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| Category: Perennial |
| Family: Lamiaceae (Labiatae) (Mints) |
| Origin: Europe, Central (Europe) |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Blue |
| Bloomtime: Summer |
| Synonyms: [A. Texas Tuff'] |
| Height: <1 foot |
| Width: Spreading |
| Exposure: Sun or Shade |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Medium Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: < 0 °F |
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Ajuga reptans 'Texas Tough' (Suntough Carpet Bugle) A low groundcover growing under 6 inches tall with dense cover of green rounded slightly scalloped leaves. Narrow spikes to 10 inches tall with whorls of dark blue purple flowers appear in abundance in spring. This selection is tolerant of widely varying conditions and can be grow in sun or shade in fairly well drained soil. Give occasional to regular irrigation though tolerates drier conditions than other Ajuga reptans selections and could even be considered semi-drought tolerant in shaded locations. Hardy to below 0 °F and fully evergreen in mild climates but root hardy to USDA Zone 4. A great tough low growing plant for use as a small scale groundcover, as a perennial border edging or in a container with attractive and dense weed-smothering mats of foliage and the dark blue flowers that are attractive to humans and butterflies. Ajuga reptans is a species found over and extensive range in Central and Eastern Europe, northern Africa and southwestern Asia. Other common names include bugleherb, bugleweed, carpetweed, carpet bungleweed. This plant was found in the 1990s in an abandoned yard in Lake Charles, Louisiana by Texas plantsman Scott Ogden, who noted it holding its own competing with a thick stand of St. Augustine Grass. Upon bringing it back to his Austin, Texas garden, Scott noted it to be the most robust Ajuga he had ever seen and that it held up better than any other to the Texas heat, drought, alkalinity, nematodes and full sun. The plant was shared about and became known as Ajuga reptans 'Texas Tough' (or 'Texas Tuff'). It has also been marketed as Suntough Ajuga by Pat McNeal, of McNeal Growers in Austin. This plant was first brought to our attention by our friend John Greenlee (AKA the "grassman"), who gave us what became our propagation stock of this plant and in 2015 we put up our first crops but discontinued producing new plants of it in 2018 and sold the last we had in 2019. It was a good plant but our customers seemed not that interested in Carpet Bugles.
This information about Ajuga reptans 'Texas Tough' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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