Golden Groundcovers

Golden groundcovers act as living mulch that lights up the landscape

As living mulch, groundcovers do the same jobs that traditional mulch performs—they keep the garden tidy, protect the soil, and suppress weeds. With that in mind, we sell three groundcovers that pull off an additional effect that traditional mulch cannot achieve: the golden glow. You might expect us to sell only one variety, but we offer three versions because each cultivar delivers the gold in a different way—straight, bushy, or trailing.

ALTERNANTHERA ‘TRUE YELLOW’—THE STRAIGHT ONE

We actually selected ‘True Yellow’ for two solid reasons. First is its ability to hold a straight line. Some designs aim to draw a clean edge between two colors, or to trace the edge of a garden bed. Over time, that edge can become overgrown, lumpy, or out-of-position. Not so with ‘True Yellow’—it’s a very tight and compact plant, so it’s the one to use to spell out initials, for example. That ability to hold an edge for a season is not common.

Alternanthera ‘True Yellow’ has a small, tight habit that can look like herringbone

A second reason we use this Alternanthera is for its ability to handle a broad range of soil and light conditions. Because the plant is genuinely unfussy it’s the one to choose if you want to share a common design among twenty different properties and fifteen different crews. ‘True Yellow’ can be deployed successfully regardless of the exact situation.

Among the golden groundcovers, ‘True Yellow’ leans more toward a yellow or bright gold look. It also has the smallest and tightest habit at about six inches maximum, with a spread of 18 inches per crown. Since the leaves cross each other with tight and thin shapes it looks a bit like a herringbone pattern from a distance.

Duranta ‘Cuban Gold’ paired with Begonia ‘Super Olympia Rose’

 DURANTA ‘CUBAN GOLD’—THE BUSHY ONE

Other Duranta varieties can get tall but this one is an extreme dwarf, staying about a foot tall with a two foot spread when mature. As a tropical sub-shrub it brings a bushier look to the table with a dense population of short branches. Picture in your mind a shag carpet versus an indoor/outdoor carpet and you’ll get a sense of the difference between ‘Cuban Gold’ and ‘True Yellow’.

‘Cuban Gold’ is also the most golden looking of the lot. We compare it to a butterscotch shade of gold that becomes even more vibrant when we give the plant a solid toasting in full sun. If your garden bed or container has a special light that falls on it—say, the morning sun as it comes up—‘Cuban Gold’ can capture that moment and display it.

Heat-loving ‘Cuban Gold’ is the goldest looking of the bunch

This Duranta also loves the heat. It’s a good choice for that garden hotspot, or for projects that typically are plagued with intense summer temps, like parking lot islands or planters in corporate plazas surrounded by a desert of concrete. As a result, ‘Cuban Gold’ is a favorite of southern garden designers. While it is not a drought plant, it does like the soil to go dry between watering sessions.

Trailing Lysimachia ‘Goldilocks’ leans toward chartreuse

LYSIMACHIA ‘GOLDILOCKS’—THE TRAILING ONE

This is the golden carpet that trails, so it can do double-duty spilling in a combo, overflowing a rockfall, or cascading around statuary and other garden prominences. ‘Goldilocks’ measures one foot at the beginning of the season but three feet by the end. Among the three golden groundcovers ‘Goldilocks’ leans a little toward chartreuse, although toasting in the sun boosts the amount of actual gold in the foliage.

Stems on this variety are held in a loose, draping style but on flat ground those stems interlock like the fingers of two hands. They form a webbed carpet of gold, decorated with frilly, coin-like disks of leaves. Whether flat or spilling over, the effect is flouncy and fluffy.

Frilly, coin-like leaves are flouncy and fluffy

‘Goldilocks’ also brings physical strength to the table. Dogs can romp in the garden and this plant simply shrugs—it can even handle foot traffic along the edges of a pathway. You see, ‘Goldilocks’ is perennial at the roots. Tops die back during the winter and then reappear the following spring.

USING THE GOLDEN GLOW

All three of these groundcovers contribute important qualities to the garden, but the big selling feature is that golden glow. It makes a single six-foot patch easily visible from 100 feet away, a valuable effect for approaches, entranceways, or destinations. Gold is a great counterpoint for breaking up groups of plants with dark glossy leaves like New Guinea Impatiens.

A circle of gold also looks good when it surrounds leggy shrubs like forsythia, viburnum, or crepe myrtle or when it sweeps around tall central stands of Pennisetum ‘Vertigo’, tasseled Millet, or dark-leaf Hibiscus. As living mulch, all three groundcovers squeeze out the weeds while their golden glow makes the big picture look better by offering contrast.

Squeezing out the weeds and turning on the glow