Senecio candicans 'Angel Wings' – Silver Foliage Perennial (5L Pot)

Grown for its huge, soft, silvery-white leaves, Angel Wings makes a low mound of foliage that holds the eye all season.

The leaves are broad, felted and genuinely tactile, and they keep their silver through the year, which is what won this plant Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year in 2018. It stays low and compact, so it sits well at the front of a border, in a gravel garden, or in a pot where the foliage can be seen and touched.

Give it full sun or light shade and free-draining soil. Waterlogging is the thing to avoid, particularly over winter, and once established it copes with dry spells and asks for very little. Try not to water over the top of the leaves, which spoils the felted surface, and remove the flower stems if you would rather keep the plant for its foliage alone. In colder regions give it winter protection, or grow it in a container you can move somewhere sheltered through a long frost.

Supplied as a garden-ready plant in a 23cm, 5 litre root ball, ready to plant out or pot on.

Cultural Information

Common Name: Angel Wings, silver senecio

Fully Grown Height and Spread: 30 to 40cm tall and wide

Growth Habit: Low, compact and mound forming

Perfect For: The front of a border, containers, coastal gardens, gravel and Mediterranean planting

Foliage: Evergreen, large, soft, silvery-white and felted

Flowering Time: Summer, small yellow daisy flowers, though the plant is grown for its leaves

Planting Position: Full sun or partial shade, good in a coastal garden, drought tolerant once established and happy in a container

Soil Type: Free-draining; sandy, chalky and gravelly ground all suit it

Hardiness: Half hardy; protect it below about minus 5C

Maintenance: Low; remove the flower stems if you would rather keep it purely for foliage

Seasonal Interest: Silver foliage with small yellow daisies in summer

Type: Evergreen foliage perennial