Aptenia cordifolia

The baby sunrose is a low-maintenance, succulent plant that's native to South Africa.

Baby sunroses have fleshy, heart-shaped leaves that are bright green with creamy-white edges. The flowers are small, button-like, and can be reddish-purple, pinkish-purple, or bright red.

The Bacopa plant (Sutera cordata) is simple to grow and produces abundant blooms from spring until autumn. It's a trailing plant, making it an excellent option for hanging planters, container gardens, and groundcover. Bacopa will usually grow to no more than 4-6 inches high. It can be grown as a perennial in USDA Hardiness Zones 8-11. In colder areas, this plant is treated as an annual.

Most commonly seen in its white-flowered form, bacopa can bloom almost nonstop through the entire growing season. Though small, the white flowers cover the plant and act as a beautiful backdrop. The tiny green leaves are roughly heart-shaped and have a slightly serrated edge. The white blooms and green foliage mix easily in almost any plant combination.

Evolvulus glomeratus—Blue daze is a flowering ground-cover with a mounding habit. The striking, vibrant blue flowers are prominently displayed among a carpet of fuzzy oval-shaped leaves. Prolifically flowering year-round, too much fertilizer will yield abundant foliage with sparse flowers. It has no serious pests or diseases. Good drainage is required for this low-maintenance plant. 

A non-vining member of the Morning Glory family, Blue daze is perfect for hanging baskets. The trailing stems spill out of the container for a pleasing aesthetic. It is also an excellent ground cover. This Brasil native does not set seed, so propagation is by cuttings. Once established, it is mostly drought tolerant. 

Acalypha pendula - This ground-hugging, fine-textured relative of the more common chenille plant grows no more than several inches tall. In the full sun, it forms a thick canopy of tiny, serrated leaves no more than 3/4 inches long by 1/2 inches wide. Bright red, fussy flowers stand erect above the foliage like soldiers in a field.

Unique and frankly adorable, the chenille is a valuable landscape asset for partial shade, the environment in which it seems to do best, where it will bring bright red color to a shadier area.

These make great accents or even hedge plants for a tropical style or cottage garden landscape design.

Though it's most commonly used in formal landscaping, Minima jasmine adds a touch of class to a casual landscape and looks very elegant. Tough and great looking when well cared for, this jasmine rarely flowers but forms a blanket of foliage to set off large plants.

These plants do require routine maintenance keeping the planting area edged and snipping off an occasional wayward shoot that tries to climb. Other than that it is an easy-care groundcover and makes an excellent turf grass replacement.

Mimosa strigillosa - Powderpuff mimosa, also known as sunshine mimosa, is a native, low-growing Florida groundcover that is increasingly being used in home and commercial settings. This versatile plant blooms non-stop from spring through fall with pink, ball-shaped flowers that look like small powder puffs.

Gardeners love the puffy one-inch flowers that earned the plant its common name, as well as its interesting foliage. Powderpuff mimosa has attractive bright green, fern-like leaves that fold up when touched. Although the foliage looks fragile, it’s quite resilient and it also attracts butterflies and serves as a host plant for butterfly larvae.

Powderpuff mimosa is an effective ground cover because it spreads very quickly. As few as four or five pots can cover up to 300 square feet in a season. However, it’s not an overly aggressive plant and can be intermixed with turfgrass or other plants.

Oyster plant is a short-stemmed, tender foliage plant that makes attractive, small, dense, spreading clumps. It forms a solid groundcover of upright leaves. The 6 to 8 inch long, sword-shaped leaves are green above and purplish below. The unusual flowers, borne down among the leaves, appear as clusters of tiny white flowers nestled within two boat-shaped, purplish bracts. They are not noticeable unless you look closely.

Juniperus spp - Junipers are hardy evergreen shrubs that thrive in most US growing zones. Junipers are versatile and great for adding depth and color to any landscape. Junipers are deer-resistant, salt-tolerant, and extremely low maintenance. Helpful for controlling soil erosion, Juniper plants are an excellent choice for planting on hills and slopes.

Juniper shrubs are great for group and foundation plantings, low hedges, rock gardens, and mixed beds. These tough bushes offer year-round color and great texture.

Florida’s hot summers and sandy soils can pose a challenge for some plants, but not this tough plant. Perennial peanut is a versatile groundcover that can be planted statewide and blooms all summer long with cheerful golden flowers.

It can be planted on its own as a groundcover in larger beds or used as a lawn alternative in areas that receive low levels of foot traffic. It also can be inter-planted within some existing lawns.

This spreading groundcover is particularly effective on sites that have problems with erosion, since the rhizomes grow to form a mat that helps hold soil in place.

Common purslane, Portulaca oleracea, is a highly variable, weedy plant in the purslane family (Portulacaceae) with a wide distribution. Although it is likely native to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, it had reached North America by pre-Columbian times and was in Europe by the late 16th century. It is now naturalized in most parts of the world, both tropical and temperate – equally at home in flower beds, cultivated fields, and roadsides or other disturbed or waste places. It has been grown for more than 4,000 years as a food and medicinal plant and is still cultivated in many places today.

Juniperus spp - Junipers are hardy evergreen shrubs that thrive in most US growing zones. Junipers are versatile and great for adding depth and color to any landscape. Junipers are deer-resistant, salt-tolerant, and extremely low maintenance. Helpful for controlling soil erosion, Juniper plants are an excellent choice for planting on hills and slopes.

Juniper shrubs are great for group and foundation plantings, low hedges, rock gardens, and mixed beds. These tough bushes offer year-round color and great texture.