Ramps

A low-growing native eastern North American perennial groundcover producing small intensely-flavored red berries in early summer + white five-petaled flowers in spring. The genetic parent (with F. chiloensis) of the modern cultivated strawberry (F. ×ananassa). Berries smaller than cultivated but exceptional flavor. Spreads via runners (stolons); makes excellent edible groundcover under fruit trees.

A spectacular tall vase-shaped native fern with broad upright sterile fronds (resembling ostrich plumes - hence the name) and distinctive contrasting fertile fronds that emerge brown + persistent through winter. The traditional edible fiddlehead source - young curled fronds harvested in early spring are sold seasonally as a delicacy. Spreads vigorously via rhizomes in moist soils; provides good groundcover-scale presence.

The classic lawn daisy: a low, rosette-forming perennial with spoon-shaped leaves and white, often pink-tipped ray flowers around a yellow disc on short stems, blooming from spring into autumn. The flowers close at night and in rain - the old "day's eye" - and double cool-season bedding forms such as "Pomponette" and "Habanera" are widely grown. Often written off as a lawn weed, it is in fact a tough, charming, child's-favourite groundcover that flowers for months, thrives in mown grass because it keeps its blooms low, and offers easy early-season nectar and pollen. The flowers and young leaves are edible.

A native eastern North American spring ephemeral wildflower with pristine white 8-12-petaled flowers in early spring (often the first major forest-floor wildflower of the year) wrapped by a single rounded glaucous leaf. Disappears by midsummer to underground rhizomes. The red rhizome sap was historically used by Indigenous peoples as a dye and ceremonial paint.

Canada anemone (Anemone canadensis) is a vigorous, spreading native perennial of moist meadows, streambanks, and ditches across much of northern and central North America, grown for clean white cup-shaped flowers held over deeply cut, sharply toothed foliage in late spring and early summer. Be warned first: it spreads aggressively by underground rhizomes and can become a thug in a normal bed, running well beyond where you plant it and knitting into large colonies. That habit makes it an excellent plant for naturalizing a damp bank or filling a tough, contained spot, and a poor choice for a tidy mixed border where it will overrun quieter neighbors. Each flower carries five showy, petal-like white sepals around a boss of yellow stamens (the true petals are absent) on erect hairy stems to about 12 to 24 inches. It wants medium to wet soil in full sun to part shade and is hardy roughly from USDA zone 3 to 8.

A native evergreen fern of eastern North America that holds leathery dark green fronds through winter and provides ground-level songbird cover - ideal for shaded woodland slopes and erosion-prone banks.