Plants with Cool Foliage: Silver Mound (Artemisia schmidtiana)

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Could their be a more aptly named plant than ‘Silver Mound’? Artemisia schmidtiana has several common names like wormwood, mugwort, sagebrush, or just silver mound (which to me is the most descriptive.) This mounding perennial has soft silvery gray foliage that invites the casual observer reach down to touch it. It’s hard to walk by without petting the ‘Silver Mound’. It’s drought tolerant which is a highly prized feature in many perennial plants.

The puffy little plant is grown for its foliage but can spread through seed created by its small yellow flowers. It likes gardens in zones 3 through 7 and will grow to around 15 inches wide by 8-10 inches tall. My ‘Silver mound’s have exploded with growth since I planted them 6 weeks ago.

I planted my artemisia as a border-groundcover in our front sidewalk garden. I planted Russian Sage, Salvia nemorosa, and ‘Stella D’ Oro’ daylilies along with the ‘Silver Mound’. There is an ‘Oranges and Lemons’ gaillardia as well as another salvia that I believe is a Salvia lyrata with purple foliage in the sidewalk garden.

Silver mound is also fairly easy to propagate through stem cuttings during the summer. Just take a 3 inch stem tip cutting and stick it in sand after applying rooting hormone. I have seven more started with plans to take additional ‘Silver Mound’ artemisia cuttings later in the summer.

8 thoughts on “Plants with Cool Foliage: Silver Mound (Artemisia schmidtiana)”

  3. They are lovely plants Dave…and look how many you shall have soon!

    They are a lovely foil with the purple and darker green leaved plants.

    Gail

  5. Dave, does this plant stay or is it supposed to spread? It is a lovely plant. I wouldn’t mind having some here in my garden. It is very soft looking.

  6. Tina,

    I’m glad you like where I put it! What did you plant your’s with?

    Skeeter,

    You would definitely be tempted to plant it daily. It’s just a fun plant to have I think!

    Gail,

    I hope that the serve well as the border groundcover. I need to show the shots of the sidewalk garden now. The Russian sage is blooming which looks great with the silver mound underneath.

    Aunt Debbie,

    how big does your’s get? These are getting close to their maximum size already. Of course growing conditions could alter that!

    Lola,

    It pretty much stays put but gives away some babies. Although I really wouldn’t mind it at all if it did spread.

  7. I have one of these plants and absolutely love it, but this year (it's about 6 years old now), it's got a hole in the centre – can I divide it where the hole is or is it better to cut part of it away and try to get the clippings to root to plant them elsewhere?

  8. Hi Lisa!

    Ours aren't looking so good this year either. All the rain we've has pushed the foliage to the outside of the plants creating a hole in the center where the crown of the roots are. I would wait until spring when the new foliage is just beginning to emerge then dig them up and divide them. You could try to root some of the branches that are getting leggy. They are great plants but are prone to get the hole in the center.

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