Silver Bush

Fun mophead with the look of mist and moonlight

The branches of Silver Bush zigzag through one another and each one catches the light a little differently. That makes this a distinctive, magical plant that’s beautiful all year round. 

Silver Bush Thejoyofplants.co.uk

Silver Bush (Calocephalus) is a small round shrub with eye-catching, hairy twigs that have a pretty silvery appearance. From a distance it looks just like barbed wire, but beautiful and without the painful barbs! The plant flowers yellow in August and September but the main attraction is undoubtedly its silver-grey foliage, which combines beautifully with blue and white autumn violas, checkerberry, pink Cyclamen, prickly heath and Skimmia. Silver Bush also works very well in autumn hanging baskets. 


Eye-catcher from the bush 

Silver Bush is native to the rocks and dunes of Australia’s southern coast. In the wild the shrub can reach a height of around one metre – the cultivated variety stays smaller. The plant is a member of the Asteraceae family and is very easy to live with: it can cope with a bit of drought, survives sea breezes and thrives in rockeries. It’s also a plant that tickles the curiosity, not only because of its attractive silver-grey colour, but because of its ability to constantly surprise you with new dimentions in its tangled structure. 

Silver Bush trivia

  • Silver Bush’s suffix is 'brownii', which refers to the botanist Robert Brown who discovered the plant in 1817.

  • In Australia Silver Bush is also called cushion bush, because the twigs used to be used as filling for mattresses and cushions.