AVAILABILITY

NO ADVANCE ORDERS (NAO) – A selection of plants are NAO-No Advanced Orders. They have proved to be tricky; acquiring propagules, producing them, or getting them through the winter. We only put them on our availability lists when they are ready to ship. No hopes dashed. Plants must ship within 2 weeks or their availability date.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:  Anaphalis margaritacea is an upright clumping perennial wildflower.  Plants are clothed in attractive narrow pubescent silvery foliage.  In mid-summer globular clumps of small yellow flowers emerge surrounded by white papery bracts.  This drought tolerant native thrives in sunny sites with lean dry soils or in gardens with average well drained soil.

HABITAT & HARDINESS:  Anaphalis margaritacea ranges through north-east Asia and most of North America. The species occurs in every Canadian province and in northwestern Mexico.  It is absent from the southeastern United States and is most prolific in the northeastern and western United States.

Habitats include dry prairies, rocky slopes, open woods, sandy roadsides, pastures and disturbed areas.

Plants are hardy from USDA Zones 3-8.

PLANT DESCRIPTION:  Anaphalis margaritacea is an upright bushy perennial that expands in girth from creeping stolons.

Stems are rigid, brittle and pubescent with long narrow leaaves.  Blades and stems are covered in silky white hairs that impart a grayish or silvery hue.

In mid-summer plants are topped by dense flat topped or rounded inflorescences.  The individual flower heads are globular and about ½” across.  Each head is composed of small tubular disc florets surrounded by pearly white membranous bracts.

Plants are dioecious so the florets on each plant are either pistillate (female) or staminate (male).  If pollinated by a staminate plant, pistillate heads mature into clusters of brown hair tipped achenes.

Flowering seems to continue for many weeks because the drying flowers and achene clusters look like dried flowers.

Plants grow 1-3’ tall with an equal spread.

CULTURAL & MAINTENANCE NEEDS:  The ideal site for Anaphalis margaritacea has full sun and dry sandy soil.

Plants tolerate part sun, lean nutrient-poor soils, gravelly soils, moist well drained soils, heat and drought.

Plants are pest resistant and unpalatable to deer and other herbivores.

LANDSCAPE USES:  This is a good choice for a Wildlife Garden, Cut Flower Garden, or dry Meadow. Plants are also used as Butterfly Nectar Plants, Butterfly Host Plants or as part of a Grouping or Mass Planting.   Anaphalis margaritacea produces Showy Blooms over a long period of time.  Plants are appropriate for Cottage Gardens, Deer Resistant Plantings, Rock Gardens, Water-wise Landscapes, Low Maintenance Plantings, Perennial Borders and Roadsides.

COMPANION & UNDERSTUDY PLANTS:  Try pairing Anaphalis margaritacea with Asclepias tuberosa, Coreopsis lanceolata, Echinacea pallida, Rudbeckia hirta, Monarda punctata, Liatris pycnostachya, Schizachyrium scoparium or Andropogon gerardii.

If a substitute is needed, the more diminutive Antennaria neglecta would be a good choice in some situations.

TRIVIA:  Native bees, butterflies and skippers seek the nectar.  Plants host caterpillars of the American Lady Butterfly which feeds from inside a nest of silk and leaves.

Commonly called Pearly Everlasting.  The papery opalescent bracts give the flower heads a pearly appearance.  In the wild, the “everlasting” flowers dry on the plant and are often retained until frost.  The blooms can also be collected and dried under controlled conditions for use in flower arrangements.

Anaphalis margaritacea is also known as Anaphalis occidentalis and Gnaphalium margaritaceum.

Most gray or silver foliaged plants require full sun and dry perfectly drained soil.  Anaphalis margaritacea will adapt to light shade.