A little shimmer
Silver foliage plants light up the garden
Silver foliage plants lend sparkle to the garden. They work beautifully with annuals and perennials to complement other plants. Since many silver-foliage plants are native to the Mediterranean climate, they can withstand hot, dry and harsh conditions.
The following silver-leaf plants are ideal for adding some shimmer to the garden in full sun.
• Artemisia Silver King (Artemisia Albula) and Silver Queen (Artemisia ludoviciana) are reliable regardless of heat and dry conditions. I do not find their spiky white flowers appealing as a cut flower, and so I remove them. However, I do find them attractive in a dried bouquet.
• Lamb’s Ears (Stachys bysantina) has wooly leaves which help protect the plant from intense heat or cold. If you take a close-up look at the plant, you will note its hairy leaves. Flowers in pink to purple usually appear in the summer.
• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is an English lavender, an excellent plant for drying in a lasting arrangement. Dry it to add its lovely fragrance to drawers, closets and sachets.
• Santolina (Santolina chamaecyparissus) known as lavender cotton is a stalwart with its wooly leaves to protect it from strong heat or cold. Tight, small buttonlike golden flowers appear in late summer on the plant.
• Yarrow (Achillea) makes a good dried flower. Shades of golden yellow, creamy white, deep pink and red tightly clustered flower heads, and soft, feathery gray-green foliage make it a pretty plant in the perennial bed.
Silver-leaf plants can be enjoyed in a shaded garden. For lighting up a shady spot, consider:
• Lungwort (Pulmonaria spp.) loves shade and is showy with lanceshaped silver speckled leaves. Pink or blue flowers appear in late spring.
• Ornamental grass (Festuca glauca) Elijah Blue is a stunning low-growing blue ornamental for adding a shimmer to the garden. Sea Urchin also has silvery blue foliage displayed in low-growing clumps.
• Deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) White Nancy can light up a dry, shady area, and try it as a ground cover where it makes a nice edging plant with marbled foliage from spring through summer.
Silver leaf plants can complement other plants. For instance, white yarrow becomes a cooling respite for nearby red roses, or Russian sage, another plant with silver foliage, is one I teamed up with pink coneflowers. Lavender’s feathery silver foliage and pink or white roses are harmonious together.
In sun or shade, add some shimmer to your garden with silver-foliage plants.
Carole McCray resides in Cape May, New Jersey and is an award-winning garden writer who has been writing a monthly garden column, The Potting Shed, for regional newspapers for nearly 20 years. She won the Garden Writer’s Association Award for newspaper writing for The Christian Science Monitor Newspaper.