Young Chaenomeles

I guess all plants are technically ground covers @Plantminded But I agree with @Sheal Personally I would only think of a plant as a ground cover if (a) it had a spreading habit and (b) it was less than 30 cm tall.

Chaenomeles are great plants in my opinion, if you can incorporate the growing habit into your scheme. I adore the flowers, they are so pretty, very oriental and the open habit makes them accessible to bees. They last for a good amount of time and then turn to fruit, so there is a very long season of interest. I like the colour of the leaves as well, it's a nice mid green. They do lose them in Winter, but then they are one of the first plants to bloom in Spring, before they even grow leaves. Most of them have thorns, but there is a good amount of space between them, so avoiding them isn't much of a problem in my opinion. I quite like thorny plants anyway.

I think in the past they didn't have the best reputation because a lot of the older varieties can grow quite big. The rather wild growing habit probably becomes too much on a 4m plant... Most of the variants you can get these days though grow to 1.5-2m and you can always control the shape and size with a bit of pruning.

They are also easy to care for, which sounds a bit weird to say after mentioning that I managed to accidentally kill one of them I think I significantly underestimated the size of the pot needed and also over-fertilised. If you get the basics right, they don't need much. The poor thing produced so many flowers and it's as if it exhausted itself and the leaves started drying up and falling right after. R.I.P. Boy George (that's what my partner and I were calling it, because at first we couldn't remember "chaenomeles" and kept referring to is as "the karma chameleon plant"). I do want another "crimson and gold" eventually.

 

It's always good when you have a decent local outlet @Sheal , whether it's a nursery or a GC. I tend to use the big nursery which is a 40 minute drive away, as it has a huge range, but I pick up plants in all sorts of places depending on what I'm looking for - or how tight I'm being with the bank balance!
I had a look at your link too @Plantminded . I agree - I wouldn't class most of those as ground cover, apart from the first section, and I'd be abit wary of that bramble...
I use Saxigraga urbium [London Pride] , Ajuga, Iberis and Pachysandra [just the plain green one] for ground cover, and they all work well here. I don't like the pale pink flowers on the LP, but I tolerate it as it's so useful. The other plants I find good are the ordinary Saxifrages and Arabis or anything similar, for sunnier sites. I use them in the gravel more than anything, but the saxifrages are great. Mine is just a white one which was already here, and I just separate bits, or allow them to spread. I was just deadheading the huge clump I have at the pond edge yesterday. Very satisfying job.
We are plagued by cats round here too. The grass, or the tiniest bit of bare earth...

 

Yes I agree @Sheal, I thought that more ground cover plants would be needed under some of those mentioned .