By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

Sheets of red, lilac, blue, or purple flowers cover common aubrieta (A. deltoidea) in mid spring—and common aubrieta covers just about every low thing that surrounds it all year. At 4 to 6 inches tall and 18 inches wide, this spreading ground cover is a spring classic. Let it spill over rocks or out of walls.

This planting is in Marilyn Munro's garden in Sequim, Washington.