Fluffy plants

Soft inflorescences

• Cotinus coggygria

The smoke tree has a suggestive name evoking the spectacular flowering of this bush: its flowers appearing in mid-summer are ultra-vaporous, like a powdered cloud, borne in terminal panicles, ranging from light pink to deep pink. Another major attraction of this truly magical bush is its foliage, which takes on changing hues of orange, pink, and red, stunning in autumn. Depending on the cultivars, you will find foliage that is more or less purplish and beautifully veined. It is the must-have of bushes with silky flowers! It blooms best in full sun but also tolerates partial shade and well-drained soil. Its modest dimensions allow it to be planted anywhere, so don’t hold back…

Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ habit, summer flowering, and foliage (© FD Richards), and the lighter inflorescence of the cultivar ‘Young Lady’ (© Cutlivar 413)

→ Learn more with our complete guide on Cotinus

• Lagurus ovatus

Who doesn’t remember this “hare’s tail” from our childhood, with its soft spikelets that we called aments? Here is a first-class doudou plant, a small-sized grass (about 50 cm tall), fond of sun and sandy soils. It is often found by the sea, growing in clumps in well-drained soils and very sunny locations. The ovoid, hairy spikes of pale green turning mauve and then golden blonde form from mid-spring to summer. Lagurus ovatus is actually an annual that you can sow in place at the end of summer or in spring to create lovely borders, or integrate into naturalistic beds, dry rockeries, or even beautiful pots. They are stunning in the evening’s slanting light!

Lagurus ovatus

• Pennisetum orientale ‘Karley Rose’

Among grasses, Pennisetums or fountain grasses certainly offer the fluffiest blooms known. There are dozens of varieties, including Pennisetum orientale ‘Karley Rose’, a beautiful cultivar with a slight rosy to purplish hue, bringing a lightness and magical movement to the beds. Of medium size, about 60 cm tall, ‘Karley Rose’ finds its place in many sunny beds, composed of graceful perennials and other grasses, enhancing them with its inflorescences borne in soft, vaporous cylindrical spikes. The stems and ribbon-like foliage are arching and somewhat loose. Flowering occurs in late summer, ensuring a gentle presence in the garden until the first frosts.

Pennisetum orientale ‘Karley Rose’, with a close-up of the rosy spike (© Alex Lomas)

• Thalictrum aquilegifolium

Having become “trendy” in recent years, Thalictrums are semi-shade perennials of incomparable grace with their myriad of small flowers borne in terminal bouquets. The Thalictrums aquilegifolium stand out with their pink inflorescences in delicate, airy panicles. The foliage is also vaporous, beautifully cut like the leaves of columbines, and of a lovely medium green. They are very useful due to their dimensions (over 1 m tall) for dressing semi-shaded areas or the back of beds. This perennial also comes in a stunning white version with Thalictrum aquilegifolium ‘Album’.

Thalictrum aquilegifolium and to the right the white variety ‘Album’ (© Peganum)[/caption>

You have now become addicted to cottony blooms! Other plants are equally attractive, bearing names evocative of their softness or lightness such as Albizzia (silk tree), Tamarisks (tetrandra and ramosissima), Astilbes for moist soils, stunning grasses like Muhlenbergia capillaris or Eragrostis spectabilis (love lies bleeding), Veronicastrums with their feathery spikes, Celosias (velvet flower), Liatris spicata (Kansas plumes) with their frizzy spikes, Sanguisorbas, Amaranths (fox tails) delightfully vintage, but also the incredible Fallugia paradoxa (Apache plume), Filipendulas and Spireas, etc.

Some even bloom in winter like Salix caprea and its superb aments. Sometimes it is the fading flowers or fruits that produce a very beautiful fluffy and feathery effect, as seen in Pulsatilla vulgaris, or in Clematis vitalba (old man’s beard) with its astonishing white flakes remaining on the liana all winter long…

Fallugia paradoxa, Astilbe, Albizia, Liatris spicata

Fluffy foliage

In botany, we refer to tomentose leaves: they have a woolly appearance, often greyish, and feature a particularly soft downy texture. Children love them!

• Stachys byzantina (Stachys lanata)

Not only is the greyish and whitish colour of its foliage stunning, but Stachys byzantina boasts one of the fluffiest textures around. Its nickname, lamb’s ear (it is also referred to as hare’s ear or rabbit’s ear), is well-deserved: touching it is more than tempting, as you are struck by the extreme softness of its leaves. The woolly betony grows in compact clumps of rosettes, somewhat like the cow parsley, also thriving in dry soil, but it actually adapts to all types of soil. With its pinkish-purple flowering spikes in summer, it pairs beautifully with contrasting green foliage, even purple, and pink tones. Often used as a border plant for tactile enjoyment, it is also perfect as a groundcover in sunny areas.

• Senecio ‘Angel Wings’

Here is another plant with foliage as soft as velvet. It is a sea cinerea with fairly large evergreen leaves of almost white colour, allowing for interesting combinations: pair Senecio ‘Angel Wings’ with medium or low grasses, whose slender foliage will beautifully contrast with its large leaves, or for example with Erigerons that will appear even lighter, purple foliage, and some succulents. Outside of mild climate regions, it will be grown in attractive pots.

Senecio ‘Angel Wings’

• Salvia argentea

The silver sage is a stunning aromatic plant offering its downy foliage to the touch. It also features greyish leaves in rosettes that will turn white in summer due to heat and sunlight. The ovate leaves with crenate edges will form a clump 60 cm in diameter. Just like the mullein, Salvia argentea develops its erect white flowering well above the foliage, starting in June, the second year of cultivation. Like all the plants in this selection, it thrives in well-drained soil. Its little extra? Touching it also provides a pleasant olfactory sensation!

Salvia argentea, foliage and flowering (© Hafiz Isaadeen)

• Verbascum bombyciferum

More commonly known as mullein or woolly mullein, this biennial features pubescent rosette foliage that is among the softest. While its thick, white, woolly foliage has this appealing characteristic, its long yellow flowering remains another asset, with a graphic erect spike sometimes reaching up to 2 m. You can also find Verbascum thapsus, the true pioneer plant, in our countryside, along stony paths. A full sun plant, it fits well into naturalistic gardens or rockeries, even Mediterranean gardens, and is very useful for greening poor and inhospitable areas of the garden.

Verbascums bombyciferum and thapsus

Want more? There are many downy foliage plants in grey and silver tones, which have developed this strategy to protect themselves from heat. Among these are Artemisia stelleriana with its beautifully cut leaves, Santolina chamaecyparissus with its tiny silver and fragrant leaves, Helichrysum or curry herb, which is also very aromatic, Buddleia ‘Silver Anniversary’, Antennaria dioica, a perfect groundcover that produces lovely pink flowers, the hawkweeds, etc.

Feathery and slender foliage

Finally, some foliage will be very interesting to insert for the movement and airy aspect they bring to the garden, or for their very finely lacy effect. One often cannot resist running their hand through their mane!

• Nassella tenuissima

Formerly known as Stipa tenuifolia, it is the queen in its category! This grass remains small (50 cm tall) and has such fine leaves that it is commonly nicknamed angel’s hair. It could also feature in the soft inflorescences, as its blonde spikes with silky beard appearing at the end of summer create a vaporous and feathery mass above the foliage. It requires sun and dry soils. It retains its soft mane in winter.

Nassella (or Stipa) tenuissima

• Carex comans ‘Frosted Curls’

With this sedge planted in masses, you create a persistent carpet of an incredible texture reminiscent of a soft animal’s fur! Undulating in the wind, the very fine silver-green leaves of Carex comans ‘Frosted Curls’ beautifully bend, creating a plant mane that you will want to stroke at leisure. Curled at their tips, they take on a bronze hue as winter approaches. This grass has the advantage of thriving in partially shaded areas as well. Not exceeding 30 cm in height, it makes lovely groundcovers and creates very wild-looking spaces.

Carex comans ‘Frosted Curls’ (© Leonora Enking)

• Foeniculum vulgare

Let’s finish with a perennial with bright green to bluish-green or purple foliage depending on the varieties. Very airy, fine, and feathery, it is the fennel that is also used in ornamental gardens for its graphic qualities. Fennel adds a lot of volume to a border while remaining ultra-light. In addition to its beautiful yellow flowering in umbel, melliferous, it provides a lovely height (about 2 m) in cottage or natural gardens, but of course also in the vegetable garden. The purple varieties of fennel are particularly decorative.

Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’, ultra-light foliage and flowering (© Leonora Enking)

To complete this small selection and design your garden of leaves to stroke, you can add the beautiful foliage (and flowers) of Cosmos, Cotula hispida with its finely textured, very soft and silky foliage, Asparagus, etc.