How to Grow Pachysandra Groundcover

A pointed trowel is an essential tool to lift pachysandra for transplanting.

Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis) is a delightful, very low-maintenance groundcover that stands about 6 inches high and produces delicate white or lavender flowers. Pachysandra has bright green, serrated leaves in the spring that darken to a forest green by autumn. While pachysandra will grow in full sun, it does best in shade or partial sun, making it the perfect groundcover under trees and shrubs, as well as an excellent choice for pocket gardens in the city, where you can distribute colorful container flowers around a bed of pachysandra. This groundcover is prolific and dense. If it grows in your neighborhood, you might find a friend who would be willing to let you harvest enough plants to get you started.

Things You'll Need

• Pointed gardening trowel
• Pachysandra plants
• General-purpose fertilizer
• Mulch (optional)
• Leaf blower (optional)

Instructions

1. Push your pointed trowel into the ground in the bed of pachysandra and lift up the soil under the roots of five or six plants. Do not pull the roots out yet.

2. Pull the plants up at the base. The roots in the soil you have loosened will pull up easily. Don't worry about the roots that don't come up easily. Pull the plants out of the ground. Repeat in two or three more areas of the bed of pachysandra, being sure to tamp down the soil you have disturbed.

3. Dig shallow basins within the area you have planned for your pachysandra bed. The bed should have well-drained, rich soil. The holes should accommodate the roots of the pachysandra when they are extended.

4. Plant the pachysandra in clumps, spreading out the shallow roots to lie across the surface of the basin. Arrange the clumps so they have some room. During the first year you will need to keep the soil moist, watering heavily a couple times a week. If your region is very hot, apply a 2-inch thick layer of mulch to help retain moisture.

5. Separate the clumps as they get thicker in the second year and use the extra pachysandra to fill in more of the bed. By the third year, you should have pachysandra filling the bed and it should be able to sustain itself without extra watering unless you hit a very dry spell.

6. Fertilize with a general-purpose fertilizer. In the fall use a leaf blower to get rid of the dead leaves. Raking pachysandra will pull up a lot of the plants and damage many more.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't have a friendly neighbor with a pachysandra bed, you can buy pachysandra at your local nursery or home improvement store, or order it online.

References

• How to Care for Pachysandra
• Garden for the House: Pachysandra: Exploding the "Shade-Only" Myth