Plant · P-165

Creeping Jenny

Lysimachia nummularia

Creeping Jenny forms a fast, dense evergreen mat only a couple of inches tall, rooting at every leaf node as it spreads, and it holds ground where most groundcovers rot from too much shade and moisture. It needs consistent moisture and afternoon shade to thrive - full sun and dry heat make it scorch and thin - so it does best in containers, planter boxes, paver joints, or the shaded, irrigated edge of a bed rather than open, unamended ground. Its cup-shaped yellow flowers appear in early summer, and while it spreads readily by rooting stems it rarely sets viable seed in North America, so containment is mostly a matter of lifting stray runners rather than fighting a seed bank.