From creeping phlox to creeping thyme these perennial ground cover plants are low growing and loaded with flowers to attract pollinators to the garden. Some of these ground covers will grow in sun and others in shade; all will put on growth quickly and are suitable for slopes and hills. Here are four options for ground cover plants for pollinators that we’ve grown as companion and guild plants in the garden.
Ground Cover Plants
Ground cover plants are low-growing, spreading plants that create some sort of plant mat or carpet over time. Some gardeners select ground cover plants for their gardens because:
- they have beautiful foliage and flowers
- they suppress weeds
- they provide protection from evaporation for the soil
- they help regulate the temperature of the soil
- they’re beautiful, edible, or herbal
I like them for all those reasons! I also like the fact that my favorite ground cover plants also happen to attract pollinators to my gardens and orchards. Not just honey bees, but all kinds of pollinating insects can be found in these easy to grow ground cover plants.
Other Pollinator Resources:
How to Attract Mason Bees to Fruit Trees
Bee House in the Bee Friendly Garden
What Kind of Bug is a Pollinator?
Technically, a pollinator is anything that helps carry pollen from the male part of the flower (stamen) to the female part of the same or another flower (stigma). This pollen exchange has to happen for the plant to be fertilized. Fertilization is what results in fruits, seeds, and baby plants.
Some plants can take care of this process on their own and are called self-pollinating. Others rely on the wind to take care of it.
Still others are pollinated by insects (like those mentioned below) and even some animals like bats!
As I said, the pollinator plants we’re talking about today don’t just attract honey bee. They’re equally appealing to:
- mason bees and all manner of “small” bee
- bumblebees
- moths
- butterflies
- those wonderful assassins of bad bugs, the parasitic wasps
- flies
These pollinating insects love your veggies garden and your orchards because they’re are flowers full of pollen and nectar. Mix in some ground cover plants with these annual and perennial plants and you’ll have a garden the pollinators love throughout the growing season!
Growing and Maintaining Ground Cover Plants
Ground cover plants are typically easy to maintain since you plant them to spread on their own, at their own pace.
In my garden, I use compost and layers of wood chip to keep my soil moist and the weeds down. My ground cover plants just grow right along over the top of everything.
If a weed grows up through the ground cover, I rummage around and pull it out; typically, the weeds are a bit weakened from having to push up through the ground cover plant to get to the sun.
After a few years, I may go in and replant if certain spots on the ground cover have died out over a harsh winter or dry summer. However, since ground cover plants multiply themselves so readily, I just use a cutting from a healthy area to fill in a sad looking area.
Learn to Make More Ground Cover Plants
Though they aren’t all ground cover plants, here are some great articles on learning to take and replant a cutting:
- Propagating thyme from Brown Thumb Mama.
- How to take a cutting of rosemary from Grow a Good Life.
- Make a rooting hormone to help your cuttings thrive from Attainable Sustainable.
- Growing hydrangeas from cuttings from Learning and Yearning.
- Six fruit crops to propagate from cuttings from Tenth Acre Farm.
To learn more garden tips, keep track of garden records and education and make good plans for the garden this year, be sure to check out The Garden Notebook resource below. This is the one I use for my gardens.
4 Ground Cover Plants for Pollinators
Mother of Thyme – Thymus serpyllum
I can’t tell you how much I love this plant! Here are some things to know about this ground cover plant:
- Doing best in zones 5-10, though I’ve seen some rated down to zone 3. This evergreen ground cover is very sturdy.
- This ground cover plant enjoys full sun but can take some shade.
- A pH neutral soil will make it happy.
- Thyme likes an even amount of moisture, but it can take drier conditions and is a good choice for xeriscaped gardens.
- The foliage is an evergreen being green in warm weather and purple in cold weather.
Mother of Thyme is not the fastest grower, though it’s much speedier than something like elfin thyme. It covers softly, gently growing here and there to create protected areas of soil. It even forms a step-able carpet for garden path nooks. Don’t run your soccer team over it but, otherwise, it will hold up to light foot traffic. (If it’s a time when the plant is in bloom, check for bees before you step.)
When you’re ready to divide they thyme, you can:
- Move baby plants to new places in your yard
- Divide the root ball of the mother plant, especially if it’s looking tired
- Take root cuttings of a plant at least two years old
- Or take stem cuttings
Mother of Thyme will also slowly spread itself around your yard via seedlings that pop up from dropped seed.
Some people love this plant so much they replace their lawns or mow strips with varieties of low growing thyme, especially Mother of Thyme.
Herbal and Pollinator Bonus!
Don’t forget, this is a thyme, which means it’s an aromatic herb. I’ve used this in cooking when I run out of the larger leafed thyme – it has a strong, more wild flavor that’s a bit cheeky.
Blooming in the late spring, Mother of Thyme will feed the pollinators in your yard, as well as you. The blooms vary in shades of pinks and purples and the pollinators just love them.
My honey bees have wars over my Rugosa roses and my Mother of Thyme all season long.
Creeping Potentilla – Potentilla neumanianna
Also called Cinquefoil, this is a great ground cover plant that covers quickly and easily.
Here are some things to know about this ground cover plant:
- It will do well in sun or full shade (though it will flower less with less sunshine).
- Potentilla does best in zones 4-8 and is drought tolerant and very step-able.
- This plant will grow in pretty much any kind of soil and does very well on rock walls or between paving stones.
- It really isn’t picky about soil but doesn’t much care for really humid summers.
The leaves of potentilla are reminiscent of strawberry leaves and the happy, yellow flowers look like small buttercups. The foliage is a glossy, deep green in warm weather and will turn purple-ish in cold weather, even occasionally turning red. The flowers appear once the season warms and will bloom until the intense heat of summer.
Weeds have a very, very hard time getting through Creeping Potentilla; all but my dandelions give up and die.
I’ve planted creeping potentilla in walkways and to cover a small hill in our front yard. It’s doing beautifully in both places and has even popped up in new places, a bit removed from the mother plants. I love plants that re-plant themselves.
I don’t think there’s a pollinator out there who can resist the siren call of those delicious looking, yellow flowers. Our good bugs love them!
Creeping Phlox – Phlox subulata
Who doesn’t love the blanket of color that’s made every spring by creeping phlox?! Here are some things to know about this ground cover plant:
- Hardy in zones 3-9, you may already love this ground cover plant and just didn’t know what it was called.
- Creeping Phlox is very popular as a spring bloomer in many different types of garden spaces, especially on rock walls and around paths.
- The plant spreads at an even rate but over time, it forms woody stems that stop flowering. Simply cut those out with a bit of fall maintenance to allow the softer stems to produce an effusion of flowers.
- Phlox comes in so many different varieties of colors including pinks, lavenders and white. When they’re in bloom, it looks like Mother Nature is rolling out a rainbow carpet for you.
Alpine Strawberries – Fragaria vesca
These are a bonus plant because, not only do they make the pollinators happy when they’re in bloom, but they also produce fruit. I featured this plant in my post Five Fruits for the Children’s Garden; you can read more details about this beautiful and edible ground cover plant by clicking here.
Suffice it to say, I love this ground cover and so do the pollinators.
A Few More Tips Pollinator Tips
You and your pollinators can expect to enjoy those blooms as one of the first heralds of truly warm, spring weather.
Plan to see the smaller pollinators on these smaller blooms. My bumble bees pass them up entirely but even while I was planting these I had several honey bees come visit.
Even after the blooms fade, the leaves are a perennial green and the plant continues to put on size as it grows throughout the season.
Buying Ground Cover Plant Starts
The phlox you see here is Monrovia brand and they were contributed by Monrovia as part of their sponsoring this post in connection with their “Connecting to the Earth with Monrovia Plants” campaign.
I grow a great deal of my plants from seed because I can’t afford to keep my garden up by purchasing plants. However, because I don’t want to waste my money on random plants of unknown origin, when I buy, I buy quality brands that I trust and who offer warranties on their products. (If I’m buying from a farmer I know (an actual person, not an entity), then that’s a bit different and that’s usually vegetables plants.)
So, even if Monrovia weren’t sponsoring this post, I’d still tell you to consider your nursery purchases well before you waste your money on a plant that may or may not grow.
I don’t mind risking a few bucks for pansies but if I’m considering something bigger, I’m going to seek out a brand that has a reputation for quality. I just don’t like to waste my money on stuff that dies. Monrovia is a brand I purchase.
So, did I miss your favorite ground cover? Please let me know which ground cover plants you use in your garden and why!
Garden Resources
For more gardening resources, please consider the following posts.
Gardening Resources
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I’ve always been a huge fan of phlox, we planted clumps of it at the top of a retaining wall at my mom’s. Our yard however is very small and ground cover just isn’t needed. I do plant Lithodora (a creeper) in pots though 🙂
I adore Lithodora, Kendra! I’m actually a big sucker for anything pretty in the garden and my practical nature constantly wars against it. Get over it, I sometimes tell my practical side. Being pretty is useful, too. My grandmother grew Plumbago in her yard and I’ve always loved it – it reminds me of her and is an impossibly beautiful color. Thanks for stopping by!
I didn’t know pollinators like phlox. I’ll have to plant some in our new flower beds. Thanks for the article!
The smaller ones do and my honey bees do. The bumble bees pass them by – most likely because they’re such small flowers. Compared to a bumble bee. 🙂
Hello, Just happened upon this post. I love ground covers. My favorite is Lamium. It is not native but is so pretty with different types of leaf markings and flower colors. Lamium comes up and starts flowering early in the spring, which is beneficial following our cold Wisconsin winters. It provides food for early pollinators when nothing much else is blooming. (I have early spring flowering bulbs like crocus, scillas, daffodils, and narcissus, but I don’t see pollinators visiting these flowers at all.) Lamium divides and transplants easily to spread it around. Love it!
Oh, I love Lamium, Sue! It’s so lovely with its variety all season long. Thanks so much for reminding me! I wish I were your neighbor – I’d come get some next spring. 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by!