Asarum
Asarum spp.
Special Features
Offers attractive, heart-shaped leaves and hidden flowers. An ideal ground cover for shady areas, adding lush, green texture to the garden floor.
Plant Specifications
Our team will help you integrate this plant into your landscape design
Growing Asarum on Martha's Vineyard
Asarum canadense, the wild ginger, is an outstanding native ground cover for the shaded, humus-rich woodland gardens of Martha's Vineyard, spreading steadily to form a dense, weed-suppressing carpet beneath the island's native oak and beech canopy. Its broad, heart-shaped leaves are consistently lush through the island's humid summers, tolerating the acidic, sandy soils found throughout up-island properties in West Tisbury, Chilmark, and Aquinnah. The plant is virtually indestructible once established, persisting through drought, root competition, and the variable winter conditions of the New England maritime climate.
Deer consistently avoid it, making it one of the most dependable unfenced ground cover options on the island. Estate Care professionals include wild ginger in shade restoration programs where long-term coverage with near-zero maintenance is the primary objective.
