Bergenia cordifolia (often treated by botanists as a synonym within B. crassifolia) is a tough, evergreen perennial native to the Altai Mountains, southern Siberia and Mongolia, grown for its bold, heart-shaped leathery leaves that flush red-bronze through winter and its deep pink flower spikes in early-to-mid spring. It is one of the most tolerant groundcovers in cultivation — enduring deep shade, poor soil, drought, and hard continental cold (commonly rated to USDA Zone 3 in US horticulture; RHS rates it H7, hardy below −20 °C). The honest catch is its shallowly creeping rhizomes: in mild, moist climates they can colonise well beyond the intended planting, and the large, persistent leaves trap fallen debris and are notoriously attractive to slugs and vine weevils.

Liriope muscari is an evergreen, grass-like perennial native to the shady forest understories of China, Japan, and Korea, where it grows at elevations of 330–4,600 ft (101–1,402 m). In gardens it forms dense, weed-suppressing clumps of arching dark-green foliage topped by spikes of lilac-purple flowers in late summer, followed by ornamental black berries — earning it the RHS Award of Garden Merit. It is drought-tolerant and remarkably adaptable, but the honest catch is its behaviour outside its native range: in parts of the eastern United States it is a documented invasive species, spreading by rhizomes and self-seeding into natural areas, and it provides minimal wildlife value compared with native groundcover alternatives.

A compact, mounding deciduous shrub bred in the 1930s by crossing the East Asian species Caryopteris incana (southern China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan) and C. mongholica (Siberia, Mongolia, northern China) — it has no wild range of its own. Its defining virtue is a flush of vivid blue-to-violet flowers on the current year's growth in late summer and early fall, a period when little else in the garden blooms, combined with aromatic gray-green foliage and exceptional drought tolerance once established. The honest catch is its borderline hardiness at the cold edge of its range: in zones 5–6 the woody stems routinely die to the ground in winter and the plant resprouts from the base each spring, behaving more like an herbaceous perennial than a shrub — gardeners in those zones should hold back pruning until new growth confirms the crown has survived.

Creeping cotoneaster is a deciduous spreading shrub native to the mountains of central and southwestern China, Nepal, and Taiwan, prized for its distinctive flat herringbone branching, tiny pink-white summer flowers, and masses of vivid red autumn berries that sustain birds through winter. It holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit and tolerates poor, dry soils on banks and walls where little else will perform. The honest catch is twofold: the berries are mildly toxic to humans and pets (cyanogenic seeds, GI-irritant flesh), and the plant self-seeds freely enough that it is naturalising widely in the UK and Ireland and is considered potentially invasive — a real concern before planting near wild margins or hedgerows.

A dwarf, evergreen Mediterranean sub-shrub with intensely aromatic silver-grey needle-like leaves and clusters of small, long-lasting yellow button flowers in summer. Native to the dry, rocky ground of the western and central Mediterranean basin, it is prized for its bold textural foliage and the illusion of a curry scent — although the plant has no culinary relationship to curry spice and its flavor largely disappears on cooking. The honest catch is hardiness: Helichrysum italicum is reliably winter-hardy only to about USDA Zone 8 (around -12°C / 10°F); in colder climates it either dies outright or must be overwintered frost-free, and even within its range it is short-lived on heavy, wet soils where winter root rot claims it quickly.

David viburnum is a compact, mound-forming evergreen shrub native to western China (its provenance usually given as the Sichuan / Yunnan region), grown for its bold, deeply three-veined glossy leaves, small clusters of white flowers in late spring, and — when fruiting — striking oval drupes in a distinctive metallic turquoise-blue. It holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit and suits the front of borders, shaded corners, and containers in cool-temperate to mild climates. The honest catch is a fundamental one: it is dioecious, so you must plant at least one male and one female together to get the celebrated blue fruit — a single plant in isolation will never berry, and many gardeners discover this only after years of waiting.