How To Use Silver & Gray In The Garden

Silvery foliage makes a lovely backdrop for other plants. Plants with silver and gray foliage are unusual enough that they readily attract our attention. They are quite different than the typical green leafed plant we're accustomed to seeing, and their strikingly different look provides us with many visually appealing uses in the garden, as companion and specimen plants.

The deserts and arid lands of the world are rich in plants with silvery grey foliage, because it helps reflect the sunlight and its drying heat. These same plants often have thin leaves, which lose less water than big, wide leaves. The plants discussed here have foliage with thin, gray, silver and even white leaves, which makes them exceeding well adapted to hot, dry growing conditions and less-than-ideal soils. They are the perfect choice for xeric landscapes.

1. Backdrop: Place taller silver/gray plants in the rear of planting beds, where they create a backdrop for shorter flowering plants and plants with green or blue foliage.
2. Groundcover: Place low-growing silver/gray groundcovers under taller flowering plants to cover soil, reduce heat, and offset foliage and blooms
3. Mix: Pair both tall and low-growing silver/gray plants with ornamental grasses to create a beautiful, monochromatic blue-gray-green landscape. Blue bladed grasses look even more exotic when contrasted with gray or silver. Green bladed grasses look less common when they are next to gray or silver.