Low, drought-tolerant plants for a rock garden, between stones and on top of a retaining wall: none grows taller than 40 cm, even after ten years. Most of them want a sunny spot; the cards show the light each one needs.
32 plants from our verified database, by name. A plant is only listed when the data this list relies on is not in doubt. How our data is made
Geranium macrorrhizum 40 cm × 60 cm after 10 years
A perennial that slowly spreads on thick rhizomes into a dense, weed-smothering carpet; its soft, lobed leaves are strongly aromatic when rubbed and…
Geranium sanguineum 30 cm × 60 cm after 10 years
A tough ground-covering perennial that forms a low mound of finely cut leaves, dotted with magenta-pink flowers from late spring into summer, and…
Festuca glauca 30 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
A low, dome-shaped grass with needle-like blue-grey leaves for sunny, dry beds, rock gardens, edging and pots. The blue is strongest in full sun and…
Koeleria glauca 40 cm × 30 cm after 10 years
A small, hedgehog-like tussock of steel-blue blades that is native to the dry, lime-rich sand grasslands of the region, so it is happiest in full…
Sedum spurium 15 cm × 90 cm after 10 years
A low, succulent ground cover that quickly knits a dense mat with its rooting stems and is covered in pink, red or white starry flowers in summer,…
Dianthus gratianopolitanus 20 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
It forms a dense, blue-grey, grassy cushion with clove-scented, mostly pink flowers above it in late spring. It belongs in rock gardens, on walls,…
Thymus vulgaris 30 cm × 40 cm after 10 years
Common thyme is a low, evergreen, strongly scented subshrub that works as a kitchen herb, a bee plant and an edging for sunny, dry beds all at once.…
Juniperus horizontalis 30 cm × 2 m after 10 years
A ground-hugging, wide-spreading evergreen that covers a sunny bank, the top of a retaining wall or a rock garden with a green or blue-green carpet…
Thymus praecox 10 cm × 30 cm after 10 years
An evergreen, aromatic mat only a few centimetres tall that is covered in summer with pink, lilac or, depending on the variety, white or reddish…
Sedum acre 10 cm × 60 cm after 10 years
A tiny, moss-like evergreen succulent that forms a carpet only a few centimetres high and is smothered in golden-yellow starry flowers in early…
Delosperma cooperi 10 cm × 60 cm after 10 years
A succulent mat barely a hand high that is covered from early summer to autumn in dazzling magenta-purple, daisy-like flowers. It belongs in blazing…
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides 25 cm × 50 cm after 10 years
A low perennial spreading by rhizomes that carries gentian-blue flowers from late summer until the frosts while its leaves turn bronze-red. It makes a…
Sempervivum × hybridum 15 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
A hardy evergreen succulent whose fleshy rosettes knit into dense cushions: made for gravel beds, wall crevices, troughs and green roofs, where most…
Sedum kamtschaticum 15 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
A low, dense, mat-forming succulent perennial that covers itself in golden yellow star flowers in summer and turns orange to reddish in autumn. It…
Veronica teucrium 40 cm × 40 cm after 10 years
A low, bushy perennial that is almost hidden under spikes of vivid gentian-blue flowers in May and June, to the delight of bees and butterflies. It…
Thymus × citriodorus 25 cm × 40 cm after 10 years
A low, cushion-forming evergreen subshrub whose tiny leaves smell strongly of lemon when rubbed, so you can pick it for fish, poultry and tea. In a…
Oenothera macrocarpa 25 cm × 50 cm after 10 years
A sprawling perennial with trailing stems that carries huge, hand-sized, lemon yellow, lightly scented flowers for months from early summer; they open…
Antennaria dioica 20 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
It weaves a ground-hugging mat of silver-grey, woolly leaf rosettes, topped in late spring by small white and pink flower heads that look like a cat's…
Arabis caucasica 20 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
It forms a cushion of grey-green evergreen leaf rosettes that disappears in early spring under lightly scented white flowers, pink in some…
Euphorbia myrsinites 20 cm × 50 cm after 10 years
An evergreen, blue-grey spurge whose trailing stems, clad in spirals of leaves, sprawl between stones like tentacles and end in vivid yellow-green…
Sedum sieboldii 20 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
A low succulent perennial: stems arch out from one point like spokes, carrying round, blue-grey, pink-edged leaves in threes, and pink starry…
Sedum reflexum 12 cm × 60 cm after 10 years
A trailing succulent whose needle-like, fleshy leaves make it look like tiny spruce twigs; it forms a loose mat and carries yellow star flowers in…
Helianthemum × hybridum 25 cm × 60 cm after 10 years
Hybrid rock roses are low, spreading evergreen subshrubs with grey-green or silvery foliage that cover themselves from late May to midsummer in white,…
Armeria maritima 20 cm × 30 cm after 10 years
A low, dense evergreen cushion of grass-like leaves, topped in late spring by pink or white flower globes on thin stalks. Use it in rock gardens, as…
Cerastium tomentosum 20 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
A low, mat-forming ground cover with silvery, woolly leaves that disappears under a sheet of white flowers in late spring and early summer. It suits…
Lychnis viscaria 40 cm × 30 cm after 10 years
A native wildflower that sends up spikes of vivid magenta-pink flowers in May and June from tufts of grass-like leaves; the stems are sticky below the…
Inula ensifolia 30 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
A low, dense, dome-shaped perennial with narrow sword-like leaves, covered for weeks in summer with golden yellow daisies. It suits sunny, dry, even…
Sedum takesimense 15 cm × 30 cm after 10 years
A low stonecrop that forms a tight cushion of fleshy, toothed leaves, covers itself in yellow starry flowers in summer and keeps its leaf rosettes…
Arabis ferdinandi-coburgi 10 cm × 30 cm after 10 years
A very low rock garden perennial that forms an evergreen mat of tiny leaf rosettes, splashed yellow or white in the garden forms, with white flowers…
Sedum album 10 cm × 50 cm after 10 years
An evergreen succulent whose tiny cylindrical leaves knit into a low, dense mat that disappears under a haze of white flowers in early summer. It is a…
Thymus serpyllum 8 cm × 45 cm after 10 years
A scented subshrub only a few centimetres tall that roots as it creeps into a flat mat and is covered in pink and purple flowers, and bees, in summer.…
Satureja montana 40 cm × 50 cm after 10 years
A low, woody-based, semi-evergreen herb with glossy, narrow, peppery-scented leaves that you can use fresh or dried in the kitchen. From midsummer its…
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