Yesterday at the nearest nursery garden center 50 miles away, I saw "Dwarf Plumbago" as a new plant just in for fall planting. No other info, except it was very very bushy, about 6 inches tall. Also noted was good drainage needed, sun/part shade. Would have blue flowers. That was it.

According to info I just found online, it will spread as groundcover,and it will be hardy in zone 5 ccording to comments submitted. Also, alkaline soil seemed to be OK.

I want to plant this on a slope that gets some sun in the morning, but by noon is in shade near tall trees. The ground is south, so as the sun travels west, it does get some later afternoon sun, but not a lot. Our soil is alkaline, and the soil on this slope is not the greatest soil. I would of course use garden soil to help amend.

Any comments or advice on this?

Another choice would be ajuga. I have not had luck with this in my backyard gardens. Hasn't ever spread much, had it in partial shade and full shade. It finally just disappeared.

But yesterday I saw several ajugas, and so many people love chocolate chip. Would you recommend this for my slope also? Or another form of ajuga? Or simply another groundcover altogether?

Going north under several (4) trees, I have nothing, was planning on transplanting a lot of vinca that grows well here, if slowly. On the north end of the slope I have Little Spire sage, Stella d'oro (they were on sale cheap), liriope, and transplants of something here in Kansas known as "Everlasting," some type of sedum. Oh and three nice big grasses that will get to be about three feet tall. I did put in 9 Emerald creeping phlox, dividing them into a group of 6 and a group of three. The group of six are pretty widely spaced and get part shade and are doing fine.

The group of three is in full sun, and doesn't look as good. I'll wait till spring to see if it survives. Was this a bad idea to plant it in full sun? I do have one area on this north end, under and next to the last tree that gets part shade where another groundcover that isn't horribly invasive would be welcome.

Your thoughts? Thanks, Leann

Some of the variegated Ajuga can be fickle and fade despite all care. Others are very durable.

When you say 'plumbago' are you meaning Ceratostigma which goes dormant in winter? It has lovely blue flowers over summer and rather nice tan branches in winter.

I'm wondering if any of the Epimediums would be suitable for your soil? They are hardy, do fine in dry conditions, and have a good root plate for holding soil. I've never found them to be invasive, and the spring flowers/new leaves are attractive. Grows about 12" high and slowly spreads to 24"+ I have them growing under plum trees, Camellias, in gravel and competing with surface-rooting plants. They still do well.

In your sunny open patch you might want to look at Centranthus for a splash of colour, and/or Cerastium, if it isn't weedy for your area.

If hardy ferns can be found locally, on your sort of soil and under trees, they can be very useful as groundcover.

You mentioned Hemerocallis. It could be worth asking on the Daylily forum for the names of varieties which will turn in a reliable display under your sort of conditions. The old orange sort does this for me. It isn't exciting, is a touch strident - and does flower in not much sun at all where more 'advanced' varieties just throw up lots of leaves.