...and this one. For everyone else too of course.

Is the taller one Spanish Lavender? Thats a nice grouping of plants.

We had a shortage of Dusty Miller here in the city this spring, it was one of the more tragic results of the winter disaster of 2013. Seems everyone's died so there was a run on nursery's who were trying to find resources for more, they were not prepared for the demand so supplies quickly dwindled and ran out altogether by early May. Usually its a reliable winter hardy choice for permanent planting in masses -- but not last winter. I am expecting an over supply of D.M. in Spring 2015.

I bought a Spanish Lavender which sort of looks like what you have in the picture even though getting it through is a gamble. Its the only lavender besides one L. munstead that made it through summer. I hope its still there come spring, I love it. I'm hoping you tell me your silver plant in the photo is something else so I can plant whatever that is for another silver.

Thank you.

Yes, it is spanish lavender. It was $1 on clearance and it has grown really well. Hopefully it will bloom next year. The few dusty miller plants haven't grown much but maybe they will do better next year if they make it.

I also have some wintersown lavender but I have no idea which one. The seeds were bought on ebay and the package didn't speficy which type it was.

We used to have an entire nursery devoted to grey and silver plants (UInderwood's)....you might take a look at 'Grey and Silver Plants' by Mrs. Desmond Underwood (I am sure you can get it secondhand for not very much money).

Have you tried the silver sage - S .argentea? or silver thyme, T..pseudolanuginosa?

Or, although the flowers are a bit meh, the leaves on papaver spicata are lovely - white felted over pale green....and easy from seed.

I have seen that Lavendar on Web nurseries , but for a pretty penny. It is yummy.

J.L. Hudson has S. argentea and I've been eyeing it for some time. I really ought to place an order with him, he sends me catalogs on his nickel regularly. When it comes to silver plants, I could care less about the flowers but that applies 3/4's of the time anyway on most plants. The plant I am really wanting right now is Ephedra equisetina. I'm planning to break down and purchase seed from Horizon Herbs for sowing indoors this winter. I wouldn't exactly snub a nevadensis either, its nice but not as blue as equistina. The down side of E. equisetina is its a bit aggressive underground but would I really resent that blue popping up elsewhere? Probably not. Its also got no leaves, only stems giving it the look of a grass which puts it way up high in desirableness in my eyes, then you get those funky red berries against that backdrop of stinginess. My kind of plant. E. equistina is the real deal for producing ephedra, very potent levels.

Sorry if I got off topic, I'm a bit obsessed with this plant right now.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=blue+ephedra&img=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-cveHe93lgVQ%2FUi5OdMCxXQI%2FAAAAAAAAB6A%2FwMpXkZjDGtM%2Fs1600%2FP7160041%2B2.JPG&v_t=nscpsearch&host=http%3A%2F%2Fkentonjseth.blogspot.com%2F2013_09_01_archive.html&width=181&height=135&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ft3.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcQ5unJOE9yfd61n1IgPP5NRTj1RakzoTXiyaMyb1dyCLb0aL31ajrWl80b4EA%3A3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-cveHe93lgVQ%2FUi5OdMCxXQI%2FAAAAAAAAB6A%2FwMpXkZjDGtM%2Fs1600%2FP7160041%252B2.JPG&b=image%3Fq%3Db%3DimageResultsBack%26v_t%3Dnscpsearch%26oreq%3Db3039e27309a4bfbb6e3b7c25bf10d9f&imgHeight=960&imgWidth=1280&imgTitle=%28Ephedra+equisetina%2C+playing&imgSize=268907&hostName=kentonjseth.blogspot.com

That is yummy too. If you get any spare stuff, I have a hillside it can ramble to its hearts content.

I have a plan in the works. A friend is on the road out west and he said last night he can pick up a blue rubber rabbit bush if its on his route, I reserved a large plant at Cliffrose Nursery in Cortez, Colorado which is on their itinerary of stops on the way home. They also have big Ephedra equistina's, all plants marked down 25%, so I reserved one of them too. I hope they can fit them in the car OK, we are playing phone tag and I'm holding my breath and keeping my fingers are crossed. I am sure there is a blue ephedra in your future if all goes well, the plant takes hold and spreads underground like they say it does. It should do OK, the E. viridis I've had for years has done well here.

I am beside myself in nervous anticipation.

OH boy. Well when it starts a rambling to far in your urban lot , remember the friend with the dry hillsides.

You could plant it on your hillside along with Silver Zipweed (Silver Queen). I finally took the dare and planted mine in the ground today, back in the very back, let 'er romp.

If I get it first one that pops up has your name on it. I asked if he had small ones but he doesn't, sounds like a 3 gallon size is what they have from his description, way too big for mailing.

Like I said , OH BOY. Plural on the dry hillsides. I can give each a small hillside, or I can let them punch it out

I grew Salvia argentea from seed a few years ago in one of the drier patches in my garden. The basal leaves (just the rosette the first year) are large, heart-shaped, very silver and fuzzy to the point of almost being furry. The flowers were light and airy shades of purply mauve, and where I had them lovely but not too effective since there was a lot of busy foliage behind them. Planting against a wall or some other solid colored surface might make the flowers more visible. My only issue with this attractive plant was the scent of the flowers and foliage. I found I didn't want to work in that bed for the season due to the strong and persistent rank odor when I brushed against them. It was near the entrance path to the house, but when the plants were untouched, the scent was quite faint.

It's a biennial IIRC, and if I were to grow this again, it would be in an equally well-drained area, and it would be where I didn't need to do much midseason maintenance so I could see but not smell it.

Have you considered salvia apiana, Tex? Betsy Klebb offers fulsome recommendations in her salvia books. If I was less woodland orientated, I might have a go myself - although I feel it would go the same as my pathetic attempts to keep s,leucophylla alive (fail).

Camps, I don't think will S. alpiana would grow well here (cruelty to plants). Its from a climate with a completely different seasonal rain pattern but if I could I definitely would. I haven't tried S. Leucophylla either for similar reasons. Some xeric plants really are too regionally specific and a early/spring, late winter rainy spell would most likely do it in eventually but others are more tolerant. Anything native to California sets up a big red warning flag for me as a plant "100%-Doomed-To-Die-You-Idiot" (my mental response when I get suckered in by my own stupid whims).

I nixed the idea of S. argentea because I have a few common mullein (Verbascum thapsus). My space is limited so I figure that common weed serves as the big furry leaf plants on my measy allotment. You must know my penchant for weeds and common natives by now even if this one isn't a native, its so common in NM it seems like one.

Prairiemoon, now I want to smell one. The subject of plants with smell (good or bad) might make a great thread.

I am holding my breath on the blue ephedra. Its looking very positive for one. I will be cast down to the very depths if I don't get it now. If not, I will definitely be back here to shamelessly whine and mope. Ever get your heart so set that you are fixated and obsessed?

fortunately, having the attention span of a hyperactive teenager, my obsessions,(which are many) can be easily supplanted by the NEXT BIG THING (I am so shallow). Just emerging from a heavy aster phase, in time to get a wild rose order off before I could think too hard (back to roses again, now it is bare-root season).

Just a smattering of crazes, fads and whims:
hardy geraniums: obviously, I have been through dozens of these but every so often, some new cultivar will appear and it all starts off again (there were the Canary Islanders, the Africans - still in the grip of them, a couple of alpine periods....
Geums: every year, the geum craze has me panting...and now I can have G.rivale.........
Grasses: comes and goes...but carex have been much on my radar at the mo
Deutzias - so underused, so classic - expect this to be indulged to fullest extent along with lonicera (of all types). phase
Trees - goes without say, but limiting myself to seeds...and as time is on my side, I have been enthusiastically trying.....lots.
Paeonies: came, went, cost a packet, got bored.
Dahlias - been creeping back this year with a collarette craze
Phlox....oh dear, fortunately, I have not yet allowed myself to run amok
Epimediums - expensive, passed the infection to son who is still deeply in thrall so I just enjoyed his vicariously. Same with heucheras and hepaticas.
Alpines....when I only had my (minuscule) home garden, I was in love with tiny tiny plants - the only survivors are my auriculas and a few saxifrages, campanulas and other toughies which do not need winter shelter (dry) in the glasshouse.
South African bulbs - one of my more stressful plant trends....but rewarding and beautiful
Umbellifers - this has been going on for 4 years now - have worked my way through dozens - new this year - daucus carotus 'Dara' and a couple of scary angelica from Sakhalin.
Island and Taiwan
Roses - my longest running craze (25 years or so) - have worked my way through nearly all of them, racing quicksmart through floribundas and climbers, onwards to more esoteric antiques and finally arriving (back) at wildlings.
Rubus - bidding to be another autumn accompaniment to the roses I have already ordered...and, of course, I KNOW these will grow well (cos the woods are full of them) and they are edible as well as beautiful.

Just a handful off the top of my head....but yes, I do get crazily obsessed and bore on, sometimes for years (not continually obvs)....until I get/grow the plant....and then, I am ashamed to say, it is whoosh, onto the next thing. All of the above have been around for a few years at least (on and off) - the single season crazes are too numerous to list.

I really don't know what I would do if I didn't have a current plant obsession. I mean, I would probably get to fuming and obsessing about the people who get on my nerves or bug the heck out of me, the latest slight, either real or imagined, makes no difference, to my person or some other negative circular thinking pattern like that. Or, it would be some song that I can't get out of my head or the worst -- the fear of aging, nursing homes or not being able to pay my bills when I reach that really decrepit state and other cheerful stuff like that, the late night horror type "what if" sort of things. Plant obsessions fill in these nasty voids that would be filled by things along these lines, no doubt.

I have had several serious phases

Obviously there was the Cactus Phase.
The SW native shrub phase
Native Grass phase #1
Native forbs phase
Native Grass phase #2
Replace that stuff I got rid of, I now want if back phase
Lantana phase
Prairie phase resulting in Native Grass phase # 3, the one I am currently in.

Still I WANT THAT BLUE EPHEDRA BAD.

I really don't know what I would do if I didn't have a current plant obsession. I mean, I would probably get to fuming and obsessing about the people who get on my nerves or bug the heck out of me, the latest slight, either real or imagined, makes no difference, to my person or some other negative circular thinking pattern like that. Or, it would be some song that I can't get out of my head or the worst -- the fear of aging, nursing homes or not being able to pay my bills when I reach that really decrepit state and other cheerful stuff like that, the late night horror type "what if" sort of things. Plant obsessions fill in these nasty voids that would be filled by things along these lines, no doubt.

I have had several serious phases

Obviously there was the Cactus Phase.
The SW native shrub phase
Native Grass phase #1
Native forbs phase
Native Grass phase #2
Replace that stuff I got rid of, I now want if back phase
Lantana phase
Prairie phase resulting in Native Grass phase # 3, the one I am currently in.

Still I WANT THAT BLUE EPHEDRA BAD.

Campanula , the tazmanian devil of the plant world or would you rather be a whirling dervish.. LOL My sister grows angelicas in Alaska. Beware, They take over when your back is turned.. She was off sailing the Med researching fishing cultures of the Medeterenian and when she returned home, her garden was an alaskan jungle when it broke dormancy. She had some serious hacking to do, this first summer home in three years. She would always get home after the first snow and leave in February so she never saw ground..