Ghostly silvers: garden matchmakers & magic makers
Silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea ) spills like a waterfall over the edge of a galvanized cattle trough, sharing space with a silver-green Manfreda maculosa and gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida ). The fuzzy leaves and purple spires of Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha ) pair beautifully with silver.
Linda Lehmusvirta told me about Elegant Silvers: Striking Plants for Every Garden while taping my garden last week, and she was nice enough to send me a DVD of a “Central Texas Gardener” episode featuring the photographer and co-author, Karen Bussolini.
I’ve been plugging more and more silvers and silvery greens into my garden in recent years, especially given my new fetish for agaves and—am I really admitting this?—galvanized stock tanks (I’ll be adding another one soon). Silver plants not only transition well between hot or clashing colors, they visually cool the garden on hot summer days, shrug off drought, are deer resistant, and glow beautifully in the evening. So when Linda enthused about Bussolini and this book, I mentally added it to my wish list. Has anyone out there read this yet? I’d love to know what you think.
Close-up of Mexican bush sage’s fuzzy, purple flowers.
I am sure I saw that sage or smething near it at the botanical gardens this weekend. It was very pretty. I’ll post an image, perhaps.
I’ve read that northern gardeners plant Salvia leucantha as an annual. It is a very pretty fall bloomer. —Pam
Like most men, I looked at the pictures. Pure porn. I loved it.
I love grays, which usually love dry climates and soils. My place is wet. But I’ve got some artemesias, lambsears, verbascums and others that at least partially slake my thirst.
I like pictures too. I’ll have to get it. But you’re right—the qualities that make silvers drought tolerant don’t lend themselves to dampness. There’s always Mediterranean-style container gardening though, isn’t there? —Pam
Ilove the grays too. I think most I have found need lots of sun which I have little of. I would like to find some garays and silvers that like shade. Maybe this book will tell me about some shade lovers.
Where do you live, Lisa? Here’s a central Texas native that likes shade and has a great silvery green color: heartleaf skullcap ( Scutellaria ovata). Also native-Texas agarita ( Berberis trifoliata) and Texas dwarf palmetto ( Sabal minor) take shade, and even some silvery yuccas and agaves will take partial shade, like paleleaf yucca ( Yucca pallida) and squid agave ( Agave bracteosa). Aztec grass ( Ophiopogon intermedius) is not exactly silver, but its variegation makes it seem so. Good luck finding some silvers to suit your shady areas. —Pam
Pam: I haven’t read that book but it looks very interesting. The grays stand out so well in the garden. I have used the dichondra in containers in the past and love the way it performs.
This is the first year I’ve grown Dichondra, and I really enjoy it. I’ll definitely be using it more in the future. —Pam
How cool that Linda L told you about this book. You’re making another garden in a cattle trough? This will be interesting!
I love the grays and silvers, too – and keep adding them to my garden. Rosemary, Lavender and the pony’s foot are doing better in containers than in the ground, but the Lambs Ears and artemesia don’t seem to mind.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Yes, this time my cattle trough will be for an agave bed. I can’t wait to get started on it.
I have to confess that your lamb’s ears didn’t survive in my garden, Annie. I’ve never been able to keep lamb’s ear alive, but your divisions looked good for so long that I thought I’d managed it. But then they just up and croaked. Sorry! I have more success with rosemary and artemesia. Never tried lavender. —Pam
Too much silver and gray can bring me down. I have a lot of silver/gray in my mostly-native California plant garden (Eriogonum arborescens, Salvia clevelandii ‘Allen Chickering’ [rather grayer than ‘Winifred Gilman’, which I also have], Camassonia cheiranthifolia, Penstemon Palmeri, Dudleya pulverulenta, Lupinus albifrons, Achillea millefolium, the bark of the summer-dormant buckeye, etc), and I find it’s essential to mix in some good greens to make it all work.
I really like the Dichondra spilling over the galvanized stock tank. If I hadn’t seen the picture, I would have said that wouldn’t work.
I’ve noticed that California gardens, like Mediterranean ones, often have a lot of silvers and grays. You must have a good mix of silvers and greens (plus shots of pure color) because your garden always looks great. —Pam
I’m loving the stock tanks! Great foil for the Dichondra. I think there’s a lot to be said for “cooling down the garden.” The Assisted Living home behind my house, while beautifully manicured, sports red geraniums and bright yellow marigolds in their LARGE beds every summer. Makes me hot to look at them.
That would be a very hot combination. They must be trying to liven things up over there, huh? —Pam
I own this book, actually. I don’t know that it taught me anything earth-shattering per se, but it’s a nice little book to confirm a few things that you probably already know about grays/silvers and also has some nice plant lists/pictures. I’d say it’s worth picking up.
(Lisa at Greenbow is in Indiana, I think… Lisa, if you come back I would say that you should look at some of the silver-leaf pulmonarias, silver-patterned hardy gingers, Japanese painted ferns and heucheras/heucherellas for your shady areas. Also don’t count out artemisia! I have some in a relatively dry area with “bright shade” and they seem fine there. The shade kind of keeps ’em in check.)
Thanks for the review, Kim. It sounds like it might be something pleasant to curl up with this winter. And thanks for the good info for Lisa at Greenbow. I’d forgotten about pulmonarias and Japanese painted ferns, which also are found here in Austin. —Pam
Okay, Pam – if we’re into confessions, although you warned me it could get out of bounds, the Heartleaf skullcap you gave me hated the rain in mudsummer and croaked! We’re proving that gardening is local.
Annie – in a different world just a few miles away from yours
And I didn’t think that skullcap was killable, based on its habit in my garden. Just goes to show, you never know what will grow for you until you try it. However, I believe in killing a plant several times before giving up on it. If you want to try again with that one, just let me know. I’ve got seedlings coming up. —Pam