Overview and growing conditions

Mazus, also known as creeping Mazus, is a flowering perennial groundcover. It can handle full sun to partial shade and performs best with a medium amount of watering. In my own garden, I have found that I don’t need to water it much at all once it’s established, even in the middle of summer. It may die back a bit after a period of hot, dry conditions, but since it’s a fast grower to begin with I have found that it fills back in pretty quickly.

When does it flower? How long does it flower?

Mazus flowers in spring for 3-4 weeks. It has purple flowers, and there is also a version with white flowers that’s called Mazus Alba. It may send up more flowers randomly throughout early summer, but they are not that noticeable.

How easy is it to care for Mazus?

Overall score: 7 (easy). Mazus is easy to establish and can quickly fill in a space. It may require some water in it’s first year, but after that it can bounce back from most of what the weather can throw at it.

I wouldn’t call it very easy to care for though because there is some work in keeping it in check once it is established. After it flowers, I give mine a haircut and clean up the edges of my Mazus patch where it will try to invade neighboring plants. I also have to make sure I keep a border of mulch between any Mazus and grass because it could become a weedy issue in a grass lawn. I’ll sometimes give it a second clean up later in the summer if needed. I think these tasks are worth it for how reliable of a ground cover Mazus is, but it’s worth noting that it’s not a completely effortless plant.

Preparing Mazus for winter

Mazus doesn’t require winter preparation. In my are (mid-atlantic, 7 growing zone) it will stay green until late in the winter. Once temperatures really drop it turns a purplish color and dies back somewhat, but it doesn’t disappear completely.

The very first winter when I had just planted Mazus I did cover some of it with some shredded leaves to help it out over the winter, and that section did come in more strongly that spring. I have other sections of Mazus I did not do this too though and they still survived winter, and eventually established into strong plants, just fine.

Problems with Mazus

Slugs and snails like the protection of Mazus and will burrow down in patches of it and snack away. I will sometimes find sections of Mazus eaten down that slugs got to. So far the plant has rebounded from this just fine, but if I notice a lot of slugs I will sometimes proactively trim the Mazus to make it a little less appealing of a hiding spot.