Othonna cheirifolia

This evergreen native to the African countries of Algeria and Tunisia is still little-known in the US, despite being used extensively by the late UK garden designer Gertrude Jekyll in the early 1900s. I daresay this is the only native to North Africa we grow but it is one that has performed amazingly well through both our hot, humid summers and cold, wet winters. The tight mats, whose foliage resembles tiny, upright, silver-blue coke spoons, are topped by 8" tall flower stalks of yellow daisies in late spring. Othonna cheirifolia is right at home sited in a hot sun, well-drained rock garden or in a drought-prone seasonal container planting in colder climates.