Easily cover your ground with beautiful bugleweed

When you need an attractive plant to cover the ground quickly, try bugleweed, which will form a thick, tidy carpet even in the most challenging places. We'll teach you some tricks to grow and care for this useful plant.

• Also called ajuga, the plant produces a flat, small, soil-hugging rosette of nearly evergreen oval leaves, adorned in spring by 15 centimetre (six inch) spires densely packed with small blue bugle-shaped blossoms.
• Even though it only stands five centimetres (two inches) tall when not in flower, bugleweed is fully capable of scaling slopes and hopscotching between paved areas or stepping-stones.
• For a knock-'em-dead impact in spring, underplant rose-coloured azaleas with blue-flowering bugleweed, or try these very hardy plants in containers.
• Bugleweed blossoms last only a few weeks, but form a haze of faintly fragrant flowers that attract honeybees.
• Most strains bloom purplish-blue, though 'Alba' blooms white and 'Pink Surprise' and 'Pink Elf' produce pink blossoms.
• Leaf colours also vary widely. There's the rich, shiny green of the most vigorous spreaders, the deep burgundy of 'Atropupurea,' the silver frosting of 'Silver Carpet,' and the mix of rose, white and green found in 'Burgundy Glow.'

• Colonies march speedily on, with plants multiplying by forming a ring of a dozen or so new plants each summer, all connected to the parent by stem-like structures, or stolons.
• To keep beds full and fresh, dig out the new plants and reset them at eight centimetre (three inch) intervals where needed to fill in gaps or expand the planting. Use a garden trowel to sever the little plantlets and lift them, because they'll have a sturdy tuft of fibrous roots attached.
• For the best show of spring flowers, transplant in fall and keep the plants very well-watered until they're established. Bugleweed self-sows when healthy, so you can often find volunteers in the lawn that can be rescued for garden or container use.

• To start a new planting, dig the soil well. Add a generous amount of organic matter to improve drainage and a little balanced fertilizer for strong growth.
• Bugleweed prefers shade but can tolerate the sun. It competes well with tree or shrub roots as long as you water generously while the bugleweed takes hold during its first season in the ground.
• For neatness, cut off flower spikes after the blooms fade. You can easily do this by setting your mower blade high and running over the bed.
• Sap-sucking aphids may cluster on leaves, but they can be rinsed off with water from a hose or controlled with insecticidal soap.
• The sudden collapse of a plant may be due to fatal fungal root rot. This soil-borne fungi flourishes in warm, damp weather. Unfortunately, there's no cure other than starting over in a new place.

Care well for bugleweed and you'll be rewarded with a stunning carpeted display. Use this guide to ensure your plants get the care they need so that they're happy and healthy all season long.