Carpet of Color

I love plants that make colorful carpets during the summer months. Here are a few of my favorites. I like to recommend the Cora Cascade vinca because of their heavy production of colorful flowers. Cora Cascade vinca produce plants with good branching and spread up to 36 inches wide. The trailing growth habit is perfect for showing off the big and showy flowers that come in colors of cherry, lilac, peach Blush, Polka dot and Strawberry. Purslane is one of these plants that are perfect for carpeting many places in your garden. Purslane forms a dense mat of drought resistant color. It also does great in small patches as well. Purslane is a tough summer plant for our Mississippi heat that has become a flowering favorite of mine. Ornamental sweet potatoes are perfect for laying a gorgeous carpet of vivid and attractive leaves. These plants are vigorous that produce thick mats of color. The Sweet Caroline series offers a wide selection of heart-shaped and cut-leaf foliage in a variety of colors for the landscape. Foliage colors include light green, purple, red, and bronze. Tangerine Beauty cross vine is perfect to create a vertical carpet of color like it’s doing scrambling up and over this entrance arbor. It is simply covered in flowers. The flower buds are a pinkish red, and open into funnel-shaped orange, salmon, and yellow flowers. There’s nothing like creating a floral carpet of color to create landscape interest. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman and I hope you join me next time on Southern Gardening.