Veronica

Ok, this is delightful! A small evergreen subshrub which has these shiny little leaves on mahogany stems with sprays of lavender-blue with a distinctive magenta ring enclosing a white eye. This happily flowers from June until frost and shearing off the spent flowers encourages continued bloom. This makes a 10"x24" billow of foliage and flower in sun to part sun.

Nice hardy Hebe for us here in the PNW as this hails from the alpine and subalpine areas of the drier mountains on New Zealand's South Island. A low creeper to just 8" high, the olive-green leaves are quite good but it really gets its groove on when it blooms as the white flowers contrast with the near-black stems.

Always vying for Top Hebe in our esteem, this compact grower sports narrow blue-gray leaves with months of white flowers. Our plant has weathered our worst winters with nary a whimper and is at this moment of writing on August 5, without fault, well into month two of blooming. We had the good fortune to have superstar UK garden photographer Andrea Jones visit the summer of 2013 and our 2'x3' plant of Hebe recurva, which was underplanted with Mertensia maritima, was looking smashing. The Mertensia had of its own accord draped a stem over the Hebe and was at its peak with its own even bluer leaves and its small sky-blue flowers. Andrea homed in on this like she was laser-guided and we only wished that we could take credit for the artistry. She was kind giving us credit for the combination while creating the space for serendipitous opportunity.

Way too much name for a favorite Veronica. This thrives in the sun and the gray foliage with blue candles of flowers butted up to a black rockery rock would make the cover of Rock Garden Quarterly.

Small-scale evergreen Hebe and one of the hardier ones for our area. This is attractive in flower or out as it has very tidy foliage and a pleasing mounding habit. The flowers are small and white and sometimes with a bit of a mauve tinge but anyone would say white.

This sweet little New Zealand groundcover is perhaps best known by its former name of Parahebe olsenii. Soft lavender flowers with a yellow eye rimmed in cerise feathering are held just above the small rounded evergreen leaves that have tones of green olive. Tidy is a word that comes to mind.

A native of the wild east of Washington state, this is one outlaw that couldn't escape the long arm of taxonomical law and its free-wheeling life as the impossible to spell Synthyris has ended in emasculation at the hands of all consuming Veronica. Cormac would weep. Nonetheless it's evergreen discs of boot-spur margined foliage and vivid purple gun-barrel flowers spikes will live on in garden legend.

One of the sweetest little groundcovers we have grown. Aside from the small terminal clusters of deep blue flowers in late spring and early summer, we are taken by its good evergreen foliage and year-round tidy appearance. It is in one of our troughs and spills over the lip perfectly. Good for the rock garden.