Lavender Cotton

Lavender Cotton (Santolina) - Dwarf, half-shrubby plants, of neat habit and pretty hoary foliage. One of the most distinct and useful of them is S. incana, a small grey shrub, with close habit and narrow leaves covered with dense white down. The pale greenish-yellow flowers are small, not showy, but the plant is useful from its form and silvery hue for groups and edgings, growing readily in ordinary soil on the level border or on slopes of the rock garden. Other species of Santolina suited for rock gardens are S. pectinata and S. viridis, which form bushes something like the Lavender Cotton. S. alpina is of more alpine habit, forming dense tufts close to the ground, from these arising slender stems bearing yellow button-like flowers. It grows in any soil, and may be used in the less important parts of the rock garden. Division. Cuttings of the shrubby species.