Teucrium fruticans

Silver germander is a Mediterranean evergreen grown above all for foliage. Teucrium fruticans wears small, aromatic, gray-green leaves backed in silvery white felt, on pale, white-woolly stems, so the whole shrub reads as a soft silver mound that lights a hot, sunny border and cools the greens around it. A member of the mint family, Lamiaceae, the plant carries the square stems and aromatic foliage of that clan.

Through much of the growing season, pale sky-blue, two-lipped flowers with long, arching stamens open along the branch tips, a quiet, cool color against the silver leaves rather than a bold display. The species name fruticans simply means shrubby, and the genus Teucrium is an ancient one, named in classical antiquity for the germanders, a tribe long gathered as bitter herbs.

Native to the western Mediterranean, silver germander evolved for heat, drought, wind, and lean, alkaline, fast-draining ground, and carries that toughness into the garden. Few silver-leaved shrubs are so forgiving of dry, difficult sites, and the aromatic foliage tends to keep deer and browsing pests away while the flowers feed bees.

Give silver germander full sun and sharp drainage, and the plant asks little else. Use the shrub as a silver accent in a dry or Mediterranean-style border, a low clipped or informal hedge, a gravel garden, or a coastal planting, and shear after the main flush to keep a dense, shapely mound. Pair with lavender, rosemary, salvias, and other sun-and-drought lovers for a planting that thrives on neglect.