Conradina canescens 'Gray Mound'

Conradina canescens 'Gray Mound' is a silver-leaved selection of the false rosemary that grows wild on the deep, pine-fringed sands of the northern Gulf Coast, in Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida panhandle, where the species once mingled with sea oats and longleaf pine. A member of the mint family, this aromatic shrub carries soft, needle-like foliage in a ghostly silver-gray, and from spring into early summer, sometimes again in the cool of fall, offers a flush of pale lavender to bluish, two-lipped flowers that native bees and butterflies work eagerly.

'Gray Mound' is a Woodlanders selection made for form: where wild plants vary in leaf color and habit, this clone is remarkably uniform, dense, tidy, and mounding, spreading gently in well-drained sand with a sculpted, restrained elegance. The low silver cushion suits dry native landscapes, xeriscapes, rock and gravel gardens, and coastal restorations, and the aromatic foliage keeps deer at a distance while perfuming the air when brushed by a hand or the wind.

Site 'Gray Mound' where the silver foliage and fine texture can do quiet work: near an entry, along a path, at the edge of a dry bed, or repeated through a larger planting for rhythm. Pair with stone, gravel, and other fine-textured, drought-tolerant companions that share the taste for sun and sharp drainage, and give room for the mound to be read on its own. The genus honors Solomon White Conrad (1779 to 1831), a Philadelphia botanist whose name lives on in this small clan of southeastern mints.