Silver Leaves Shine Through in Plant of the Week

 PLANT OF THE WEEK

All About Australian Native Plants with Silver Leaves: A longish List

Plants with grey or silver leaves are adapted to a drier environment because the colour of the leaf better reflects the sun than green leaves regardless of the size of the leaf. 

This in turn means the plant uses less water for its functions. 

There's usually more to the story as is the case with eucalypt trees having a thick waxy coating that makes the leaves look silver or grey in the first place. This waxy coating is added protection from the sun's rays.

Eucalyptus perriniana

Mature leaves are often different from juvenile leaves not only in shape and size but orientation.

Mature eucalypt leaves hang vertically to reduce exposure to high levels of radiation and water loss. 

Silver leaves don’t just have to be about small shrubs and ground covers, there’s some beaut examples of silver leafed gums.

Plant nr 1:

 A Couple of Eucalypts with Silver Leaves.

• Two great silver leafed  gums were our picks:Eucalyptus perriniana and Eucalyptus cinerea

Silver leaves can be so attractive in the garden, in the vase or just in the landscape.
The add texture and structure to a garden. But they also can brighten a dark spot in a garden where dark green would just disappear in the gloom.

Eucalyptus cinerea

Other fabulous silver leafed eucalypts

• You could also try Eucalyptus pulverulenta, known as the Silver-leaved Mountain Gum.
• There’s a dwarf form of this one called Baby Blue which only grows to 3m.
• The Silver-leaved Mountain Gum is an unusual Eucalypt (especially for eastern Australia) because it hangs onto juvenile foliage into maturity. Plants rarely produce adult leaves.

Listen to the podcast to find out more

I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, native plant expert and officianado

Plant nr 2

Scientific name:Rhagodia spinescens

Common Name: Aussie flat bush; spiny saltbush

Family: Chenopodiaceae

Height: 0.5-1.5m  tall by 1.5-4metres wide.

Flowers:January -April, tiny cream panicles, fairly insignificant.

Conditions: frost and mildly drought tolerant, best suited for temperate and semi-arid regions.

Location: tolerant of soil types and will grow in full sun or dry shade.

Uses: prune to shape as a hedge or leave to make a groundcover. 

Quite a vigorous grower and hugs the ground so makes great habitat for native reptiles and small birds.

Ozbreed has a compact form makes a great ground cover and performs better if it is pruned annually or more often if a manicured look is desired.  30-50cm x 1m wide

Listen to the podcast to find out more

I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, native plant expert and officianado

Plant nr 3

Scientific Name: Westringia fruiticosa

Common Name: Coastal Rosemary

Family: Lamiaceae (mint family)

Leaves: green, with a covering of short hairs giving the plant a silvery tint . Leaves are up to 2 centimetres long, narrow and pointed and set closely in whorls around the stem.

Westringia 'Grey Box'

Flowers: Appear in my garden from September onwards with November seeing a main flush. Typical of flowers in the mint family either in white or pale mauve with a couple of reddish spots near the throat of the flowers. This is a bee guide for Aussie native bees.

Looks like rosemary but it isn't and Adrian regards it as the 'murraya' of the Aussie native plant world.

Tough as 'old boots' seen hugging the cliffs and down to beach level, either prostrate or several feet high depending on situation.

A useful garden plant that has been hybrised extensively.

Westringia "Aussie Box' and 'Grey Box' is a great alternative to box hedging.

TIP:Adrian recommends use mechanical shears instead of electric or battery operated shears for better results when pruning

Listen to the podcast to find out more

I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, native plant expert and officianado

Plant nr 4 

Scientific name Eryngium ovinum

Common Name: Blue Devil not the Sea Holly from norther Europe

Etymology: Eryngium refers to Sea Holly and ovinum refers to sheep-apparently sheep graze on these plants.

Family: Apiaceae-carrot family

Height/width: 60cm-1m by 60cm-1m

Description: Semi-evergreen perennial with green thistle-like foliage and unique feather-like blue cylindrical flowers during Summer. Dormant from Autumn through to late Winter. Long-lasting cut flower. Grows approx. 70cm tall x 40cm wide.

• When heavily if flower, the plant, not just the flowers turn blue. "By mid summer the flowering stems extend to 60 cm and a mass of crowded bright blue flowers is produced with long, spiky bracts to 2.5 cm in globular, thistle-like heads on rigid branched stems. " (from anbg.gov.au)

In Adrian's temperate garden, the Blue Devil has not died down as it reputedly does in cooler climates. Grows in most soil conditions in full sun.

Listen to the podcast to find out more

I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, native plant expert and officianado

 Plant nr 5

Scientific name: Leptospermum lanigerum

Common Name: Woolly tea tree

Family: Myrtaceae

Etymology: leptos, meaning slender, and sperma, meaning seed.

lanigerum, is named using the Latin word for wool-bearing, describing the silky hairy leaves and hairy buds, shoots and young capsules.

Height: 3m by 3m wide

Location: any soil in sun and will tolerate heavy shade. Frost hardy to -7C

 Description: Dense shrub to small erect tree with persistent fibrous bark on larger stems, smaller stems shedding in stringy strips.

• Not all tea trees have green leaves, and this one has pewter grey or silver tiny leaves with typical 5 petalled tea tree flowers.
• May be limbed into a small tree. Light summer water though very drought adapted. Excellent background shrub or screen or large informal hedge. 

Takes well to pruning as the leaves are tiny and the more you prune the bush will become more dense. 

Listen to the podcast to find out more

I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley, native plant expert and officianado