Silver Tapestries

I'm a fiber artist, but this post, Silver Tapestries, isn't about fiber.  It's about my garden.  Because I view gardening as an alternative means of experimenting with shape and color...but with a bit of science thrown in.

 I planted a silver garden in 2007.  I chose plants that have either silvery leaves or silvery flowers.  It's a learning curve.  Not everything I originally planted has survived.  But much of it has.  This fall, I'm relishing that silver, which continues to shine out, despite the falling temperatures and waning sunlight.

Here's snow-in-summer (cerastium tomentosum) on the left and dianthus Tatra Fragrance on the right.  Silver threads and silver needles.

These two types of leaves illustrate two different types of silver foliage.  The snow-in-summer is silvery because it's felted.  The dianthus is silvery because its glaucous--a shine similar to the silvery sheen on a grape.

Of the few plants still flowering in the garden at this late date, two of them are in the silver garden.  Russian sage (perovskia filigran) blooms pale silvery lavender on the left, and on the right, October daphne (sedum Sieboldii) blooms silvery pink.

How about these cabbages, battered but glorious?

As you can see below, someone or something has been gnawing away at one of them.  I think it's my husband, Joe Rubin:

Elsewhere on our expansive grounds, another part of the garden features plants of silver and maroon foliage.  This Heuchera Silver Scrolls lives there, and it doesn't seem at all bothered by the crisp autumn temperatures:

The lamiums like the cool weather.  Look how they continue to put out frosty silvery foliage:

Lamium White Nancy (lamium maculatum) nestled among the still-dewy foliage of forget-me-not (myosotis sylvatica)

Lamium White Nancy cozying up to Lamium Beacon Silver

On the picnic table:  October Daphne with Sedum Cauticola:

So, silver tapestries.  But no fiber.