Want to add an intriguing touch to your landscape? If you have a retaining wall or are thinking of building one, adding various plants is the perfect finishing touch for even more appeal.
While there are many ideas on how to make your retaining wall look beautiful, incorporating plants can make it stand out and catch the eye of the visitors. Since there are numerous plants you can use, we prepared this list with 28 unique ones, so you can find something for yourself.
Candy Tuft
Image credits: AwakenedEye via Canva
Candy tuft is a perennial flower that blooms at the end of April or the beginning of May. It grows slowly, meaning it will brighten your garden space for many years. Since its flowers have a bright white color, they will contrast greatly with the color of your retaining wall.
Aptenia Cordifolia
Image credits: Jose Lodos Benavente via Canva
Aptenia Cordifolia is a beautiful perennial, ground covering herb that you can recognize by its green succulent leaves and cute pink flowers with a tiny yellow center. They are rather small since they only grow up to 7-10 centimeters, but what is unique about them is the fact they can climb on various other plants.
Creeping Phlox
Image credits: Jennifer Yakey-Ault via Canva
Creeping Phlox is one of these plants that no one will pass by without noticing it. It’s due to its gorgeous starry five-pointed flowers that have red, lavender, pink, or white colors. It blooms in spring and can produce steems that over time become woody. This plant can grow between 10 to 15 centimeters.
Lampranthus
Image credits: ZambeziShark via Canva
If you can provide Lampranthus with some hot temperatures, it will repay you with its beautiful magenta-pink blooms. It will be a great choice to put on a retaining wall in your xeriscape garden. Its blooms are big enough to cover most of the green succulent foliage.
Clematis
Image credits: Philipp Pernstich via Canva
Clematis is also known as a queen of climbers, meaning it will easily climb up your retaining wall making it look outstanding. This gorgeous perennial plant blooms from early summer until fall, creating star-looking blossoms that come in various colors, such as pink, purple, red, white, or blue.
Sour Fig
Image credits: Martina Roth Kunst-Foto-Design via Canva
Native to South Africa, Carpobrotus edulis, or Sour Fig can be now found in various parts of the world as an ornamental plant. It is a flat growing succulent that can help you cover a big part of the ground. Thanks to its cute bloom, your retaining wall won’t ever look boring again.
Lobelia
Image credits: arkady2013 via Canva
There are more than 400 different varieties of Lobelias you can find all over the world. The type of lobelia that is most commonly grown in the outdoor garden is called Great Blue Lobelia due to its beautiful blue flowers. What is typical of this plant is that it is usually unbranched.
Trailing Gazania
Image credits: Karin de Mamiel via Canva
Trailing Gazania is a decumbent perennial herb. You can recognize this plant by its big yellow flower heads that are set against grey leaves. The flowers are often visited by various insects that are responsible for their pollination.
Creeping Thyme
Image credits: igaguri_1 via Canva
Creeping Thyme is a plant that is almost created by the nature to be placed on retaining walls. It will add plenty of charm thanks to its gorgeously looking blooms. It’s a low-growing perennial that can be found in zones from 4 to 9 in the United States.
Gold Carpet
Image credits: serfeo via Canva
If you enjoy having a lot of yellow colors in your garden, then Helichrysum Cymosum, better known as a gold carpet, is what you need to grow on your retaining wall. This groundcover can grow up to 1 meter and has greyish-white branches densely covered with flowers.
Creeping Foxglove
Image credits: Mathisa_s via Canva
Creeping Foxglove is a ground cover plant that doesn’t need so much sun, meaning it grows best in shady areas. However, when it comes to blooming flowers, it will do best in more sunny spots. Its leaves are dark green and flowers have a white color and bloom from March to October.
Dichondra “Silver Falls”
Image credits: seven75 via Canva
Dichondra “Silver Falls” is a truly exceptional plant that will stand out in any garden, especially when growing on a retaining wall, since it creates a flowing effect over the edges. It has tiny yellow-green or white flowers that usually bloom at the beginning of the summer.
Dimorphotheca Jucunda
Image credits: Cantrice Ann Alzona via Canva
Thanks to its striking purple flowers, Dimorphotheca Jucunda creates an illusion of a deep dark pool that will make your garden look mysterious and beautiful at the same time. It is a perennial herb, and its steems can grow up to 50 centimeters long, which means it will be able to cover most of your retaining wall.
Golden Creeping Jenny
Image credits: AKIsPalette via Canva
Since Golden Creeping Jenny produces lovely yellow and green leaves that fall over edges covering the big part of the wall, it’s a perfect choice for planting over your retaining wall. It blooms from early to mid-summer will add a pleasing accent to your garden.
Pelargonium peltatum
Image credits: zaizevphoto via Canva
Pelargonium peltatum is a semi-succulent that is known thanks to the fact that it climbs up trees and shrubs that are in its habitat. It has ivy-shaped leaves, and it owes them its second name that is Ivy-leaf Geranium. The colors of its flowers vary from pink to white.
Virginia Creeper
Image credits: Rocter via Canva
If you prefer planting something extraordinary that will be difficult to pass by unnoticed, we recommend you plant a Virginia Creeper over your retaining wall. Since it is a climbing vine, it will cover most of your retaining wall, delighting everyone with its colors.
Spur Flower
Image credits: JeanGoldstone via Canva
Plectranthus Neochilus, also known as a Spur Flower, is an easy to care plant that will be a great addition to your garden. It’s hard not to notice its alluring blue flowers that are shaped like small beans. What’s also great about this plant is that it can withstand difficult weather conditions.
Sweet Potato Vines
Image credits: kenhartlein via Canva
To bring as much green color to your garden as possible, one of the best solutions is planting Sweet Potato Vines. They will be able to cover a large area of your retaining wall, both the ground and the walls. Its foliage comes in various colors, such as gold, bronze, red, purple, and sometimes even almost black.
Helichrysum Petiolare
Image credits: skymoon13 via Canva
Helichrysum Petiolare is a great plant to grow because it is not only easy to cultivate but also its leaves have charming velvety silver foliage that creates an almost magical atmosphere in your garden. It also produces small white flowerheads on erect stems.
Scaevola
Image credits: simona flamigni via Canva
Scaevola, or as people also call it, fan flower, is just a perfect plant to grow on your retaining walls. Its fan-shaped flowers come in a variety of colors, including blue, purple, pink, or white. This plant does very well in sunny and partially shaded areas, even during hot and dry summers.
Casuarina 'Cousin It'
Image credits: Valeria Vechterova via Canva
Many people call Causarinas “native pines” because their foliage resembles pine needles. Thanks to its thickness, it will cover a large outdoor space of your retaining wall, making it look interesting and cute. It will also add a wild touch to your garden, turning it into a forest.
Bacopa
Image credits: virginijavaidakaviciene via Canva
If you are looking for a plant that everyone will admire, then think about planting Bacopa. Thanks to its delicate flowers, it will bring a magical charm to your yard. It can be grown annually, blooming during the summer with almost no effort.
Trailing Rosemary
Image credits: LukeLuke68 via Canva
Trailing Rosemary, or as we also used to call it, Prostrate Rosemary is from the same family as the Rosemary we know from our kitchen. Its stems and leaves are very aromatic and also can be used for culinary purposes. It also attracts bees, so it’s another reason to consider planting it.
Blue Rock Bindweed
Image credits: weisschr via Canva
Convolvulus Sabatius, whose common name is Blue Rock Bindweed, is best known for its funnel-shaped, lavender-blue flowers that just look astonishing. Its groundcover, however, has oval soft green leaves that can cover large areas, making the ground disappear.
Wave Petunia
Image credits: JerryGrugin via Canva
For anybody who wants to fill their garden with plenty of colors, Wave Petunia is a perfect choice. Its beautiful flowers have not only amazing colors but also smell great. It’s a great plant for novice and beginners since it doesn’t require a lot of care and is easy to grow.
Coral Plant
Image credits: undefined undefined via Canva
The Coral Plant is an ornamental shrub that every person who enjoys raw design should consider having in the garden. It has wispy steems with coral-red tubular flowers that look extraordinary and attracts butterfly, making your yard even more charming.
Lotus berthelotii
Image credits: soniabonet via Canva
Lotus Bertholotii is another unusual plant that can add character to the place where it is planted. It’s mostly because it's a hanging perennial that looks like a silver chain that contrasts with its pea-like bright crimson flowers. The flowers look very exotic, which means people won’t be able to pass them by unnoticed.
Trailing Lantana
Image credits: EuToch via Canva
Trailing Lantana, or Lantana Montevidensis is a very popular landscape plant. It’s a sprawling shrub that forms groundcover with strong dark green-colored leaves, which also have a powerful scent. On top of them, beautiful rosy lilac flowers form that have a yellow throat and look just marvelous.
To Wrap Up
Growing plants on your retaining wall can not only make it look gorgeous but also attract various animals, such as bees or butterflies. With our 28 plant ideas, we are confident you will be able to find something that will match your landscape, making it stand out and catch the eye of the visitors. Don’t forget to add various beautiful plants, so your garden can be more interesting and colorful.
Let us know which idea you like the most, and as always, please share!