---
title: What are the best ground cover plants for the UAE?
url: https://heavenlyplants.ae/best/best-ground-cover-plants-uae
updated: 2026-09-16
type: buying guide
---

# What are the best ground cover plants for the UAE?

**Short answer:** Ruellia is the best all-round ground cover for a UAE garden: violet-blue flowers daily from spring to autumn on twice-weekly water. For fast plain coverage use Wedelia, for a spot that bakes use Portulaca, for dry shade use Asystasia, and for salty coastal sand use Sesuvium.

Ground cover is the cheapest way to make a UAE garden look finished, and the most common place people waste money. A bare bed needs 6-9 plants per square metre to close in one season — buying one plant at a time from a garden centre is how a AED 3 liner becomes a AED 300 bed that still looks patchy.
Everything below is sold as a multi-plant tray for that reason. The ranking is by how many situations each one solves, not by flower size.

## The picks, in order

1. **Ruellia Blue Tray — 6 Plants** (Ruellia simplex) — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/ruellia-blue-tray-6
   The default answer. It flowers violet-blue every single morning from spring to late autumn, clumps to about 60cm, takes full sun or part shade, and asks for water twice a week. The one caveat: it spreads by runners and seed, so it belongs in a bed you want filled, not a tight designed border.
2. **Wedelia Ground Cover — 6 Plants** (Sphagneticola trilobata) — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/wedelia-groundcover-6
   The workhorse for plain green coverage under trees and shrubs, with yellow daisy flowers as a bonus. Faster than ruellia to knit and cheaper per square metre. Choose it when the job is holding soil and hiding bare ground rather than providing a flower display.
3. **Portulaca Sun Jewels Tray — 6 Plants** (Portulaca grandiflora 'Sun Jewels') — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/portulaca-sun-jewels-6
   The only one on this list that genuinely prefers the balcony corner that bakes from noon. Succulent leaves, double flowers, almost no water. It will not work anywhere shaded — the flowers stay shut — so do not use it to fill under a tree.
4. **Chinese Violet (Asystasia) Tray — 6 Plants** (Asystasia gangetica) — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/asystasia-tray-6
   The dry-shade solution. It fills under trees and along north-facing walls where grass thins and flowering plants refuse, carrying small cream-and-purple flowers while it does it. Vigorous enough that you must edge it twice a year or it takes the bed.
5. **Sea Purslane (Sesuvium) Tray — 6 Plants** (Sesuvium portulacastrum) — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/sesuvium-tray-6
   The specialist. It grows on UAE beaches in salt and sand on effectively no fresh water, which makes it the answer for a coastal plot or a bed on brackish TSE irrigation. In a normal irrigated garden bed it works but is out-competed — save it for the hard spots.
6. **Alternanthera Green Tray — 6 Plants** (Alternanthera ficoidea) — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/alternanthera-tray-6
   For clipped edging and pattern work, the way UAE parks and hotel beds use it. It holds a line under shearing better than anything else here. The trade-off is water: it wants a soak every other day in July, which makes it the thirstiest plant on this list.
7. **Bloodleaf (Iresine) Tray — 6 Plants** (Iresine herbstii) — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/iresine-tray-6
   Grown for crimson foliage that holds colour all year, which no flowering annual can do. Best in morning sun — deep shade turns it muddy and unshaded July afternoon sun scorches the edges. Use it as a colour block in front of dark hedging.
8. **Flax Lily (Dianella) — 3 Plants** (Dianella tasmanica) — https://heavenlyplants.ae/products/dianella-flax-lily-3
   Not a spreading cover — a clumping structure plant that gives a bed vertical lines between the low spreaders. Evergreen, tidy, works in both full sun and real shade. Plant it as the punctuation, with ruellia or asystasia running between.

## Deliberately not picked

- **Natural lawn grass**: A real lawn is the highest-water surface you can install in the UAE and needs mowing through a Gulf summer. If you want a green surface rather than a planted bed, that is a separate decision — and it should be an informed one about water bills, not a default.
- **Mondo grass**: Popular in cooler climates for edging, but it sulks in UAE heat and reflected wall temperature. Alternanthera does the same job here and survives.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many ground cover plants fill one square metre in a UAE garden?

Six to nine plants per square metre closes a bed within one growing season; four per square metre closes it in about two. A 6-plant tray therefore covers roughly 0.7 to 1 square metre at the faster spacing — plan the tray count from the bed area before ordering.

### What is the lowest-maintenance ground cover for Dubai?

Sesuvium, then portulaca. Both are succulent, both survive on weekly or twice-weekly water, and neither needs feeding. The trade-off is that both want full sun. In shade, asystasia is the lowest-maintenance option.

### Will ground cover stop sand blowing in my garden?

Yes, once it knits. A closed mat of sesuvium, wedelia or ipomoea holds loose sand far better than gravel alone, which is why coastal and desert-edge plots use them on banks and verges. Expect one full season before the mat is continuous enough to do the job.