Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Silver plants bring a luminous beauty to the landscape. Their distinctive colors, textures, and silhouettes enrich garden design; their ability to withstand extremes of heat, cold, drought, wind, and, for variegated silvers, shade makes them indispensable for gardeners. The geographic range of silver plants is broader than many assume. Silver conifers evoke snowy, colder regions and thrive in the most frigid sites. Even in four-season climates where they are frost tender, stunning agaves, yuccas, and echeverias can be grown outdoors in containers, then wintered over indoors, while other silvers, including tropicals like the downy-leaved Plectranthus argentatus, can be treated as annuals. In this comprehensive and inspirational compendium, silver aficionados Jo Ann Gardner and Karen Bussolini have selected and vividly illustrated the best candidates for a broad range of growing and design needs. Whether you decide to add a dash of quicksilver or the soothing perfume of an ancient herb, this in-depth guide to plants of uncommon beauty and versatility is certain to change the way you see and plant your garden.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Although we call all of them silvers, their silveriness varies from near glittering white and absolute silver to green-gray, grays, and silvery blues, and from spotted and streaked leaves to types covered with a metallic sheen. Silvers can be found in most plant groups, although few true annual species exist, since these occur mostly in winter rainfall areas where conditions are unfavorable to silver adaptation. We think of many of the silvers, such as the dusty millers (senecios), as annuals, but they are actually shrubby perennials in their warm, native climate. Although silvers are represented in many families in the plant kingdom, they are especially well represented in the sun-loving family Asteraceae. Silver plants dominate some genera (green plants are the exceptions among artemisias), while in others, they are anomalies. Their natural habitats around the world range from dry deserts to rain forests, from treeless plains swept by searing winds and intense heat to frigid mountain tops, rocky cliffs, and salt-sprayed coastlines. Some silvers even grow in alpine bogs. They live and thrive in such forbidding conditions because they have adapted to their environment by becoming silver. Silvers are of three types: downy, waxy, and variegated. With the recent introduction of new silvery pulmonarias, heucheras, ferns, and brunneras, variegated plants have assumed more importance. While downy and waxy types are predominantly sun-lovers, variegated silvers thrive in shade, so their inclusion in the silver palette greatly extends landscaping possibilities. Silver plants encompass the spectrum from tiny, compact alpines to soaring evergreens. Leaves can be long and thick or small and dainty, curled, cupped, or needlelike, with textures from soft and velvety to hard and leathery. Some plants are deeply rooted to anchor them from the wind and to enable them to draw down, others spread wide (as in a desert) for moisture. Many silvers contain toxic sap, give off sharp aromas, or display forbidding thorns to discourage hungry animals, for silvers inhabit difficult terrain where it pays to be armed. The world of silvers is complex and can be confusing, but if you enter it with a basic knowledge of the general types and the special language used to describe them the vocabulary of silvers hunting for the right silver for the right place will be a rewarding endeavor. Plants within the downy group, the largest of the three, spring to mind when we hear the phrase "silver plant." Leaves (in some cases, the entire plant) are covered with a protective layer of down or hairs over the plant's natural green. The length, density, and position (upright or flattened), and the plant's exposure to bright sun determines the plant's coloring through all the shades of silver from near white and sterling to green-grays. The function of down is to maintain a layer of humidity close to the plant's surface that protects it from extremes of heat and cold. The Excerpted from Elegant Silvers: Striking Plants for Every Garden by Jo Ann Gardner, Karen Bussolini All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The subject here is plants with paler than average foliage color, a large, unrelated group of herbs, shrubs, and trees that actually varies in hue from blues and very pale greens to grays and nearly silver. The first thing one notices upon browsing this book is the consistently excellent composition and color reproduction of the nearly 120 photos by coauthor Bussolini. These alone would make most readers want to use the plants. Thankfully, the writing and content quality are on a par with the photographic artistry. Gardner and Bussolini share their considerable experience and research with introductory chapters on the history and design use of silver plants in gardens. The latter two-thirds of the book is an encyclopedia of plant descriptions from Abies to Zenobia. Elegant Silvers is recommended for libraries with an interest in ornamental garden design. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates; professionals; two-year technical program students. G. D. Dreyer Connecticut College

Booklist Review

Gardner and Bussolini are a great team, bringing together decades of herbal expertise, gardening acumen, and an exciting vision of how silver foliage contributes to the impact and allure of a garden plan. Encyclopedic entries point out each plant's natural habitat, from the humid South to the frigid North, and clear advice on cultivation requirements and hardiness will help immensely in choosing the best plants for specific situations. The range of silver plant material is exciting, from drought-tolerant and deer-resistant selections to plants for sun or shade. Bussolini and Gardner reveal the merits of tactile and structural specimens, offering an inspiring trove that includes touchable perennials with downy leaves, ground-covering annuals to brighten beds and borders, herbs for fragrance, architectural succulents, and irresistible flowering shrubs. To provide backbone in the garden, a crucial design element, the entries include a host of trees, including palms with dramatic fans, the emphatic forms of majestic and dwarf conifers, and elegant deciduous species. Required reading for avid gardeners. --Alice Joyce Copyright 2005 Booklist