Rhus aromatica "Grow Low'"

'Gro-Low' is the ground-hugging form of the native fragrant sumac, a low, wide-spreading deciduous shrub that stays one to two feet tall while reaching six to eight feet across, knitting into a dense, weed-smothering carpet. The glossy trifoliate leaves are often mistaken at a glance for poison ivy or poison oak but are entirely harmless, and a crushed leaf gives off the clean, lemony scent that names the species.

Small yellow flowers open in earliest spring before the leaves, feeding the first bees of the season, and female plants follow with hairy red fruits that hold into winter for the birds. The summer foliage is a fine-textured green that turns a brilliant red-orange in fall, so even a flat groundcover planting delivers a season of fire. Highly adaptable, 'Gro-Low' grows well from partial shade to full sun and asks only well-drained, roughly neutral soil.

Like the wild fragrant sumac behind the selection, 'Gro-Low' carries the long human history of the sumacs. Indigenous peoples across North America used the tannin-rich plant in food, medicine, and craft, steeping the tart, vitamin-C-rich berries into a lemonade-like drink and turning to root, bark, and berry preparations for a range of traditional remedies. The same astringent chemistry runs through this garden groundcover.

Use 'Gro-Low' where a tough, good-looking groundcover is wanted and turf will not do: covering a dry, sunny bank, binding a slope against erosion, filling a hot parking-strip or foundation bed, or spilling over a low wall. Give full sun for the densest growth and best fall color, allow room for the wide spread, and pair with little bluestem, coneflower, and other sun-and-drought lovers. Deer tend to leave the aromatic foliage alone, and once established the planting shrugs off drought and neglect.