Groundcover shrubs are the low, wide-spreading woody plants that hug the ground rather than rising from it, many of them evergreen and most of them tougher and longer-lived than herbaceous carpets. Woody structure at ground level gives a planting a firmness that soft ground covers cannot, keeping shape and often leaves right through winter. Grown for foliage, flower, and reliable coverage, they are the durable option for large, difficult, low areas.

In the landscape they excel where a surface has to stay covered and cared-for with little attention. They blanket banks and slopes, fill wide beds and islands, edge drives and paths, and hold their coverage in sun or shade where the ground would otherwise wash, weed, or bake. Because so many keep their leaves, they carry structure and green through the season when a herbaceous carpet has gone to bare soil.

We grow groundcover shrubs for their toughness and the long-term coverage they give with minimal upkeep. Woody, evergreen cover binds soil against erosion on slopes, shelters ground-dwelling wildlife year-round, and, in flower and fruit, feeds pollinators and birds low in the garden. Once established, a good groundcover shrub simply gets on with the job for years.

Give them a season to spread and knit, and choose the vigor to match the space, generous for a bank, restrained for a bed. For softer, faster carpets see our Ground Covers; for the layer just above see our Small & Medium Shrubs; and lean on Southeastern Natives for regionally adapted choices.