A study in grey

The family came for dinner last night and I didn't have a flower in the garden which I could pick for the table. The heat has been merciless and although some roses are still flowering, if I don't pick them very early in the morning, by midday they are shrivelled and brown. The few plants which have survived the heat are my herbs so I picked lots of them and put them in small glasses which I lined up along the middle of the table where they provided a wonderful sensation of coolness (albeit of a deceptive nature).

Just looking at the lovely cool grey of these sage leaves and their beautiful texture makes me want to lie amongst them and soak up their scent and softness.

I love grey plants in the garden as they make such a wonderful contrast to all the green. This is centaurea cineraria and is so hardy I doubt that any amount of sunshine and heat would deter it.


This is wormwood which is a lovely soft and fluffy plant and is apparently used to make absinthe.

This one is an Australian native and I don't know it's name. It looks like silver sticks, but grows as a lovely silvery clump and this piece reminds me of a giant stick insect.

What list of grey foliage plants would be complete without lavender, although these leaves look more green then grey, and some of the salvias. I am sure there are probably hundreds of others which I have never heard of.

I bunched all these grey lovelies together in a vase, put some cool grey shells next to it and thought this arrangement made a very good substitute for colourful flowers, especially when I am trying to keep my cool.

The grey foliage even looks good with a backdrop of our new grey "lily" fabric.