silvers

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF INTRODUCING A SILVER THEME IN YOUR GARDEN? APART FROM THEIR DRAMATIC AESTHETIC EFFECT, THERE ARE MANY OTHER MEDAL-WORTHY REASONS TO CONSIDER

Words: BURFORD HURRY

HAVE YOU and your garden recovered from the merciless heat of the summer? Mine is slowly adjusting to cooler days. Even the burnt leaves on my aloes are gradually assuming their normal colour and beginning to look sleeker and plumper. It was certainly hot these past months.

During the summer siege, I would look at the trees around me – and in particular the olive tree on the other side of the river – and was reminded how her leaves were occasionally silvered by a gentle breeze. And my thoughts turned to using silver foliage in the garden.

I have always flirted with the colour. Years ago while still living in Southern Africa and on holiday in the Algarve, I was fascinated by the silver metallic prickly leaves and the blue cone-shaped flowers of the sea holly (Eryngium maritimum) and so I took seeds from the plants that grew on the sands of the Trafal dunes near Quarteira and propagated them back on the Highveld in South Africa.

The fine hairs or powder covering the silver leaves of many plants deflect the sunlight, thus protecting them from the sun’s fierce rays. In addition, most of these plants will grow happily in poor to good well-drained soil and do not need much water, and so will help us achieve a more water-wise garden. All these, having similar growing conditions, also mean that they are able to form happy plant communities.

Start planning

If you are tempted by the thought of a silver patch in your garden, think bold and dramatic. Start now to take cuttings or slips of silver leafed plants from friends’ gardens, or buy seedlings from nurseries and markets. Look for any of the different artimesias or echeverias like Echeveria laui, cotyledons like silver leafed Cotyledon orbiculata, crassulas like Crassula arborescens, the silver jade plant or silver Arctotis acaulis. The latter I got as a tiny slip from a plant that had escaped from the garden fence and spilled onto the pavement.

Keep your eyes open for Angel Wings senecio (Senecio candicans ‘Senaw’) as being beautiful they are in demand and difficult to find. Also remember that the Mediterranean Garden Association of Portugal will be having its Autumn Fair (28-29 October) in the FISSUL exhibition halls in Silves, and there will be a dazzling choice of plants. When buying, think of multiple rather than individual purchases. Silver plants, particularly the smaller ones, make more of a statement collectively than individually.

Once you have the back up of silver cuttings and seedlings in your nursery, you will be ready to start planting in early spring. Choose a sunny area that has poor but reasonably fertile, well-drained soil.

Keep your silver space simple. You could begin by planting Cotyledon orbiculata, a succulent that is propagated without difficulty from cuttings, and while growing reasonably quickly is easily shaped.

If you want your cotyledons to be more shrubby, leave the leading shoots or snip the leading shoots off if you want them to hug the ground. Once they are in the ground put sea holly between them. Just remember that sea holly has long deep tap roots so plant them where you want them to stay.

You could always add one or two artemisia (Artemisia absinthium) at the back of the area. Pinch out the leading tips of the artemisia and let the lateral branches explore the spaces between and around the sea holly and the coteledons. I would choose a variety of artemisia that has very lacy leaves and is relatively low growing. There are several varieties.

Silver charms

You might also think of a silver and grey succulency (a wide herbaceous border made up of succulents) instead of an ordinary herbaceous border. Keep your eyes open for Mexican silver grey echevaria such as Echeveria laui and once obtained be bold and plant them close to one another in irregular pools along the edge of the bed.

Use Cotyledon orbiculata occasionally either as neighbours on the edge of the bed or behind the Echeveria and intersperse them with angular and delicate Silver teaspoons (Kalanchoe hildebrandtii), a succulent from Madagascar. Towards the back of the succulency, plant grey kalanchoe ‘Oak Leaves’ with the dramatic occasional silver felted Kalanchoe beharensis behind

Previous page: Main: Chalk sticks Curio repens; small: eryngium maritimum. This page: lefy: Leucadendron argenteum; right: echeveria laui; below: Senecio candicans them; again, with the latter snip out the growing tips so, the plants first grow sideways rather than up. If you let this kalanchoe grow up it will dominate the bed rather than be part of it.

Or would you prefer a more leafy, silver garden? If so plant a herbaceous border using Lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantine) in front of the bed with silvery-leafed Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria) with its rose magenta flowers behind them. Cut the campions back after flowering to prevent them from becoming invasive.

You could include Dusty millers (Jacobaea maritima), which grow in small silver clumps, and once again choose those whose leaves would complement their neighbours. They, like artemisias, have broad leaves, ferny or lacy leaves. Santolinas (Santolina chamaecyparissus) could also be included.

Convolvulus cneorum is a lovely addition as she produces simple and attractive white flowers as well. A stunning silver-leafed plant Angel Wings senecio with her gently scalloped and spoon shaped leaves would be a beautiful addition to your silver patch but she requires a slightly richer soil and is often difficult to find.

There are also silvery leafed shrubs and small trees such as the Bush Germander (Teucrium fruticans), which has pretty pale or dark blue flowers, and the silver cassia (Senna artemisioides) with tiny yellow blossoms. They could be used to dramatic effect with the purple smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria). The Silver Tree (Leucadendron argenteum), a kind of protea which grows on the slopes of Table Mountain on the Cape peninsular, is probably the most beautiful silver leaf tree as it has soft silky metallic leaves which make them shine; unfortunately they are difficult to grow as they like acid soils and reasonably temperate growing conditions.

And if you feel that silver patches or silver succulencies would be too dramatic a change for your garden, definitely consider the excitement of having a splash of silver sea hollys or a fringe of Lamb’s ears in the middle of your green herbaceous border. Silver would generate a whole new ambience in your garden.