Plants with Cool Foliage: Silver Mound (Artemisia schmidtiana)

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.

How to Propagate Silver Mound Artemisia

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.

Salvia

Tough Plants – Salvia nemorosa

While the winter is still in gear I thought it might be helpful to begin reviewing some of the toughest plants I have grown over the years. I’ve grown a lot of them (and killed a few of them along the way). In my garden…

Read More

Three Perennial Plants Never Touched By Deer

Never say never right?  In my experience there are very few plants that are truly safe from deer.  This year I’ve had big time deer issues.  The extra tomato bed I planted was completely devoured by the two deer that are camping out in our…

Read More
Yarrow, Yellow Achillea

Three Yellow Perennials in My Garden

Yellow is a color that just seems to brighten things up. It’s like bringing  a little sunshine to the earth and into the garden. Most of my yellow plants love soaking up the sun which is great since shade in my garden is extremely limited….

Read More

Heuchera (Coral Bells)

Heuchera, also called Coral Bells, are by far one of my favorite plants for shade gardens. Not only are they beautiful plants but in my garden (where deer and rabbits roam) have been very pest free. They don’t require much water to maintain once they…

Read More

How to Save Seeds of Echinacea (Coneflower)

Updated on 11/23/2024 Fall is that time of year when gardeners begin the process of cleaning up the garden but also is the time when we begin to think of next year and saving seeds. One of the my favorite plants is echinacea and I…

Read More

3 Milkweeds to Plant in The Home Garden to Help Pollinators

One of the keys to attracting pollinators is to plant what they like. That means providing plants that give the pollinators food and shelter for all stages of development. Monarch butterflies one pollinator that can benefit from planting milkweed but there are many other insects…

Read More

Discover more from Growing The Home Garden

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

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

  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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?

  5. 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.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from Growing The Home Garden

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading