Plants with blue-green or silvery foliage look frost-kissed all year, and many are available in nurseries now. Here are eight to check out:
1. Boulevard false cypress is a symmetrical, cone-shaped conifer (chamaecyparis pisifera) with softly textured, silvery blue foliage. It grows slowly to 5 to 8 feet tall.
2. Glacier Blue euphorbia has blue-green leaves with thin creamy edges; from February to May, it bears creamy flowers on bracts with blue-green striping. It grows 12 to 15 inches tall and 18 inches wide.
3. Blue Ice bog rosemary is a mounding groundcover with small blue-green leaves; small bell-shaped pink flowers appear in spring. It grows less than a foot tall and spreads 3 feet wide.
4. Silver Beauty box honeysuckle (lonicera nitida) is a finely textured plant with teeny green leaves edged in white, giving an overall frosty appearance. It bears small fragrant white flowers in spring. It slowly grows to 6 feet tall, but can be easily sheared.
5. Frosty Morn sedum has blue-green succulent leaves with wide creamy margins; clusters of pale pink flowers bloom from July to September. It grows 2 to 3 feet tall and wide.
6. Blue oat grass (helictotrichon sempervirens) has spiky, frosty blue blades in a neat, arching clump that grows 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. It may produce tall flower plumes in midsummer.
7. White lavender has silvery foliage and fragrant white flower spikes in summer. Choose from Alba English lavender (lavandula angustifolia), which grows 18 to 24 inches tall, or Alba lavandula x intermedia, which grows 30 inches tall and wide.
8. Essex Witch cottage pink (dianthus plumarius) has fine, blue-green foliage and semi-double pink flowers in June and July. It grows 8 inches tall and 18 inches wide.
For many more frosty plants and how to design with them, check out “Elegant Silvers: Striking Plants for Every Garden,” by Jo Ann Gardner and Karen Bussolini, published by Oregon’s Timber Press. Jean Parietti is a Federal Way freelance writer. E-mail her at southsoundgarden@aol.com
Sources: Windmill Gardens, Sumner; Watson’s Greenhouse and Nursery, Puyallup.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.