Artemisia ludoviciana Valerie Finnis
Broader leaves set 'Valerie Finnis' apart from the other silver artemisias. Where most are finely cut and feathery, Artemisia ludoviciana 'Valerie Finnis' carries lance-shaped, coarsely toothed leaves that read as solid blocks of silver from a distance, and are close to white when they first unfurl. The foliage is aromatic and stays good from spring until frost. Late summer flowers are insignificant.
That broader leaf makes it a useful contrast to fine-textured plants such as grasses, lavender and nepeta, and it holds its own in a border better than the wispier silvers. Use it in dry sunny beds, gravel gardens, coastal sections and modern planting schemes, or run it along the front of a border as a low silver band. It cuts and dries well.
Site it in full sun on free-draining, lean soil. It withstands wind, salt air and long dry spells, and struggles only where the ground stays wet in winter. As with the whole species, the roots run: expect new shoots to appear at the edges each season, and either give it space to spread or divide the clump every spring to hold it in place.
Reaches around 0.6 m tall with a spread of 0.5 to 1 m and rising.
Trimming: Shear to near ground level in late winter before new growth starts. Trim again in midsummer if the plant opens out in the middle, cutting stems back by a third to bring on fresh silver leaves.
Fertilising: Leave it unfed. On fertile soil the leaves lose their whiteness and the stems flop, and the plant is at its best in ground most perennials would find too poor.
Watering: Establish with regular water through the first summer, then treat it as a dry-garden plant. Overwatering in winter is the usual reason one is lost.
Pest Control: Very few problems. Aphids may appear on spring growth, and the strongly scented leaves are generally ignored by slugs and snails.
Disease Management: Rust and downy mildew occur where air movement is poor or soil stays damp. Improve drainage, thin the clump, and remove marked stems. Some people react to artemisia foliage with a skin rash, so gloves are worth wearing when trimming.
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