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Shade loving plants with silvery foliage are great for bringing life to dull, low light parts of the garden. One of the most attractive of such plants is the recently introduced, cold hardy, easy to grow perennial Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ . It has only been available in England for a couple of years and is already a firm favourite there. For success with this bold foliage charmer, the things to remember are shade, which can be from light to quite dense, and good soil which doesn’t dry out. Add compost and fertiliser when planting and mulch with compost every winter after that and it will grow happily, producing lots of the silvered leaves through the year and in spring an abundance of small, forget-me-not like flowers the colour of summer skies. Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ is also well suited to growing in containers provided it has a good potting mix and is watered regularly. It is so striking that it can be grown on its own in a pot, or you can combine it with other low plants. Several plants of Ophiopogon ‘Black Dragon’, planted at the edge of the container, with ‘Jack Frost’ in the centre, looks sensational. Try this combination in a black glazed container for a sophisticated look. Other plants to grow with Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ are Hostas, especially small growing varieties with blue-grey foliage such as ‘Fragrant Blue’, and Heuchera ‘Green Spice’ which has green and silver foliage markings, or Ajuga varieties such as blue flowered ‘Jungle beauty’ and white and pink flowered Tiarella ‘Pink Skyrocket’. Use Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ to provide a long season of interest in the foreground of low growing, shade loving shrubs such as white flowered, sweet smelling, Daphne odora ‘Alba’, or plant it with perennials such as solomon’s seal or the enchanting little, grass-like, Disporum sessile ‘Variegata’ which has white edges to the narrow green leaves and enchanting green and white flowers which sit just above the 10cm high leaves in spring.
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