Silver in the Garden: Frances Perry’s Botanical Elegance
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
May 28, 1967
On this day, The Observer featured a delightful garden column by the ever-distinguished Frances Perry, "Putting Your Garden On The Silver Standard."
Frances became smitten with gardening at the age of ten, thanks to her mother Isabella, who whisked her off to the famed Chelsea Flower Show. Years later, Frances married Amos Perry, Jr., son of the local nurseryman.
The Perry family's love of plants has not been without sorrow—in 1945, their eldest son, Marcus, was tragically killed at just thirteen. Frances's father-in-law, Amos Perry Sr., immortalized his name in the beautiful Marcus Perry oriental poppy.
Frances's column from this day in 1967 glimmered with practical wisdom and poetic language about silver-foliaged plants:
"A touch of silver (or gold) brings light to dark corners, highlights other plants, and makes a particularly delightful foil for anything with pink or blue flowers."
With a knowledgeable nod to their Mediterranean origins, she reminded her readers,
"Many silver-leaved plants are of Mediterranean origin, and the majority are sun-lovers, accustomed to well-drained soils; they stand up well to extremes of weather provided they are not waterlogged..."
"There are a number of silver-leaved plants suitable for small gardens. Artemisias bring a whisper of the past into the gardens... several were well-loved plants in our great grandparents' time."
She praised the practical, storied Southernwood:
"A. abrotanum is the Southernwood, sometimes quaintly named Old Man or Lad's Love... because the ashes were once used to encourage hair growth (on bald heads and young faces). It is pleasantly aromatic ... I like to dry the leaves for potpourri and herb pillows; they also ward off moths."
For dramatic stature, Frances recommended:
"For a key position before dark foliage, grow Verbascum bombyciferum (Giant Silver Mullein)... a really stately plant. Reaching 4-5 ft tall from a flat, leafy rosette, its stout stem is entirely covered, as are the leaves, with cotton wool-like tufts of hair, through which the soft yellow flowers gleam like watery suns. Although biennial, the plant reproduces freely from seed; the seedlings can be transplanted when they are about the size of a penny."
Frances also invoked the tasteful Constance Spry, describing her underplanting of crimson roses with Lamb's Ear:
"The late Constance Spry used to under carpet crimson roses with Stachys byzantina (syn. S. lanata), the plush-leaved Lamb's Ear. [She complained] about the need to remove the flower heads because they spoilt the effect. She would have loved the new variety lof Lamb's Ear known as] Silver Carpet, which is flowerless."
In Frances Perry's hands, both plants and prose sparkle; her timeless advice continues to brighten gardens with every silvery leaf.
