Plant Pick: Herniaria glabra – It’s Drought Tolerant

 Does neglect make Herniaria glabra better? I guess so!

If you would like a little plant for your troughs or fairy gardens, I don’t think you can do better than this little gem! Get it on your plant list!  I found it also listed under “Sea Foam Green Carpet” or rupturewort.

 I am embarrassed to say ( and I call myself a gardener !) that one of these past years I found the little 3″ pot out in the garden under/beside some other troughs. I had purchased it in one of those frenzies that comes over us sometimes. Those times when you fill the back end of the car with all those irresistible little lovelies displayed at our local garden center.

I found that I had overlooked that little pot all season until I was ready to pot up some new hypertufas I had just made. Horror!  I worried that the neglected small nursery plant would die, but it still looked good!  I watered it well that night and next morning put in the trough I had recently made.

How did the Herniaria glabra recover?

That next morning, it looked like it had just came from the nursery! I noticed no dying areas etc. I removed nothing. I am enthralled by a plant that can do that!  And we all know that not many can!

Herniaria glabra  looks almost like creeping or woolly thyme, but it has a rough or almost wire-like texture.  I have seen a few buds on the branches, but I have never noticed blooms. However, the flower is described as “insignificant” so it’s not for you if you are looking for flowers. Try this instead. But what a creeping spreader.  And it’s deer resistant. 

I need to plant it in my  Rock Garden area in the front of the house. ( Also known as Bambi’s Restaurant and Buffet Garden.) Truthfully, I think it is Thumper that I most need to worry about. It’s rabbits and squirrels that get to mine. But there are coyotes in the area, so not too much of a problem.