15 Best Plants For Rock Gardens

A strange plant whose blossoms stick tightly to the rocky ground is something we always wish for. Opposite to the plain and dull look of the rock surfaces, these recommended plants will brighten up any rock they grow.

The natural beauty between plants and rocks will be accomplished if you organize landscaping and combine different plants in a balanced way. This variety provides you with numerous choices to organize your rocky garden with plants that differ in size, height, and shape.

#1. Columbine (Aquilegia)

USDA Growing Zones: 3 to 9
Color Varieties: Red, pink, yellow, white, blue, purple
How to grow: It needs full sun to partial shade and average, medium moisture, well-draining soil

#2. Cranesbill Geranium (Geranium Sanguineum)

USDA Growing Zones: 3 to 9
Color Varieties: Blue, lavender, pink, purple, white
How to grow: It needs full sun to partial shade and medium moisture, well-drained soil

#3. Lavender (Lavandula)

USDA Growing Zones: 5 to 9
Color Varieties: Blue, lavender,  blue-violet, mauve, pink, or white
How to grow: It needs full sun and not fertile and well-drained soil

#4. Sedum Autumn Joy (Hylotelephium Spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’)

USDA Growing Zones: 3 to 10
Color Varieties: Warm pink, to bronze rose, to a deeper brick red before frost.
How to grow: It needs 6 hours of full sun a day and well-drained soil

#5. Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum Setaceum ‘Rubrum’)

USDA Growing Zones: 9 to 10
Color Varieties: Burgandy Red
How to grow: It needs full sun to part shade, medium moisture and well-drained soil

#6. Red Creeping Thyme (Thymus Praecox ‘Coccineus’)

USDA Growing Zones: 4 to 9
Color Varieties: Red creeping thyme range from purple to crimson
How to grow: It needs about 6 hours of full sun a day, medium moisture and well-drained and alkaline pH soil

#7. Ice Plant (Delosperma Cooperi)

USDA Growing Zones: 5 to 9
Color Varieties: Red creeping thyme range from purple to crimson
How to grow: It prefers full sun but can tolerate light shade, poor soil, and well-drained soil

#8. Irish Moss (Chondrus Crispus)

USDA Growing Zones: 4 to 8
Color Varieties: Red creeping thyme range from purple to crimson
How to grow: It prefers full sun but can tolerate light shade, fertile and rich soil, and well-drained soil

#9. Ajuga Black Scallop (Ajuga Reptans ‘Black Scallop’)

USDA Growing Zones: 6 to 9
Color Varieties: Red creeping thyme range from purple to crimson
How to grow: A lover of part shade to full shade and average, medium, well-drained soil

#10. Blue Fescue (Festuca Glauca)

USDA Growing Zones: 4 to 8
Color Varieties: Green, yellow
How to grow: A lover of part shade to full shade and moist, well-drained, alkaline, acidic soil

#11. Gopher Plant (Euphorbia Rigida)

USDA Growing Zones: 7 to 10
Color Varieties: Distinctive gray-blue, lance-shaped leaves, chartreuse bracts, and bright yellow springtime flowers.
How to grow: A lover of full shade and moist, poor, well-drained soil

#12. Snow-in-Summer (Cerastium Tomentosum)

USDA Growing Zones: 3 to 7
Color Varieties: “snowfall” of white blooms
How to grow: A lover of full shade and slightly acidic, well-drained soil

#13. Pink Skullcap (Scutellaria Suffrutescens)

USDA Growing Zones: 7 to 10
Color Varieties:  Dark pink
How to grow: A lover of full sun and sandy, rocky soils with well-drained soil

#14. Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum Tectorum)

USDA Growing Zones: 3 to 8
Color Varieties:   Green to blue, purple to pink, and even gray
How to grow: A lover of full sun and well-drained soil

#15. Rock Garden Mugo Pine (Pinus Mugo ‘Rock Garden’)

USDA Growing Zones: 2 to 7
Color Varieties: Dark green evergreen foliage, its bark is gray-brown
How to grow: A lover of full sun, slightly acidic and well-drained soil