Two years ago maybe groundcovers were "in"... are they "out" now, in favour of... what? I just don't see the racks and racks of interesting small groundcovers which entranced me just after we arrived on the West Coast... there were many types of thymes, including the thyme Hartington Silver, which is lovely, and I haven't seen it for sale since. I am glad we stocked up then. It is a very neat, low, close-growing and well-surviving thyme, pale green-to-variegated green/white or "silver", small white or perhaps pale pale blue blooms... looks lovely under a small weeping green-leaved Japanese maple of the dissectum type... I was able to purchase then, for experimenting with appropriate and well-surviving groundcovers, any number of different items -- now, I see very few being shown. Perhaps early spring is the season for showing them in gardening centres, but I seem to remember seeing lots of samples during the fall of 2006 especially, and 2007, but in 2008 a much-reduced variety...
Will do. But sometimes it's hard to get past the staff "I don't know" ' s... I'll make a bigger effort. Where you have an older demographic which may not want to "garden" in the usual sense, and a deer population willing to try lots of plants [but they don't seem to bother the groundcovers much although nibbling grass to make one feel bad for them !], you'd think they'd be ideal for condo patches and whatnot...
Maybe ask to talk to someone who does know, same as at another kind of store. At one place I worked at they would have staff meetings where the front line was told what was going on behind the scenes. Other places we just showed up and went to work. The last retail nursery I worked at we were told to radio for help when asked about things like this.
I have emailed the three major garden centres near me to stock up at least as well as they were in 2006, when I saw the above-described larger variety of groundcovers for sale, and that was what really got me interested in them... One centre in particular is good at noting requests by email and writing back, so I expect to hear at some point. I will leave a note for the managements when I next go in these garden centres, as well... I also suggested they offer a workshop on groundcovers in either season, as groundcovers are more attractive in certain situations if very flat and low providing a smooth green mossy effect, or a miniaturized tapestry sort of design if flowering, and others are variegated or pale yellow, or gold, lightening up a background or dark place, and others are higher and more like a spreading miniature shrub, useful for other settings...
Probably they had a problem selling them and scaled back. On top of home gardening being subject to fashions, I've noticed this year the same plants sitting for months at outlets, as though plant sales in general have fallen off recently. I haven't read any nursery trades periodicals for some time so I don't know what the current patterns are - except I have seen it stated that the main interest now is in garden furnishings rather than plants and planting.
I have noticed that some plants aren't moving, as well. Heuchera was/is promoted heavily, I never found that it performed for me very successfully... lots of heathers, but they do well here and are useful groundcovers. Funny, I think you're right about the garden furnishings/decorations... much less work than actual gardening, with busy or older-demographic consumers... patio arrangements are important now, and the actual amount of gardening space and plants is limited, what with barbecues, umbrellas, fireplaces, furniture, and masonry.
