Dusty Miller
By Lori Rose
Silver is one of the classic neutral colors in the garden, a tone that combines well with virtually everything else. Silver creates interest when nearby flowering plants have already finished or have not yet come into bloom. Plants with silver foliage catch your eye and set off the greens, yellows, pinks and blues around them. Silver is soothing, and will blend with pastel flower colors. It may be the flower colors you notice first, but touches of silver really bring the garden to life. Adding some spots of silver to the garden will make the surrounding flowers and foliage seem even more vibrant, while side-by-side clashing colors are mellowed by separating them with silver.
In shade gardens, silver flashes like fireflies. In a sunny spot, silver shimmers. Silver foliage lightens up dark corners of a garden and is visible in the garden at night. You can fit silver-leaved plants into almost any part of your garden. I can’t think of any garden situation where a silver-leaved plant would not be a welcome addition.
As an added benefit, many silver-leaved plants prefer full sun with poor, dry soils. The silver leaves deflect heat and help slow down the loss of moisture from the foliage. Try these sun lovers to light up your garden or container plantings:
Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria) is a member of the Artemisia family, and is one of the most common and widely known silver-leaved plants that simply shines in its sunny surroundings. Its many-lobed leaves are soft, and its upright habit allows it to be tucked in here and there, or planted en masse anywhere great color and texture are needed. Although Dusty Miller is mostly used for its gorgeous foliage, it will make insignificant little yellowish flowers that should be clipped off to maintain its pretty appearance. It is a tender perennial grown as an annual in our area.
The annual Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’ is a showy accent for containers or as a ground cover in the garden. Hanging baskets and sunny annual beds will gleam with its silver leaves and stems. It will cascade or trail up to six feet. The leaves are about an inch all around and shaped like little fans. Very heat- and drought-tolerant, ‘Silver Falls’ recovers quickly even if wilted, and looks fresh all season long. It will thrive in full sun and well-drained soil. If you are using it as a ground cover in the garden, make sure that the soil doesn't get soggy. Try it near the edge of raised beds or rock walls where it can flow over the edge.
There are many silvery perennials that sparkle in the garden. Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina) is one of the most recognizable of silver foliage perennials. The whitish hairs that cover each leaf give the plant a soft covering that children of all ages love to touch. This perennial groundcover is grown primarily for its foliage, but the tall stalks of purple flowers are a favorite of bees. Among the most beloved perennials, this spreading plant is furry and pettable. It grows to about a foot tall and loves the sun.
‘Silver Mound’ Artemisia (Artemisia schmidtiana) is delicate and finely cut like a fern, and it will flower in late summer, but like Dusty Miller, the whitish-yellow flowers are often of little consequence. Aptly named, ‘Silver Mound’ has soft, feathery foliage and forms a compact, silky, cushion-like mound. An excellent choice for hot, dry sites, Artemisia should be grown in very well drained soil and full sun. This plant tends to open up in the center during hot summers. To avoid this, it should be grown in poor soil, not fertilized, and trimmed back in late spring.
Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) is a unique plant in that it looks like a silver cloud in the garden. Plant it in full sun anywhere a little height or texture is needed. Russian Sage is a member of the mint family and bears a slight resemblance to lavender in the color of the leaves and flowers. Although the lavender-blue flowers are very ornamental, it is the gray, aromatic foliage that sets this airy plant apart. It grows four feet tall and three feet wide, and if you don’t cut them back, the silvery stems and leaves will stand through much of the winter, giving the garden that most coveted four-season interest.
Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria) is a biennial that looks very much like Lamb’s Ear until the flower stalks appear. The showy magenta flowers make a great contrast to the fuzzy silver-green leaves. Believe it or not, the silver leaves and eye-popping flowers go well just about anywhere in the sunny garden where some pizzazz is needed. The flowers contrast with everything, blend with nothing, and are produced profusely in the summer on open, airy three-foot tall plants. If left to reseed, their place in the garden will be assured indefinitely. Rose Campion also comes with white flowers that create the opposite effect of the magenta flowers—it will blend in beautifully in any sunny spot.
Although a lot of silver plants like sunny, dry conditions, here are some that will add light and sparkle to shady areas.
Spotted dead-nettle (Lamium maculatum) is one of the best choices for a tough yet showy perennial groundcover. The cultivars ‘Beacon Silver’ or ‘White Nancy’ form a spreading patch of small silvery leaves with a narrow green edge. Clusters of flowers appear in spring, and then continue off and on until fall. They are tolerant of dry shade once they are established, but be sure to keep them watered when newly planted. The stems will root into the ground where they touch, and any new plants that form can be easily moved in spring or fall. They will shine in the shade garden day and night.
The Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum’) is one of the loveliest and most colorful foliage plants you can grow, with silver, maroon, and green variegated leaves and deep-red stems. These ferns tolerate deep shade, but display their best color when they receive some direct sunlight, preferably in the morning. Japanese Painted Fern is an outstanding plant for adding color, texture and interest to shady landscape beds and containers. Its colorful foliage is vibrant from early spring until frost, when it will go dormant and reemerge in all its glory the following spring.
Brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla), commonly known as bugloss, has large heart-shaped silver leaves with green edges and veins. Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ is a clump-forming perennial that is primarily grown for its foliage that forms a mound that will remain attractive throughout the growing season. Its tiny blue flowers float above the leaves in spring on slender stems. ‘Jack Frost’ is an easily grown cultivar that likes average, medium moisture, well-drained soil and partial shade. This standout will brighten darker corners of the landscape and make a statement either alone as a specimen or combined with other shade lovers.
There's no reason to save the silver for special occasions. Use silver-leaved plants to put a pretty polish on gardens and containers every day.
Lori Rose, the Midnight Gardener, is a Temple University Certified Master Home Gardener and member of GardenComm: Garden Communicators International. She has gardened since childhood, and has been writing about gardening for over twenty years.