Santolina or Lavender Cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus), a favorite of Mediterranean gardens, is a beautiful evergreen shrub noted not only for its dense, fine, silvery gray-green foliage all year around but for its drought tolerance. Blooming occurs in summer with a display of small button-like bright yellow flowers, but Santolina is mostly grown for its foliage.

Good-looking, drought tolerant and fragrant, award-winner Artemisia 'Powis Castle' is a bushy sub-shrub, which is highly valued for its fernlike, silvery-white foliage, that easily blends with any flower bulbs and other perennial plants. Yellow flowers appear in late summer or early fall, but they are not spectacular and are best cut off to keep the foliage at its best.

A very attractive form of French Lavender, Lavandula pedunculata subsp. pedunculata features a tall upright habit with ravishing rounded dark plum flower heads topped with long, paler purple bracts and rising elegantly on long stems. Highly aromatic gray-green foliage. Great for mass planting, low hedges or containers. This French Lavender blooms almost continuously from mid-late spring to late summer. In mild climates, this selection can bear flowers nearly all year around.

A favorite of many gardeners, multiple award-winner Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation' is a striking ornamental onion with perfectly round flowerheads, 3 in. wide (8 cm), packed with dozens of small, star-shaped, rich violet-lilac flowers. They are borne atop sturdy stalks, which arise from a group of 6 to 8 handsome, blue-green leaves. Blooming in late spring to early summer, this spectacular Allium enjoys long-lasting blooms and makes outstanding cut flowers that will last for 2 weeks.