Scotch Moss 'Aurea'
Scotch Moss 'Aurea'

Multi Buy

Size Guide
3.5
3.5" Perennial
3 or more $6.00 ea
Regularly: $6.99 ea

Scotch Moss 'Aurea'

Scott's Nursery Ltd.

$3.50
Title

Introduce an exquisite, high-contrast glow to your landscape with a luxurious living carpet of pure sunshine. This award-winning groundcover forms an exceptionally flat, moss-like cushion of fine, needle-thin foliage in a brilliant chartreuse-to-golden hue. In late spring, this luminous velvety mat is sprinkled with hundreds of tiny, star-shaped white blossoms that look like delicate jewels. It creates an enchanting visual impact that illuminates shady stone paths, modern rockeries, and patio container borders.
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Plant Details

Mature Size:

1" H x 10" W

Zone:

4-10

Watering:

Medium

Type:

Herbaceous Perennial

Growth Rate:

Moderate

Light:

Full Sun/Partial Shade

Plant Profile

Common Names:

Scotch Moss, Golden Irish Moss, Pearlwort

Scientific Name:

Sagina subulata 'Aurea'

Type:

Filler / Spiller / Rockery Groundcover

Growth Details:

Mature Size: Grows 1 to 2 inches tall with a dense, creeping spread of 8 to 12 inches.

Growth Habit: Creeping, mat-forming, and spreading via low-growing stolons.

Form: Low-profile, ultra-dense, prostrate evergreen carpet.

Growth Rate: Medium.

Flowering: Profuse sheets of solitary, tiny, 5-petaled star-shaped blossoms.

Flowering Time: Late spring through early summer (Typically May to June).

Flower Colour: Crisp snow-white with a tiny yellow central eye.

Environmental Needs:

Exposure: Partial shade to full sun. Prefers cool morning light and filtered afternoon shade.

Soil Preferences: Rich, fertile, organic-matter-heavy loams that retain even, reliable moisture.

Soil Tolerance: Adapts well to sandy or gritty loams provided moisture is constant; completely intolerant of bone-dry, parched soils or stagnant, pooling mud.

Watering: Moderate. Water regularly to maintain constant root-zone moisture, especially during hot summer spells.

Container Role: Functions as an exceptional, highly tactile Filler or low, velvety ground-cover underlayment around structural centrepieces.

Special Features:

Disease Resistances: Highly robust; excellent natural resistance to common garden pests and leaf diseases.

Native Species: No (Native to western and central Europe).

Fast Growing: No (Grows steadily into a dense, long-lived cushion).

Attracts: Provides a welcome, early-season nectar source for small native bees and beneficial pollinators.

Uses: Between pavement seams, rock gardens, container texturizing, and fairy garden scapes.

Resistance: Highly deer-resistant and rabbit-resistant due to its dense, flat growth profile.
Care Guide

Ornamental & Landscape Value

Seasonal Interest:

Bloom Information: Highly showy, delicate white stars that contrast beautifully against the neon golden backdrop for weeks.

Fall Colour: No change; the foliage holds its striking chartreuse-gold tone beautifully through the autumn and winter months.

Garden Value:

Ornamental Interest: Ground-hugging, luminous chartreuse-gold mossy carpet topped with a starry display of miniature white flowers.

Landscaping Uses: Ideal for planting between stepping stones or flagstone paths, filling gaps in stone walls, alpine rockeries, fairy gardens, and framing garden borders.

Garden / Landscape Benefits: Highly effective, low-profile weed suppressor that withstands light foot traffic, making it an excellent alternative lawn substitute for small, shaded garden pathways.

Wildlife & Human Value:

Wildlife Value: Offers critical, early-season sustenance to valuable wild insect pollinators in shaded micro-climates.

Human Value: Provides a zero-irrigation, zero-mow turf alternative for narrow, challenging garden strips and pathway lines, adding a modern, high-end designer look.

Planting & Care Guide

Planting Considerations:

Best Time To Plant: Early spring when the weather is cool and damp, or early autumn.

Spacing: Space individual starts 6 to 9 inches apart to ensure quick, seamless coverage.

Location Tips: Select spaces with excellent drainage but reliable moisture, such as between stone pavers; avoid low hollows where winter water puddles.

Companion Plants: Pairs beautifully with dark-foliaged Heucheras, dwarf Hostas, miniature Ferns, Blue Fescue Grass, and dwarf spring-blooming bulbs.

Care:

Light Requirements: Thrives best in partial shade to full sun; requires protection from scorching, intense afternoon sun in hot climates to prevent the golden foliage from bleaching or scorching.

Moisture Requirements: Needs moderate, regular watering; the soil must remain consistently damp and never be allowed to dry out completely.

Maintenance, Fertilization: Low-maintenance. Gently press down any sections that bubble up from the ground due to frost heave. Apply a very mild, diluted liquid fertilizer in early spring to support its vibrant color; avoid high-nitrogen foods, which turn the brilliant gold back to standard green.

Tolerances:

High tolerance for early spring frost, cool damp weather, shade, and light foot traffic.

Tips For Success:

Thinning / Pinching: Not required, but old or large mats can be easily divided into small plugs in early spring to propagate or fill empty spots.

Support / Staking: Completely unnecessary; stays flush with the ground profile.

Special Needs: Consistent moisture is essential. If the mat completely dries in summer, it can cause irreversible brown dead patches.

Mulching: Avoid heavy organic bark mulches over the top, which trap surface moisture and rot the tiny leaves. Use a thin layer of fine grit if needed.

Winter Protection: None required; naturally designed to survive sub-zero, snow-covered winters without damage.
Fruit Profile