Paxistima canbyi, also known as cliff-green or cliff-lover, is a little known
native finally beginning to gain long overdue and well deserved recognition
from both the nursery industry and gardeners. Mountain-lover is a small
evergreen shrub with twiggy branches. It is stoloniferous, weaving through
and around larger plants and stones. Almost pine-needle like 
leaves are long
and narrow with a polished leather gloss that is as green and shiny in December
as it is in July. I have yet to see foliage on my mountain-lover affected by
winter weather. The little shrub stays under a foot in height, but over time
may exceed three feet in diameter. Blooms are red-brown, very small, and considered
insignificant.
Seeing the drift of mountain-lover in my garden I am reminded of dwarf informal boxwood. It has the look and feel of boxwood in many ways, but without stiffness in appearance or odor in foliage. A concrete birdbath rests on a ring of flat stones in my garden and cliff-green has now surrounded the feature, going on to weave into larger stones in the background.
Among my favorite companions are small fall-blooming gentians and hardy cyclamen. I am using Gentiana scabra among stones, and the selected hardy cyclamen is C. hederifolium in deep green and silver “Christmas tree pattern” leaves. Cyclamen blooms are light pink, nodding above the silver and green. Recently added to the arrangement is Saxifraga fortune ‘Silver Velvet’ with its deep velvety bronze foliage forming mounds among the silver and green with sprays of white stars in October. I hope to begin a new bed filled with a cover of creeping cliff-green plus dwarf Nandina shrubs with their fall colors of bright red and orange and perhaps a Japanese blood grass. For a more simple, and direct planting, one can not do better than a drift of paxistima and some large limestone boulders.
Paxistima canbyi is native to a small block of six eastern states. KY, OH, TN, PA, Maryland and VA. The plant is listed as endangered in OH, PA, Maryland and threatened in KY. Mountain-lover is tolerant of a wide range of soils, pH range to some degree, exposure and moisture levels. I have found that it does best in well drained soil, and bright open shade, but the plant will perform in less than ideal conditions.