When getting into agriculture, the vast amounts of different plants can be overwhelming. Where are you supposed to start? It can help to break them all down into types. Here are 11 types of silver plants.
Rose Campion (Lychnis Coronaria)
With its flowers of various colors, including bright pink, white, and magenta, the rose campion is quite popular among gardeners. It’s a plant native to southern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa, but has naturalized easily across the United States. It tends to grow naturally on shrubby, rocky hills and is commonly found in wildflower meadows, rock gardens, and cottage gardens.
The rose campion’s foliage is light shades of grey-green, and the felt-like leaves were once used as lamp wicks. This is where the plant gets ‘Lychnis’, its genus name, which is the Greek word for ‘lamp’. The soft foliage can help to add a soft texture to gardens that are lacking flowers.
In the rose campion’s first year of growth, flowers will be sparse, but by the second year, they’ll be numerous. This bloom rate will decline in the third year, although the plant is an eager reseeder, meaning they can regenerate themselves every year. Their ideal growing conditions are full sun, but they can also tolerate partial shade. They prefer dry, poor soil.
Silver Falls (Dichondra Argentea)
Silver Falls can be grown both outdoors and indoors. Indoors, it can be grown in containers, while outdoors it makes a good ground cover or a trailing plant. An evergreen herbaceous perennial, its name comes from its unique, silvery pale green. This is the main reason the silver falls is grown, rather than for its flowers, which aren’t of much note.
Its maintenance is fairly easy. The plant thrives in well-drained, and rich but not heavy soil. Its ideal conditions are dry to medium, and it prefers full sunlight to partial shade.
Honeywort (Cerinthe)
Native to the Mediterranean, honeywort is an annual herb with bell-shaped flowers that are surrounded by colorful bracts and rounded, green-grey foliage. The flowers are small, but the tubular bracts are quite striking and tend to outlast the flowers.
There are a variety of species of honeywort, which boast many different colors. The most popular variety is the species with purple and blue colors.
It can be grown easily in containers and in garden beds, and is rich in nectar, meaning it attracts various pollinators- namely butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. It grows quickly if planted in the spring. The ideal conditions for honeywort are well-drained, loamy soil, and partial to full sun, but it can tolerate some shade. It blooms summer through fall.
The plant should be flowering regularly throughout its growth, and will eventually have minor drought tolerance once it’s established, but you should expect fewer flowers with minimal watering.
Jack Frost (Brunnera Macrophylla)
Native to Eastern Europe, Jack Frost is known for its rounded, shimmering foliage, but its flowers are quite notable too. Its leaves have a rough texture, are somewhat hairy, and are shaped like hearts.
They’re a shade of dark green, which is overlaid with a frosty, silvery-white. If the plant gets enough moisture, it will remain to look fresh throughout its growing season. Throughout mid-spring, tiny light blue flowers that have yellow centers and five petals will bloom.
They can be planted individually or in groups, and are suited best to formal beds or woodland gardens. It thrives most in partial shade, planted in well-drained, moist soil, but can also grow in clay. It’s very easy to maintain, and only really needs a little water during the dryer months. The plants can be divided either in spring or in fall.
Silver Ghost (Eryngium Giganteum)
Sometimes referred to as ‘eryngium Miss Wilmott’s ghost’, the silver ghost is a biennial or short-lived perennial that grows both heart-shaped basal and spiny stem leaves. Its flowers are small and blue, and they sit within silver-grey bracts.
The plant grows in both full sun and in partial shade and does well in almost any kind of soil. Its flowering months are July, August, September, and October. It tends to grow to between 2.5 feet and 3.5 feet in height, with a spread of 1.5 feet to 2.5 feet. Its total growth time is usually two to five years, and it goes well with verbascum, verbena bonariensis, perovskia, artemisia, aconitum, iris, and rudbeckia.
Bluebeard (Caryopteris)
Also known as blue mist, blue mist spirea, and blue spirea, the Bluebeard is a deciduous shrub that grows blue, fragrant flowers from late summer to fall. Their dense foliage consists of aromatic leaves that are often attractive, silvery blue-green or golden.
The Bluebeard attracts an abundance of hummingbirds, butterflies, and beneficial insects. It’s a plant native to Mongolia and certain parts of Japan and China, and if pruned sufficiently during the early months of spring, it can grow bright blue flowers on all its new wood.
They tend to grow between two to four feet high, as well as two to four feet wide. They tend to be mostly free of pests, and they’re resistant to deer, as well as tolerant to drought. Overall they’re a very low maintenance plant.
Silver Mist (Helichrysum)
Sometimes referred to as the licorice plant and the everlasting flower, this evergreen plant has silvery-grey and grey-green foliage throughout every season. It produces cream flowers in the summer months, and cream flowers in the autumn months. When it comes to maintenance, you’ll need to trim as required, and its propagation method is semi-hardwood cuttings.
The plant is mostly resistant to diseases and pests and is most often used in borders and beds, gravel, containers, and ground cover. Silver mist grows best in well-drained and fertile soil, and in full sun.
Chelsea Girl (Argyranthemum Gracile)
Also known as dill daisy, Chelsea girl is an evergreen, compact subshrub that grows grey-green leaves in all seasons and, in the late spring through to the autumn, white flowers with yellow centers. They are mostly resistant to pests but growers should watch out for leaf-mining sawflies, which will eat tunnels through the leaves.
When it comes to growing Chelsea girl, you should pinch the growing tips in order to keep them compact. Deadheading helps with prolonging flowering. Its propagation methods include both softwood cuttings and semi-hardwood cuttings.
The plant’s most common uses include gravel, Mediterranean, cottage, informal, coastal, containers, beds and borders, wall sides, and trellises. The ideal soil type for the Chelsea girl is well-drained but moist, and it can grow in clay, sandy, or loamy soil. Chelsea girl prefers to grow in full sun.
Cardoon (Cynara Cardunculus)
Also known as globe artichoke and prickly artichoke, the deciduous perennial cardoon is known for its silvery foliage much akin to thistles, and its flowers, whose buds also resemble thistles. In the summer months, the flowers look more like globe artichokes. During both summer and autumn, the colors are purple.
They’re fairly low maintenance, but if you’re only growing the plant for its foliage, you should be cutting down the flower stems as often as they emerge. Its propagation methods include seeds, division, and root cuttings.
The cardoon is most often used in beds and borders, architecturally, to attract pollinators like bees, cottage, informal, and for flower arrangements. Its ideal soil type is chalky, sandy, or loamy, so long as the soil is well-drained. It grows best in full sun.
Can-can (Geum)
A deciduous to semi-evergreen plant, the can-can is a perennial with hairy, toothed, dark green basal leaves. Its slender stems bear orange and yellow flowers from the late months of spring through summer.
Maintenance includes pruning back the old stems after they flower, and the plant’s propagation method is division. There are a few pests you’ll need to watch out for when growing can-cans. These include aphids, sawflies, and glasshouse red spider mites.
Its cultivation requires moist, well-drained, fertile soil, and while it grows best in full sun, it can also tolerate partial shade. In cold climates, the plant will die back, but it can be evergreen or semi-evergreen in warmer climates.
Curry Plant (Helichrysum Italicum)
An ornamental plant and a member of the Asteraceae family, the curry plant has silvery foliage and bright yellow flowers.
Unlike curry leaf, which is used frequently in curries and other Asian or Indian dishes, the curry plant is purely ornamental due to its bitter flavor. Its aromas, however, mean that the dried foliage can be ideal for wreaths and potpourris.
It’s quite a high maintenance plant, known to be quite fussy, and can only be grown in mild climates. It can be grown either in full sun or in partial shade but doesn’t do well in full shade, or low temperatures. It’s less picky when it comes to soil, though- most kinds of well-drained soil will do.
Plants have always been a big interest of mine, and I’ve always wanted to learn more about the different types of species. I have gained a vast knowledge of the subject over the years, and I have decided to share this information with others.
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