PlantFiles: Ladino Clover, White Clover, White Dutch Clover
Trifolium repens

I've been looking to replace my lawn(s) with a no- or low-water/mow/fertilize plant. I kept running into 100% clover as an option for a walkable green carpet effect. Everything I've read about this clover makes it sound like a lush, eco-sensitive choice. I just bought 2 pounds of seed and plan to sow next week. I will let you know how it turns out and if this clover stands up to the task!

This is a great pasture clover. A great nitrogen supplier that was used extensively before the advent of cheap high nitrogen fertilizers. I even like it in the lawn, supplies nitrogen and keeps green when grasses brown due to drought. If you have a high maintenance pure grass lawn you will hate it, but if you go for low maintenance natural, you will love it.

I planted White Dutch Clover by seed in May and already have a nice green cover for lawn replacement and to to use as a green mulch/ground cover for a sunny front yard as I wait for trees to grow, and then to plant shade loving perinneals. My dad who has farmed for 50 years in Indiana said they always planted it by "the darkening moon in February." He said "You could see the seeds bounce off the top of the snow and it always came up just right in the spring."

Since I'm not a "Lawn Nazi" (lol), I too adore this plant, & it grows beautifully here in Virginia. It is frequently used as an addition to lawn grasses in new developments on sloping ground.

Besides the nostalgia of making crowns & necklaces out of the flowers as a child, I especially love how attractive it is to both honeybees & bumblebees.

The name 'repens' means 'creeping' in Latin and it's fitting for this plant. It is the most troublesome perennial weed around here for gardens nearby, (even more so than dock). However, its leaves are said to be edible and the flowers attract butterflies. It's easiest to appreciate clover after Oct. 1 or so, when there are few blooming and the ones that do attract butterflies (the butterflies look for any flower there is, because there isn't much else around). It also is used in some places to make a grassless lawn of clover. I'll bet it does a good job covering the ground!

I happen to love the stuff--nothing's easier to sprout. However, they do sell the seed to hunters around here--to start a Dutch clover patch to attract deer. If you don't want deer in your yard, don't sow white clover!

For those who have a lawn instead of a yard, White Dutch Clover is a menace. The cheerful little flowers dot themselves across the perfect carpet.

I, on the other hand, adore it. It blooms in white waves across my yard, blending nicely with the dandelions. The honeybees love it, as do butterflies.

As a child, I made many a necklace by tying the stems together and there was never a more lovely tiara than when a clover wreath was adorned with dandelion 'jewels'.

The roots fix nitrogen in the soil and it has few pests.

White clover would be a great plant if it wasn't a weed.

Clover is a host plant for many smaller butterfly larvae, food for wildlife, nectar source for bees and butterflies and is recommended as a great groundcover in place of a lawn.