If there’s one species of native plants utterly indispensable for shady or native woodland gardens, wild ginger (Asarum canadense) is it! Found throughout the eastern US (except the Gulf Coast), wild ginger stands up to challenging conditions, yet is one of nature’s better behaved groundcovers and edge plants.
Wild ginger is great for tough shady spots in the garden.
Photo Credit: © 2007 Pennystone Gardens
Wild ginger is great for tough shady spots in the garden.
Photo Credit: © 2007 Pennystone Gardens
This leafy beauty slowly forms thick colonies of rich green and doesn’t grow more than a few inches tall. The pretty heart-shaped leaves are a rather soft green in deep shade, but they can get glossy and bright when the plant is working with some morning sunshine. What’s more, this groundcover never gets out of hand.
In the garden, wild ginger is terrific for poor soils in very shady areas, but it’s also helpful in lighter shade and even part sun in a wide range of soils and moisture – it’s a true utility plant! You can use it in those tough situations under maple trees and evergreens or to soften building lines. Try planting wild ginger along leading edge beds as a great transition from lawn to larger favorites – you’ll find it forms a unifying feature that really brings your garden together.
If you get a really close look at the plant, you’ll find its matted rhizomes form a nest just below the earth’s surface. (Chances are it’ll remind you of a tangle of long, green worms.) Because the roots are so close to the surface, it’s very easy to slice off chunks from the continual colony expansion and replant them elsewhere virtually any time of the year. Since wild ginger only puts up one batch of leaves in a season, your transplanted patch will probably look a bit forlorn in its first year, but be patient. It’ll quickly settle in and begin to fill the gaps come spring.
The only drawback to this marvelously useful plant is that it’s shy with flowers. The tiny, brownish blooms (which open like a peeled banana) are hidden under the leaves. While they’re not showy, the flowers work for the plant – wild ginger doesn’t need the services of a bee, but it takes advantage of the small creatures that live close to the earth to pollinate and disperse its seed. (Every once in awhile you’ll see the result, when a small plant appears some distance from the home colony and a new patch is born.)
Asarum canadense requires very little care in exchange for its fine service to our gardens. In addition to reasonable drainage, you can treat the plant to a thin layer of humus, perhaps amended with some shredded leaves to enhance the acidity and organic qualities, and it’ll keep shining all season long. Wild ginger withstands variables in weather quite well (and can even go weeks without water), but it’ll be among the first to signal that the forest floor is starting to get too dry. The leaves will droop as if on their last breath, but they quickly recover with a passing shower or a good blast from the garden hose.
If you’re in the market for a tough native groundcover, give wild ginger a try. This is one beauty that’ll have your garden made in the shade.
