A TAPESTRY OF FOLIAGE

Some plants have divided foliage and this is another droughtbusting strategy, because less surface area lessens transpiration.

SANTOLINA

Cotton lavenders, or santolinas, have fine foliage and a shrubby habit, so they can be clipped into roundels for winter effect as well. The best silver is Santolina chamaecyparissus. It’s a dwarf evergreen shrub that forms narrow, silvery-woolly foliage. Deep-yellow pompom flowers follow and some gardeners cut them off. Santolina was used as a healing herb in times past. It was also added to closets and drawers to deter moths.

ARTEMISIA

Wormwoods, or artemisias, produce a chemical repellent and were once used to treat worms. The large and billowing artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ forms a finely cut silvery mound of soft foliage. You’ll get silvery puffs of smoke from the wiry and woodier A. alba ‘Canescens’ and this makes a real front-of-the-border feature in late summer and autumn.

A. ludoviciana ‘Valerie Finnis’ provides upright stems that look almost white and each oval leaf has a jagged texture. It does travel though. If you want a tight ground hugger, opt for the softly tactile A. schmidtiana ‘Nana’, or the chrysanthemumlike foliage of A. stellariana.

SHRUBBIER OPTIONS

Adding some taller, shrubbier plants avoids the plateau flat-topped look. Ballota pseudodictamnus produces upright stems with whorls of paler green bracts, so you get silver and salad-leaf green on the same plant. Phlomis italica has cool-pink hooded flowers but the whole plant takes on a cotton-wool look that persists through the year.

COLOUR AND PRESENCE

If you’re brave enough for a self-seeding silver, use Lychnis coronaria and there are three colour ways. ‘Alba’ is pure white, The Oculata Group has white flowers with a hint of pink and the most common form has vivid pink flowers. You could also plant lamb’s ears, or

Stachys byzantina, for its woolly silver foliage. Other choices include the hardy geranium ‘Mavis Simpson’ and the small, variegated thyme, ‘Silver Posie’. They’ll make you popular with pollinators, as bees and butterflies will thank you for all these.

If you’re really brave, grow the silver-stemmed and biennial Eryngium giganteum. Get rid of most of the plants, though, because the seedlings can and will overwhelm you – you have been warned!

Taller euphorbias with silver foliage provide an architectural presence. Stems of the grey-green E. characias form shepherd’s crooks that unfurl and produce acid-yellow heads largely made of long-lasting bracts. Seedlings can follow, because this sun-loving perennial is relatively shortlived. Cutting it back hard after flowering does lengthen its life. The variegated forms, such as ‘Tasmanian Tiger’ and ‘Burrow Silver’ seem to prefer more shade.

Lower growing succulent euphorbias with glaucous foliage make an impact early in the year. They include E. rigida, wellnamed for its pointed foliage. E. myrsinites has rounder leaves on stems that also sprawl. Both have yellow flowers. ‘Abbey Dore’, found in the garden of this Herefordshire house, is more upright and will add late-summer zing, highlighting any plants with orange, purple or blue flowers.