Pachysandra - Spurges
Japanese Spurge - great low-growing ground cover with dense evergreen foliage. Great ground cover for a shady area.
| Pachysandra | Evergreen Perennial |
|---|---|
| Bloom Time | Summer |
| Light | Light to Deep Shade |
| Water | Moist, Well-Drained |
| Diseases | Blight, Leaf Spot, Die Back, Stem Rot |
| Pests | Mites, Nematodes, Scale |
| Propagation | Divisions in Spring, Cuttings in Summer |
| Color | White |
| Zones | 4 - 8 |
| Features | Deer Resistant |
Pachysandra - Japanese Spurge, Variegated
The Evergreen Japanese Spurge is the most common and has masses of white or pinkish flowers on top of shiny evergreen foliage in early summer.
Japanese Spurge also come in a variegated cultivar, which as attractive creamy white borders on the leaves.
If you have a difficult shady area to cover, the Pachysandra will step up to the plate and not let you down.
They can be planted where nothing else will survive, such as a woodland path, under a dense tree canopy or in the shade of a structure.
Japanese Spurge really needs shade to excel and will not disappoint you. It will quickly fill-in with dense ground stolons, 8-10 inches tall.
At first it may seem to take a long time for them to grow, but once the underground runners start to send up new growth, you will have any area complete filled with a dense green carpet by the end of the first growing season.
Pachysandra is easy on the eye and does not need mowing. Its evergreen or semi-evergreen foliage is arranged in whorls topped in spring by short spikes of fragrant white or pinkish flowers.
One note: Japanese spurge may become invasive and is a greedy neighbor.
Spurge is very easy to divide in the spring, prior to blooming. Just drive a digging fork or sharp spade into the bed and pry up as many plantlet's as you like.
They are all attach to the mother plant, so you can simply select the ones that have a root clump forming at one of the joints, along with a health looking spout or several sprouts.
Prepare the new bed by loosening the soil with a Rear-Tine Roto-Tiller, along with generous amounts of manure or dried bone meal. Plant the divisions and water well until established.
You should have a border that is completely filled by the end of the first growing season.
Pachysandra - Japanese Spurge
Primrose:
With colorful flowers and often-textured leaves, various kinds of primroses make fine companions for clumping Allegheny spurge in light shade where soil is moist.
Cinnamon fern:
For height and a striking foliage textural contrast, plant cinnamon fern as accent plants with spurge in shaded places.
Hakone grass:
The golden blades of Aureola Japanese forestgrass are striped with green in perfect contrast to the whorls of glossy evergreen spurge foliage.
Plantain Lilly - Hosta:
Perfect for the shaded garden! An outstanding foliage plant, excellent as an edging or specimen in perennial gardens or mixed plantings or as a small-scale ground cover. Attractive with ferns and astilbe. White or lavender lilylike flowers.
Lilly of the Valley:
Lily-of-the-valley prefers shade and moist soil. In sunny or dry conditions, its leaves will brown. It can easily become invasive, so it's smart to put it in an area where it will be difficult to spread too far, such as a blocked in by a driveway or sidewalk.
Pachysandra - Japanese Spurge
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Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis) carries whorls of evergreen glossy leaves and short spikes of fragrant white flowers in spring. Zones 4-8.
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Variegated Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis 'Variegata') has slightly more grayish green leaves than the species, and these are frosted with an irregular white rim. The familiar spikes of white flowers bloom in spring. The variegated forms are not as aggressive as the species. Zones 4-8.
Pachysandra - Japanese Spurge
Spacing: Space 8" - 12" apart when planting. Planting closer will provide you with a dense ground cover in the first growing season
Fertilizer: Feed the same time as you feed your lawn
Water Requirements: For best growth, keep the soil moist at all times.
Sun: These plants love the shade. Combine them with Hosta for great shade gardens.
Soil Conditions: Provide consistently and evenly moist soil.
Use the Pachysandra as a dense ground cover in shady locations. Plant along shady garden pathways or beneath a dense overhead tree canopy. They thrive in the shade.
Also, it can be hard to find a plant to cover a shady slope. The Pachysandra again would be a great choice for that spot.
While some term them as invasive, they are fairly easy to contain by placing landscape edging around the clumps, which will prevent the underground runners from extending beyond their border.
They are also fairly easy to dig up and move as you will find dozens of runners coming from each plant.
Plant them fairly close together to get the full effect of their dense ground cover characteristics as soon as possible.
Pachysandra also prefers slightly acidic soil, such as the soil that would be present in oak forests.
