Two years ago, I bought a single plant to enhance my rock garden. I didn’t expect it to be such a vigorous and fast-spreading plant, beautiful even without flowers. Over two years, my single plant has multiplied into hundreds.
Since I initially bought it for rock garden decoration, it worked very well but I found it also suppressed other plants. Therefore, I had to cut off the runners. It’s easy to propagate, and almost all cuttings survived.
Now I know it’s primarily used as ground cover where other plants or grass can’t survive. It doesn’t grow tall, remaining about 10-15 cm high, plus the flower spikes. Its leaves are dense and rosette-like, and it produces many runners with new plants sprouting from them, making it an excellent weed suppressor.
Moreover, it maintains a strong green color in winter and turns burgundy in summer with intense sunlight. In spring, it has beautiful blue flowers, but after they fade, the burgundy leaves provide a unique color throughout summer and fall. If the plant is thriving, even the runners will flower without rooting, blooming all summer long.
It’s highly winter-hardy and grows flower spikes from the center of the leaf rosette in April-May. I only have blue flowers, but there are white and pink varieties, as well as variegated leaves. It loves moist soil and semi-shaded locations. However, I found that it also tolerates direct summer sun well, even in a scorching rock garden or a concrete retaining wall. It wilts during the day but recovers after evening watering, ready for the next day’s heatwave.
It has no pests, except perhaps a spider might take up residence, like anywhere.
Its leaves are so robust that one might feel tempted to eat them (supposedly edible – but I haven’t tried).
I cut off the runners, press them into a small pot of soil with a bent wire, and keep the soil moist, allowing them to root well within 2-3 weeks. You can leave the small pots outside in the rain and snow over winter, and they will handle it well, developing strong roots by spring and blooming immediately upon planting.
Rock Garden Competition: Autumn Picture, When Everything Has Faded
It remains a strong plant even in winter, but only the parts that can root directly into the soil. Therefore, it’s advisable to cut off the hanging runners before frost sets in, as they won’t survive the winter and will wither away.
In the rock garden competition, creeping bugleweed competes with meadow buttercup, bellflower, and crimson ice plant. This autumn picture shows when everything has already bloomed. Fortunately, they don’t bloom at the same time, so they can “grow over each other” in different months. Favor must be given to the crimson ice plant since it has the smallest growth vigor. The meadow buttercup was brought by a bird.