Silver Mound artemisia is grown for its soft, finely cut silver foliage rather than its flowers, forming a low cushion of fine gray-green-silver leaves that catches light all season. It stays compact and neat, making a useful foil for brighter plants in the front of the border.

Give it full sun and sharp drainage, because in Birmingham's humid summers wet clay is what kills it: plant it high and lean in the bed, and if the middle opens up or starts to melt out during a soggy stretch, shear it back to rebuild the mound.