Cliff green
Paxistima canbyi · Celastraceae
A low, neat carpet of tiny, narrow, glossy, evergreen leaves that bronze in winter. A rare native of Appalachian limestone cliffs.
- Size
- 12 in tall, 3 ft wide
- Zones
- 3 to 7
- Light
- Full sun to part shade
- Flowers
- Grown for its leaves; flowers early May to mid May
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Carpet
A bed built around cliff green
The planner designed this bed around cliff green when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, part sun. It chose the other plants from the 708 that suit those conditions, and says below why cliff green stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Cliff green × 3, dark green leaves
- 2 Mouse-ear coreopsis 'Nana' × 11, yellow
- 3 Garden phlox 'Jeana' × 4, pink
- 4 Purple milkweed × 3, purple
- 5 Pieris 'Little Heath' × 1, variegated leaves
- 6 Hellebore 'Ivory Prince' × 3, cream
- 7 Surprise lily × 3, pink
- 8 Iris 'Katharine Hodgkin' × 12, blue
Why this plant
- Grown for leaf, not flower. So is pieris 'Little Heath'. Leaf lasts all season, where a flower lasts a few weeks.
- Part of the bed's structure. Shrubs and grasses keep their shape when the perennials die down. So does pieris 'Little Heath'.
Why here
- On the front edge. At 12 in it frames the bed without hiding it, and it is in leaf all season. It finishes 52% of the edge.
- 3 plants in one run. An unbroken run of one kind gives the edge a clean line.
- Fine leaf against bold. Hellebore 'Ivory Prince' is beside it: the strongest contrast of leaf there is.
Why now
- Here for its leaves, all year. They cover the 11 weeks between early March and late November when nothing on the plan is in flower.
- One of three evergreens. They are what the bed has to show from November to March.
Planned as an English border: 5 of the 6 groups (83%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. The bed is balanced: the left half carries 51% of the visual weight and the right half 49%. The scheme leans cool (pink, purple and blue) and uses yellow for warmth, with cream to calm things between them.
The planner's own design check: 9 Excellent, 7 Good, 1 Satisfactory.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where cliff green goes in a border
At 12 in it belongs at the front of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is low (6 to 12 in).
Its job: carpet. A groundcover planted in threes and fives to cover the soil: along the front, and just behind it.
An evergreen edging and groundcover with the look of a miniature boxwood, hardy to zone 3. It needs sharp drainage and suffers in wet clay.
- A low evergreen edging
- Groundcover on well-drained slopes
- Rock gardens
What to plant with cliff green
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Bearberry: adds the flowers, early May to late May.
- Lowbush blueberry: adds the flowers, early May to late May.
- Christmas fern: tall enough (20 in) to stand behind it.
Questions about cliff green
Does cliff green need sun or shade?
Cliff green grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day), part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun) and part shade (2 to 4 hours of sun, mostly in the morning).
It wants ordinary well-drained soil, of average fertility, and little watering once settled.
What zones does cliff green grow in?
USDA zones 3 to 7. It is hardy to zone 3, which means it survives winter nights down to about −30 °F (−34 °C).
Above zone 7 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
How far apart should cliff green be planted?
24 in (60 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 3 ft (90 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 12 in (30 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many cliff green plants do I need?
At 24 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 3 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 6 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 10 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as threes and fives, along the front and just behind it.
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
What does cliff green look like in winter?
Cliff green keeps its dark green leaves all winter, so it is one of the plants that hold a bed together from November to March, when the perennials have gone.
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Shrub (groundcover)
- Size
- 12 in (30 cm) tall, 3 ft (90 cm) wide
- Plant
- 24 in (60 cm) apart
- Height class
- Low (6 to 12 in)
- Place in the bed
- Front
- Flowers
- Early May to mid May; dense clusters; green, red
- Leaves
- Fine texture, evergreen; dark green
- Shape
- Mat-forming, spreading
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 3 to 7
- Light
- Full sun, part sun, part shade
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Celastraceae
Not yet checked against an outside reference: its figures rest on general horticultural knowledge. Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.