From the mountains of southern Japan comes this steadfast ground-hugger, a plant that barely clears 18 inches at its tallest while its trailing branches reach outward up to 15 feet in every direction. The blue-green needled foliage holds its color through winter without fuss, and the dense mat it eventually forms crowds out weeds with quiet authority. Growth is deliberate, sometimes maddeningly so, but patience is rewarded: a decade-old specimen covering a slope or spilling over a stone wall is a genuinely beautiful thing.

Give it full sun and a soil that drains well, even a dry or sandy one, and it asks for very little else. It thrives in heat, shrugs off poor fertility, and handles urban grime without complaint. Rocky gardens and retaining walls are its natural partners, and it can be pruned hard if a stray branch ever overreaches its welcome. Deer leave it alone, and its moderate salt tolerance makes it a practical choice near roads and coastal edges.