Longfellow's Greenhouses Online Plant Guide

Other Names:  Gray Santolina

Description:

This beautifully fine textured variety produces spectacular silver foliage with a hint of gray-green througout, and bright yellow button flowers in summer; traditionally used as a low hedge in herb gardens; perfect accent in the rock garden or borders

Ornamental Features

Cotton Lavender features showy spikes of lightly-scented yellow button flowers at the ends of the stems from early to mid summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive fragrant narrow leaves remain silver in color throughout the year.

Landscape Attributes

Cotton Lavender is a dense herbaceous annual with a mounded form. It brings an extremely fine and delicate texture to the garden composition and should be used to full effect.

This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Cotton Lavender is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Cotton Lavender will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. This annual will normally live for one full growing season, needing replacement the following year.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil, and will often die in standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. It is not particular as to soil type or pH, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This species is not originally from North America.

Cotton Lavender is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers and foliage against which the thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.