Low-growing perennial border plants have a rather important place in every garden landscape. They add dimension to the whole package and ensure that your garden looks layered and aesthetically pleasing.
If you are looking for the perfect low-growing perennials to complete the garden of your dreams, keep reading. The sections that follow will cover all the best options you can go for.
11 Low-Growing Perennial Border Plants
1. Moss Phlox (Phlox Subulata)
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If you are looking for small but beautiful flowers for your landscape border, Moss Phlox is one of the best choices you can make. If you do, you’ll have a wide number of varieties to choose from. You can go for pink, blue, white, purple, and several bicolor options.
What people love most about these flowers is how quickly they bloom and spread across your garden. Once the season starts, you’ll have a sea of color on your landscape borders in the blink of an eye.
These plants grow to be somewhere between three and six inches tall. Their foliage is reminiscent of green moss, which is where the plants get their name from. Thus, the plant will be a nice and colorful addition to your garden even when it is not in bloom.
2. Eastern Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla Patens)
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These beautiful flowers come in purple, violet, and blue that mix together to create one of the most aesthetically pleasing flowers you can pick for your landscape. The yellow of the central stamen contrasts beautifully with the petals, completing the look.
The Eastern Pasque flowers are somewhere between three and ten inches tall, depending on which variety you pick. Although each lower blooms on a solitary green stem, they always form clusters. Thus, your pathway borders will look lovely and colorful as soon as the flowers bloom.
3. Bearberry (Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi)
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Do you have a spot in your garden where every plant you’ve tried just wouldn’t develop properly due to the soil? Or is there a place where there’s too much shade for most plants to thrive? If so, bearberry is the perfect plant to try out in such areas.
This perennial thrives in places that most other plants can’t even survive in. Its endurance is mostly due to the fact that it is evergreen. As such, it does not need as much sunlight, and it can survive in poor soil.
Though this plant is quite small, it is attractive enough to make everyone do a double-take once they see it. Its moss is glossy and green, and it has blood-red stems that are quite aesthetically pleasing. In spring, the stems develop into tiny pink or white flowers.
In a few weeks, the flowers slowly turn into red berries that are edible for all birds and mammals in the area. They are quite nutritious and a great and healthy source of food for all these animals.
The best thing about this plant is the fact that it looks just as attractive during winter, albeit in a different way. Its foliage grows reddish and purple and stays that way until spring.
Apart from planting bearberries as border flowers, you can also use them on any fences or rock walls in your garden. Either way, they will make fantastic additions to your landscape.
4. Pussytoes (Antennaria Plantaginifolia)
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If you need a low-growing perennial that does not require too much care and maintenance while still looking good, this plant is for you. It has thick paddle-shaped leaves and grows to be somewhere between six and ten inches tall.
The flowers are quite small and fuzzy, and they resemble little cotton swabs as they move around in the breeze. Even though they are small, pussytoes are quite attractive to bees, butterflies, and birds.
These flowers are great if you live in an area that does not receive too much rain during the year. They can also thrive in poor soil and do not need too much sunlight, making them perfect low-maintenance plants.
5. Rose Vervain (Glandularia Canadensis)
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Rose vervain, also known as verbena, is a great choice if the most important things for you are aesthetics. These flowers are delightfully pretty and come in pink, purple, and reddish variations. They hover over the green foliage and give it a dreamy, almost magical look.
These flowers grow to be anywhere from six to eighteen inches tall. They are especially appealing in large clusters along borders, which is why they are some of the best low-growing perennial border plants you can pick.
Apart from walkway borders, you can also put these flowers in hanging baskets and containers. They can also grow in a variety of conditions, as they are quite sturdy and adaptable.
6. Stonecrop (Sedum Sp.)
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Stonecrop is a plant with numerous subspecies and cultivars. Thus, it can get a bit overwhelming when you try to choose which one to pick for a particular landscape. Most of them grow to be between six and ten inches tall.
Every variant has rich and succulent leaves in a rich shade of green. The flowers are small and have five petals in various hues. The plant is ground-hugging, meaning that it is perfect for borders and any places where you need something sturdy and thick for coverage.
You can pick a variant of this plant based on what colors you need. For example, Broadleaf Stonecrop has green leaves and bright yellow flowers. On the other hand, Wild Stonecrop is brilliantly white with star-shaped leaves. So, all you have to do is figure out which hue you need and get a variant that is the closest to your vision.
7. Perennial Pinks (Dianthus Sp.)
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If pink is your favorite color and you can’t get enough of it in your garden, this flower is for you. Apart from being extremely visually appealing, these perennials are also adaptable and require little maintenance.
This plant comes in so many colors that you can just use all the variants for your garden and call it a day. You’ll have a garden that is as rich in color and shapes as one with ten different flower species in it.
Apart from pink and all its shades and variations, you can find these flowers in red, white, purple, yellow, and even black. However, the multicolored options are most people’s favorites, as they resemble small rainbows.
The foliage is reminiscent of grass. As such, it is quite lowkey, and it lets the flowers take center stage. And the best thing is, you won’t have to water these plants too much, or do any additional work on them. All you have to do is plant them and watch as the magic unfolds.
8. Foamflower (Tiarella Sp.)
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Foamflowers are a fantastic choice if you need something that is pretty but looks a bit more unconventional. The leaves are oak, star, or heart-shaped, depending on the variety you go for.
Most varieties do not grow to be taller than a foot. However, it is best to contact a professional or at least do research on which subspecies would work best for your particular needs and preferences.
The plant gets its name for the unusual appearance of its flowers. Namely, they resemble piles of foam or tiny clouds when they bloom, and they are whitish in color. They are just as delicate as they look, though, so you should not plant them in an area that has harsh winds.
Another excellent fact about this plant is that its foliage remains green all year round. In some cases, the color might even become darker and richer, which will make your garden a gem even during winter.
9. Dusty Miller (Jacobaea Maritima)
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When choosing this plant for their landscape, people mostly do it because of its distinct and interesting foliage. It is silvery, slightly hazy, and sharply divided. The leaves look like miniature deer antlers and are fuzzy to the touch. In the blooming season, the plant is adorned with tiny white or yellowish flowers.
The foliage is so beautiful and dreamy that most gardeners remove the flowers once the plant blooms. They find that the flowers do not fit with the foliage well and are actually distracting. Of course, you can do whatever you want once the plant blooms, and you get to see the flowers.
Dusty millers are a perfect choice if your landscape is full of bright colors. In such cases, these plants can help tone things down a bit and bring some neutrality to the mix. Thus, you should plant it around borders, especially if they would neighbor bright red, pink, or purple flowers.
10. Wooly Yarrow (Achillea Tomentosa)
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If you know anything about yarrows, you are probably aware that most of them grow to be quite tall. However, that is not the case with this variety. Wooly yarrows can not grow taller than twelve inches, and most are around seven inches tall.
These plants have olive-green foliage and leaves that are fuzzy and resemble ferns. The flowers are disk-shaped and deep yellow, making a great addition to any colorful landscape. The plant is sturdy and easy to maintain, which is what draws most people to it in the first place.
Wooly yarrows are plants that spread across the ground quickly and form a thick, green carpet over it. That is what makes it a perfect choice for accentuating paths or walkways.
11. Barrenwort (Epimedium Grandiflorum)
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In gardening circles, this plant is also referred to as fairy wings. This nickname should tell you a lot about its dreamy appearance and delicate stature. While not especially large, these flowers have a shape that is interesting enough to make them a great addition to any garden.
These plants have long and willowy stems. From them dangle delicate multicolored flowers that are so thin and wiry they resemble a spider’s legs. The plant is at its prettiest when a soft wind is blowing, and you can see the flowers swaying in it.
The only downside of these flowers is the fact that they do not last as long as some other options on this list. However, that just means that you’ll have to appreciate their beauty extra hard in the few weeks that you can do so.
These flowers have foliage made out of tiny, heart-shaped leaves. The leaves are either green or burgundy, based on the variety that you pick for your garden. The foliage does not grow to be taller than twelve inches, making this plant a perfect choice for borders.
If you wish to include these flowers in your landscape, you will have to plant them in a spot with partial shade. Their shape makes them too delicate to sustain sunlight for long periods. They also do not need too much water or maintenance.
Another selling point for these perennials is the fact that rabbits dislike them. If you are having trouble with rabbits in your garden, this plant is a safe choice that will keep them as far away from your garden as possible.
