Lambs Ears Aka Silver Carpet

Rosettes of silver greyish white leaves provide an attractive weed suppressing carpet for much of the year.

Lambs ears aka silver carpet. A great medium spreading groundcover that thrives in the xeric garden. The foliage is a more intense shade of silver than flowering varieties of the plant. Makes a soft collar around the base of bird bath or sun dial. Lambs ears stachys byzantina is a well known ground covering perennial grown for its soft woolly foliage.

Staying short at 4 to 6 inches high with a spread of 9 to 18 inches its dimensions suit it to use as a ground cover. Stuff into pockets in crumbling stone walls and rock garden embankments. Plants are particularly attractive to the solitary wool carder bee anthidium manicatum which cards the fine hairs from the leaves to use as nesting material. This variety of lamb s ears rarely flowers and is an excellent drought tolerant groundcover or edging plant for a well drained site in full sun.

Other common names lamb s ear silver carpet synonyms stachys lanata silver queen family lamiaceae genus stachys can be annuals perennials or shrubs with paired leaves which are sometimes unpleasantly aromatic and erect spikes or racemes of whorled 2 lipped flowers. 18 24 in soil conditions. Stachys byzantina silver carpet lamb s ear dense rosettes of woolly gray green leaves that spread by rhizome. Silver carpet is another cultivar that does not flower often.

Browse pictures and read growth cultivation information about stachys lamb s ear stachys byzantina silver carpet supplied by member gardeners in the plantfiles database at dave s garden. Staying short at 4 to 6 inches high with a spread of 9 to 18 inches its dimensions suit it to use as a ground cover. Use as a foliage contrast groundcover for fine textured grasses and sedges or burgundy leafed perennials. Design ideasuse lamb s ear at the front of the border spreader both perennial and dryland palettes.

Leaves are evergreen in warm climates but will depreciate considerably in harsh winters. Silver carpet lamb s ear stachys byzantina silver carpet is a handsome fuzzy grey leaved groundcover that thrives in problem areas such as dry shade and poor soils. Non flowering use the foliage to contrast nicely with green and blue leaved plants.