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Known variously as creeping phlox or moss phlox, early flowering Phlox subulata is a familiar friend, often among the first blooms of spring. Its cheerful, five-petaled blooms crawl over slopes and spill over walls, providing a welcome blanket of color to winter-weary gardens and gardeners.We hear you: It’s hard to even imagine spring, let alone plan for it, while the dog days are raging, hot, and humid. But this really is the time to do just that.A crop of Phlox subulata planted in late summer/

What comes to mind when someone says “groundcover?”First, you picture the two or three species you see everywhere. Next, you yawn. Right? Wake up and smell the coffee! Groundcovers don’t have to be the same old ho-hum stuff. There are fantastic choices in our perennial lineup. Let’s look at a couple. Iberis sempervirens ‘Purity’ Most of the year, this is a low-profile, semi-woody groundcover with small, leathery, dark green leaves. In early spring, when it smothers itself in clusters

Say Veronica, and many of us picture flower spikes rising a foot or two in mid-border. But another category of “speedwell” keeps a lower profile. These varieties charm as groundcovers and edging, or planted as a “spiller” in containers or beside stone walls. Here’s the lowdown.Veronica peduncularis ‘Georgia Blue’Mats of small round leaves disappear under a slathering of tiny blue flowers with white eye zones. The foliage turns dark green in summer, then bronze in fall. The name is from Eura