Helichrysum petiolare is one of those plants I love more for its foliage and form than its flowers. Commonly called the liquorice plant, it has beautiful soft, silvery-grey leaves that bring a completely different tone to the garden and contrast brilliantly against darker greens.
Key Features
What I really love about it though is how well it responds to clipping. Rather than letting it become loose and sprawling, I like to regularly give it a light trim, shaping it into soft mounds and cloud-like forms. Plant a few together and you can create these wonderful rolling shapes that almost look like silver cushions floating through a garden bed. I think it’s a great example of how clipping doesn't always have to mean formal hedges and straight lines.
How To Grow
And planting a few together has another advantage — Helichrysum petiolare can be a little temperamental. I've had perfectly healthy plants suddenly decide they're no longer happy and simply die, while the one right beside them carries on without a problem. So my tip is to plant three or five together rather than relying on a single plant. If you lose one, the others quickly grow across and fill the space.
They love a sunny position and that silvery foliage is a pretty good clue that they're built to handle heat and dry conditions. Good drainage is really important, particularly through wet periods, as they don't enjoy sitting with wet roots. Improve the soil lightly before planting, but don't make it too rich, and once established they're relatively drought tolerant.
Keep up the regular light clipping and you'll encourage dense fresh growth and maintain those beautiful rounded shapes. If they start getting woody or leggy, watch out when you give them a harder prune as sometimes they refuse to bounce back leaving you with a patchy plant..
For me, Helichrysum petiolare is like a bit of living sculpture. That silver foliage catches the light beautifully, and when it's clipped into those soft, billowing clouds it can transform an ordinary garden bed into something really special. Just plant a few — because every now and then, one might decide it doesn't want to play along! Happy gardening. 🌿