After the heat and stress of the day, evening is a perfect time to enjoy our gardens. So, creating vignettes of what works best in the falling light is important. White flowers are touted for evening and moon gardens because other colors fade back, but the same is true for light-colored foliage, especially the silvers.
You can add silver foliage as focal points in garden beds, or to mark pathways. Silvers in containers will extend your nighttime enjoyment of your garden up close. The bonus—they look great in the daytime as well, and blend beautifully with their colorful neighbors. And, unlike most white flowers, the pale foliage lasts throughout the growing season. Here are silver suggestions, some of which can be propagated in your greenhouse.
Brunnera cvs.– Many cultivars are out there, such as ‘Alexander’s Great’ and Silver Heart’. All have various shades of pale gray to white foliage about a foot tall and 30 inches wide, although some can occupy more space. Grows in shade to part shade in Zones 4-9. The leaves are thick and tough so it makes a great substitute for snail-holed hostas.
Centaurea cineraria – Also known as Jacobea maritima, with the common name dusty miller, this two-foot by one-foot lacy-leaf plant is grown as an annual in any Zones below 8. But it is easy to propagate in the greenhouse from cuttings. In fact, like a coleus, cuttings will root in water, so you can have sweeps of silver in your garden beds and containers next year.
Festuca glauca Beyond Blue™ – There’s a lot of blue fescue grasses in the marketplace, but this one is superior, especially in tough situations, such as heavy clay. Pale blue evergreen foliage stands out at sunset. Less than a foot tall and eighteen inches wide, it does well in the ground or in containers in Zones 4-8.
Pulmonaria spp. and cvs. – Lungworts can shine silver in shade, part shade, and even more sun if well watered. At around a foot tall and wide—some cultivars are bigger—the tough leaves survive from Zones 3-9. Although there are ones with green leaves, look for the highly decorative spotted leaves that are guaranteed to glow. You can divide in fall, and grow on starts in the greenhouse.
Senecio candicans ‘Angel Wings’ – This is a wowser of a plant, the dramatic sixteen-inch leaves shine like a beacon in the evening. When happy, it can grow to a three-foot mound in Zones 8 and above, although it does not thrive in high heat and humidity. In colder climates, it can be propagated in the greenhouse. Take cuttings in late summer or pot up chunks of rooted foliage.
Stachys byzantina ‘Helen Von Stein’ – These lambs ears show off bigger fuzzy gray leaves than the species, and rarely flower. They are low-growing, at less than a foot, and spread eighteen inches across. Great in tough situations in sun, and they are easily divided, once established. You can root the offshoots in the greenhouse. Zones 4-9.