Monte Carlo carpet

Care at a glance

Monte Carlo is the carpeting plant that has taken over from the difficult HC Cuba in recent years: small round leaves on creeping stems forming a dense, low carpet, but with markedly fewer demands. It gets a long way without CO2 too, though the mat then stays looser and taller.

The secret is in the start. Plant it in small clumps of a few stems, a couple of centimetres apart, so each clump gets light and can run sideways — one large clump in the middle rots away from the inside. Trim the carpet regularly: that forces branching and prevents the bottom layer from dying off and the mat lifting as a whole.

Related species

• BucephalandraBucephalandra sp.
• Dwarf hairgrassEleocharis parvula
• Balansae cryptCryptocoryne balansae
• RotalaRotala rotundifolia
• Dwarf cryptocoryneCryptocoryne parva
• LudwigiaLudwigia repens