Foamflower earns its name every spring, when the slender flower spikes rise above the heart-shaped foliage in airy white-pink plumes that seem to float on still air. Native to the Eastern Seaboard and common in North Carolina cove forests, this small ground cover stays under a foot tall and spreads by stolons to form dense, weed-suppressing colonies that look right at home beneath oaks and maples.

Grow it in dappled to full shade with consistently moist, humus-rich soil that leans slightly acidic. It will not tolerate drought, so supplemental watering during dry spells keeps the foliage clean and vigorous. Damaged leaves can be cut back at the start of each growing season; fresh growth replaces them quickly. A parent of the popular x Heucherella hybrids, Tiarella cordifolia is equally at home in a shady native garden, a rock garden with reliable moisture, or as an underplanting beneath deciduous shrubs.