Gray Santolina

Santolina chamaecyparissus

Gray Santolina has a number of good features. Number one, it’s a gray-plant so it breaks up the sea of green in our landscape. It makes a nice groundcover and it’s one of the plants that deer would rather not eat if they have other things that they prefer. About this time of the year it starts to bloom with little yellow button-like flowers. But it is as a textural groundcover all year that we value this plant. You can mass plant it in beds to create a large swath of gray. It’s nice to set off a darker color, such as purplish or burgundy color foliage behind it, or flowering perennials like Indigo spires. It’s extremely tough and especially likes our hot dry conditions. Avoid planting it in shade or poorly drained soils, since it will show its displeasure by rotting.