What can be more magical than a full moon on a summer evening? That great silvery orb peeping out behind drifting clouds or rising regally into a clear sky twinkling with diamonds. Makes one wax lyrical.
Sitting out in the garden on such a night could be called moon-bathing, and provide an opportunity to enjoy how, for example, the greenhouse glistens and the plants respond to Luna’s glow. The night-blooming cactus, Epiphyllum oxypetalum earns its popular name ‘Queen of the Night’ as the flowers last only one night, and give off an overwhelming sweet, rich perfume. When it blooms in my sunroom, it fills the entire house with its luxurious scent and wafts it out onto the patio. Imagine what it would do in your greenhouse!
As summer draws in the garden as a whole takes on a new character of ripeness and fading glory. Plants, which grab our attention in daylight, on balmy late summer evenings give way to those with pewter and silver foliage. Often regarded as “filler” earlier in the garden year, they come into their own now, and should be regarded as “killer”, in the best superlative sense.
Silver-leaved plants are widely popular in the southwest, and are especially useful in the Rockies and high plains, when the dog days of summer are most demanding, i.e. it’s pushing 90F, humidity is 25% and the dry wind is gusting at 30mph out of the southeast or, often, west. The kind of weather when you think, “hmmm, I could sun-dry those tomatoes outdoors this week.” At midday, when greenery has melted into limp puddles and flowers take to the fainting couch, silver leaved grasses, shrubs and even vegetables hold their own. The photos below are from my garden and were taken at midday on August 9, which was about two weeks after we last enjoyed a little dampness – I wouldn’t glorify it as rain — on a few evenings in late July. Weatherwise, it could be and has been worse, but despite the withering dry winds, lightening but no thunder, and certainly no rain, the garden is holding up, largely thanks to these spectral plants that carry the day. In that respect, at least, I’m not grumbling.
The foliage of Salvia pachyphylla is a so silvery it is almost white, in a ghostly what. Very late in the summer it comes into its own and explodes with long stems carrying mauve pink flowers. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds love it. It is sort of resinous to touch like so many ornamental salvias. Cut it back in the spring to keep tidy but avoid cutting into the old wood. It’s xeric, so ideal for rock gardens or foundation planting getting to about 2-3 feet when mature and spreading as much. There are various cultivars available with more flamboyant flower coloring, but I prefer the species, which Plant Select offers through nurseries.
Helichrysum trilinatum SteppeSuns Hokubetsi, is a 2021 Plant Select introduction via Denver Botanic Gardens. Hokubetsi is a Basotho word for this small shrubby plant that is native to the Maloti mountains of South Africa. Again, it’s a resilient plant, shrugging off weather extremes and keeping its silver-grey sheen all year round, even as the tiny leaves drop leaving downy white stems intact. The bright yellow flowers late in the season are perfect accents. Clip it over lightly to give it a good shape, but otherwise, let it go.
Stachys lanata, best known as lamb’s ears, will grow just about anywhere with the minimum of water to keep it’s fuzzy soft-grey foliage flush. From the late summer flower spikes, it seeds itself to find its happy place. In my garden it grows with Brunnera macrophylla ‘Silver Heart’ for the contrast of their leaf shape and the dainty veining of the brunnera against the monotone lamb’s ears. These are widely available, possibly even from a friend’s garden – they transplant easily, which is a very good thing.
I mentioned silver leaved vegetables, and if you mingle veg among the ornamentals as I do, this zucchini is a stunning mixer with huge, deeply cut leaves heavily veined with silver. I brought my seed from Italy, but the variety called ‘Alberello di Sarzano’ is, I imagine, from the look of the silver-skinned zucchini on the packet, a good option. Always on the lookout for unusual produce to augment the decorative plants that fill my small garden, I’ll be ordering this ‘zuke’ along with a few other varieties of goodies from Grow Italian, based in Lawrence, Kansas.
There are so many silver-leaved plants, I could go on, but my main point is to urge you to think beyond floral color, which compared to foliage, is fleeting. And when the two words ‘moonlight’ and ‘garden’ appear together and white flowers are getting all the attention, it’s easier to keep the romance going with the shimmerng silver leaves and, as these photos show, the huge variety in texture and shape that leaves generally bring to the garden picture.
©Ethne Clarke 2025
‘Gardening with foliage, form and texture’ is my book about these three important ingredients in garden-making. It’s available from Amazon via the link.
Plant Select can steer you in the direction of plants suitable for the Rocky Mountain region, the high plains and similar steppe environments.
For an interesting selection of Italian vegetable and herbs, take a look at the Grow Italian’s offering, The amount of seeds that their provider Franchi offer per packet is a great deal more than we’re used to, but kept carefully, they will be good for years, as I know from experience. There are recipes, too.