Blue creeping phlox lays a cool wash of lavender-blue over the ground each spring, the mildly fragrant flowers packed shoulder to shoulder across a low evergreen mat. At just a few inches tall and up to 3 feet across, it brings a color few other spring groundcovers offer.

Use it as the cooler note among spring pinks and yellows — let it cascade over a retaining wall or run between boulders. It asks for sun to part sun and drainage above all; established mats take drought, rocky soil, salt, and deer. Shear lightly after flowering.