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 evergreen creeping perennial is a great choice for shady areas at the front of borders. Its colorful, textured foliage in aubergine color forms a beautiful mat-like ground cover.
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 suppressing weeds 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 is a fast-spreading plant that can quickly fill a space of 40 square feet or more within a year.
5. Asiatic Star Jasmine
Botanical Name: Trachelospermum jasminoides
USDA Zones: 7b-10
Ideal for warm climates, this fast-growing ground cover offers stunning, dense, evergreen foliage that fills the ground. It serves as an excellent option to cover bare spots.
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6. Herbaceous Clematis
Botanical Name: Clematis – Viticella Group
USDA Zones: 4-11
Herbaceous Clematis is a fast-growing ground cover that adds a stunning touch to any landscape. It quickly spreads and fills empty spaces with a burst of vibrant colors.
7. Rockcress
Botanical Name: Aubretia
USDA Zones: 6-8
Aubretia is a fast-growing ground cover that brings a cascade of vibrant colors to gardens and landscapes. This hardy perennial thrives in full sun and well-draining soil.
8. Sweet Woodruff
Botanical Name: Gallium odoratum
USDA Zones: 4-9
Sweet Woodruff is a fast-growing ground cover that spreads rapidly to create a lush carpet of foliage. Its delicate white flowers and fragrant leaves add charm to shady areas.
9. Blue Plumbago
Botanical Name: Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
USDA Zones: 5-9
This versatile plant is ideal for the seasonal transition, featuring 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
Caraway Thyme is a versatile, fast-growing ground cover, ideal for both ornamental groundcover and culinary herb purposes.
11. Bunchberry
Botanical Name: Cornus canadensis
USDA Zones: 2-7
This little ground cover grows up to 8 inches at maturity. It spreads by underground rhizomes; this fast-growing groundcover produces 4-7 leaves on each woody stems.
12. Creeping Mazus
Botanical Name: Mazus reptans
USDA Zones: 5-8
Mazus reptans is a resilient 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
It is a rapidly spreading plant that excels at creating a dense ground cover in areas with partial or full shade. It also grows small white flowers!
14. Trailing Periwinkle
Botanical Name: Vinca minor
USDA Zones: 7-9
With its vigorous growth pattern, this fast-growing ground cover can become an invasive ground cover plant. It creates a lush carpet of glossy green leaves in no time!
15. Fern Moss
Botanical Name: Thuidium delicatulum
USDA Zones: 5-9
Fern moss is a rapidly growing evergreen ground cover 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 exhibit an average to fast growth rate and thrive in partially shaded areas, requiring acidic soils.
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17. Wintercreeper
Botanical Name: Euonymus fortunei
USDA Zones: 5a-9a
This fast-growing ground cover can assume 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 resilient plant that hugs the ground and boasts abundant foliage. Perfect for ground coverage, the creeping wire vine flourishes in areas with full sun.
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 fast-growing ground cover, is widely used for slopes 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
With their rapid growth, these fast-growing ground cover will quickly fill in the space, reaching a height of 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.