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The 10 Best Flowering Ground Cover Plants

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Ground cover flowers represent an attractive alternative to lawns and extensive hard landscaping. Depending on what zone you live in, garden designers make use of perennial flowering plants for winter color and summer transformations. They can also keep weeds at bay. Here are some of the best flowering ground cover plants to choose from.

Candytuft

Iberis sempervirens is suitable for zones 3 to 8 and, depending on where you live, might prove to be evergreen in your climate. Reaching heights of up to 12 inches, this shrub produces fragrant white blossoms in April and May.

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Creeping Phlox

Phlox subulata flowers almost float above a lawn. Their leaves are small and evergreen, and their petals are a mix of pinks, blues and whites. Suitable for zones 3 to 9, phlox grows well in partial shade and blooms in March, April and May.

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Deadnettle

Lamium maculatum can grow in full or partial shade in zones 3 to 8. Its leaves often have a distinctive white stripe, and its flowers are pink or light magenta. Deadnettle is a good choice for rockeries and borders, especially for limiting weed growth.

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Horned Violet

Viola cornuta has blue and purple flowers with broad, circular petals. It blooms in April, May and June and is perennial in more temperate climates. It's well suited to zones 6 to 11 and prefers sun or partial sun to shade.

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Japanese Pachysandra

Pachysandra terminalis is also known as "spurge." It's an evergreen perennial with distinctively whorled glossy green leaves. When it flowers in April, the spiky white blossoms only add to its elegant appeal.

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Pig Squeak

Bergenia cordifolia has a funny nickname that only really makes sense when you rub the leaves together and listen. It's suitable for zones 3 to 8 and grows best in partial or full shade. The flowers, which grow on stalks above the large green leaves, are pink.

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Sun Rose

Also known as the "rock rose," flowers of the Helianthemum genus commonly have a striking appeal. Oranges, pinks, yellows and fire-engine reds mingle with more subdued hues. Some varieties remain in bloom from spring right through to the fall.

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Society Garlic

Tulbaghia violacea, aka "society garlic" or "pink agapanthus," is attractive, low-maintenance and even edible. These garlic-flavored blooms appear to hover over the blue-grey, grass-like foliage of the plant.

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Bugleweed

Ajuga reptans is an especially popular variety of "bugleweed," known for its carpet-like spread and flowering blue spikes. It grows well in a range of climates, tolerating zones 3 through 10, and is actually sometimes invasive.

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Lithodora

Lithodora diffusa has almost neon blue flowers and grows well in warmer climates. It mainly blooms in May but can also flower through August. And with its small and stalk-less leaves, this shrub keeps close to the ground.

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