Phoenix Perennials owner Gary Lewis' compendium of 4000 different ground covers plus how to make use of all their many functional, aesthetic, and environmental benefits.

Achlys triphylla is a unique ground cover attractive to pollinators and hummingbirds. The dried three-part leaves smell like vanilla.

The evergreen Himalayan maidenhair fern, Adiantum venustum, forms delicate and elegant, slowly expanding mats.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Cordial Canary' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with bright gold foliage and cobalt-blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Fancy Finch' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed offering colours of gold, bronze and green with blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Fierce Falcon' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with glossy, purple to black foliage and cobalt-blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Noble Nightingale' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with metallic black leaves and cobalt with blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Parrot Paradise' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with yellow, orange, and red leaves with blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Petite Parakeet' offers shades of yellow, red and green leaves with cobalt blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Tropical Toucan' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with golden yellow leaves with blue flowers.

Ajuga reptans 'Blueberry Muffin' is a bugleweed with dark new foliage and blueberry-blue flowers on eight inch spikes.

Ajuga 'Valfredda' Chocolate Chip has small, narrow, elongated leaves that are flushed with burgundy when young and in more sun.

Ajuga tenorii 'Princess Nadia' has gorgeous variegated leaves in shades of grey-green, cream, and pink topped with reblooming purple-blue flower spikes.

Alchemilla ellenbeckii is an unusual, creeping lady's mantle with trailing, reddish stems with tiny leaves and electric green flowers.

Anaphalis margaritacea (pearly everlasting) has crisp white flowers attractive to butterflies and which are useful for drying.

Antennaria dioica 'Rubra', pink pussytoes, is small, cold hardy ground cover with silver leaves and fuzzy, pink flowers.

Antennaria plantaginifolia is a cold hardy, ground covering pussytoes with silver-green leaves and fuzzy, white and pink flowers.

Anthirrhimum sempervirens 'Drew's Folly' is a hardy perennial snapdragon with dusty pink flowers and fuzzy dark green foliage.

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, known as kinnikinnick or bear berry, is a slow-growing evergreen native ground cover.

Artemisia 'Silver Lining' is a mounding white sagebrush with beautiful, broadly dissected, silver-gray foliage.

Asarum canadense is the Canadian wild ginger with bell-shaped brownish-purple flowers and heart-shaped leaves.

Asarum caudatum is a beautiful western North American wild ginger that includes BC within its native range.

Asarum caudatum f. album known as western wild ginger has glossy evergreen leaves and 3-petaled creamy-white flowers.

Asarum europaeum is a groundcover of the highest order with attractive, somewhat glossy, kidney-shaped to round foliage on creeping rhizomes.

Asarum splendens is one of the finest wild gingers with arrow-shaped, deep green leaves with silver marbling.

Aster ericoides 'Snow Flurry' is a cold hardy heather aster with masses of late season nectar-rich white flowers.

Calamintha nepeta 'Marvelette Blue', the lesser calamint, has aromatic foliage and clouds of light purple and blue flowers.

Tolerant of dry sites, Calamintha nepeta 'White Cloud' has masses of white flowers atop aromatic foliage for months.

Callirhoe involucrata is an extremely showy, midwestern US native with luscious, glowing, magenta flowers with white centres.

Campanula poscharskyana 'Blue Waterfall' offers masses of starry blue flowers from spring to fall.