-loving varieties, you can transform your garden beds, slopes, and walkways into living carpets that regrow season after season — effortlessly enhancing your garden’s texture, color, and natural appeal.