Check out the list of the best Fast Growing Ground Cover Plants that provide quick coverage for your outdoor spaces.
If you’re looking to quickly fill in empty spaces and add vibrancy to your garden, these Fast Growing Ground Cover Plants are the perfect solution. These resilient plants spread rapidly, creating lush carpets of green in no time!
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Fast Growing Ground Cover Plants
1. Mexican Daisy
Botanical Name: Erigeron karvinskianus
USDA Zones: 6-9
First on the list of fast-growing ground cover plants, Mexican fleabane effortlessly grows in crevices of rocks, walls, steps, and garden paths. It thrives in dry conditions.
2. Bugleweed
Botanical Name: Ajuga reptans
USDA Zones: 4-10
This creeping evergreen plant that stays green all the year is a great pick for shady spots in front of the flower beds. Its colorful, textured leaves in a deep purple color form a beautiful mat-like covering on the ground.
3. Sedum
Botanical Name: Sedum ‘stonecorp’
USDA Zones: 4-9
Sedum mats are excellent for green roofs, dry gravel gardens, and walls, as they create a lush foliage carpet while keeping weeds away and attracting wildlife.
4. Lamium Flowers
Botanical Name: Lamium maculatum
USDA Zones: 3-8
The next on the list of fast growing ground cover plants is Lamium. It spreads quickly can cover a space of 40 square feet or more in just one year.
5. Asiatic Star Jasmine
Botanical Name: Trachelospermum jasminoides
USDA Zones: 7b-10
Ideal for warm climates, this fast-growing ground cover offers beautiful, dense evergreen foliage that fills the ground. It is an excellent choice to cover bare areas.
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6. Herbaceous Clematis
Botanical Name: Clematis – Viticella Group
USDA Zones: 4-11
These vining clematis varieties spread quickly to fill empty areas with beautiful bright color in the landscape.
7. Rockcress
Botanical Name: Aubretia
USDA Zones: 6-8
Rockcress rapidly forms a colorful cascading ground cover. filled with colorful flowers. It is especially suited for sunny, well-drained areas.
8. Sweet Woodruff
Botanical Name: Gallium odoratum
USDA Zones: 4-9
As the sweet woodruff plant spreads quickly, it creates a lush green carpet over the ground that release a sweet fragrance from its foliage.
9. Blue Plumbago
Botanical Name: Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
USDA Zones: 5-9
This versatile plant is ideal for the seasonal transition, producing blue flowers at the end of summer and fiery-colored foliage in fall. Notably, it attracts butterflies and bees.
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10. Caraway Thyme
Botanical Name: Thymus herba-barona
USDA Zones: 4-9
In addition to its uses as an edible herb for cooking, caraway thyme also makes a great selection as a fast-growing ground cover that stays low to the ground.
11. Bunchberry
Botanical Name: Cornus canadensis
USDA Zones: 2-7
While the bunchberry ground cover reaches 8 inches in height, it is able to spread outward due to its underground stems.
12. Creeping Mazus
Botanical Name: Mazus reptans
USDA Zones: 5-8
Mazus reptans is a hardy perennial plant that thrives as a ground cover in USDA zones 5 to 8. It exhibits rapid growth, creating lush carpet-like foliage.
13. Ground Elder
Botanical Name: Aegopodium podagraria
USDA Zones: 3-8
Even in shady areas the ground elder plant is able to thrive and spread rapidly to create a dense mat of ground cover that blocks out other growth.
14. Trailing Periwinkle
Botanical Name: Vinca minor
USDA Zones: 7-9
Though the trailing periwinkle has a tendency to spread quickly and can become invasive in some areas, it forms very thick lush blanket of glossy green leaves over the ground.
15. Fern Moss
Botanical Name: Thuidium delicatulum
USDA Zones: 5-9
Fern moss is an evergreen ground cover variety that stays close to the ground. It has the remarkable ability to double its surface area in less than a year.
16. Japanese Spurge
Botanical Name: Pachysandra terminalis
USDA Zones: 4-8
These dwarf shrubs grows at an average to fats rate and do well in areas with partial shade, needing soil that are acidic.
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17. Wintercreeper
Botanical Name: Euonymus fortunei
USDA Zones: 5a-9a
This fast-growing ground cover can take various forms, serving as a shrub, vine, or ground cover, with its size being variable.
18. Creeping Wire Vine
Botanical Name: Muehlenbeckia axillaris
USDA Zones: 7-10
The creeping wire vine is a tough plant that grows close to the ground and has abundant foliage. Perfect for ground coverage, it thrives in areas with full sun exposure.
19. Crown Vetch
Botanical Name: Securigera varia
USDA Zones: 3-9
The crown vetch, also known as the “crown vetch weed,” is a fast-spreading trailing plant. It is an ideal choice for covering extensive patches of uneven soil.
20. English Ivy
Botanical Name: Hedera helix
USDA Zones: 4-13
English ivy, a rapidly growing ground cover, is widely used on sloped areas due to its aggressive nature. It is commonly used to cover walls, fences, or expansive areas.
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21. Creeping Jenny
Botanical Name: Lysimachia nummularia
USDA Zones: 4-9
Thanks to their speedy growth rate, these fast-spreading ground cover plants will quickly fill up any given space, reaching a mature height between 4 to 8 inches.
22. Irish Moss
Botanical Name: Sagina subulata
USDA Zones: 4-8
Last on the list of fast-growing ground cover is Irish moss. It is known for its rapid growth and impressive spreading capability, often extending several feet within a short time span.
23. Wedelia
Botanical Name: Wedelia
USDA Zones: 7-11
Wedelia is a low-growing perennial plant that forms a dense mat of trailing stems. The leaves are typically bright green, but some varieties may have variegated foliage.
24. Lantana
Botanical Name: Lantana camara
USDA Zones: 7-11
Lantana is a low-growing perennial plant with trailing or mounding growth habits. It produces clusters of small, tubular flowers that are highly attractive to butterflies and other pollinators.