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November 1, 2006

Dusty Miller - Senecio cineraria

August 04, 2009 03:42 AM EDT

views: 35 | comments: 7

Dusty miller (senecio cineraria) is a favorite in flower gardens because it looks good with everything. The silvery-white color is a great foil for any type of garden blossom and the fine-textured foliage creates a beautiful contrast against other plants' green foliage. Dusty miller has also earned its place in the garden because it's delightfully easy to grow, withstanding heat and drought like a champion.

It's also known commonly as Silver Ragwort.

Group: Dicot Family: Asteraceae Duration: Perennial

This is a picture I took August 3, 2009 from the flower garden in front of our house.

Below is the expanded classification for Dusty Miller - senecio cineraria - as listed at the USDA website:

Kingdom Plantae – Plants

Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants

Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants

Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants

Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons

Subclass Asteridae

Order Asterales

Family Asteraceae – Aster family

Genus Senecio L. – ragwort

Species Senecio cineraria DC. – dusty miller

Tags: dusty miller, flower, garden, plant, foliage, perennial, nature, science

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Comments: 7

Lee P. Aug 4, 2009, 8:53am EDT

I have a lot of this in my flower beds for the very reasons you listed. Some gardeners replant it every year because the old plants come back sort of spindly each year and it can be very invasive. I let it grow where it wants to go (within reason) and as the years have gone by it gets thicker in the beds and the spindlyness (?) is not noticeable and it looks beautiful mixed in almost all of my flower beds.

Gary (The Eclectic) Timothy Aug 4, 2009, 10:44am EDT

Very good to know - thanks for the additional information! We have only grown it in pots so far, and I've been thinking of growing it in it's own space in the flower beds. I didn't know it was invasive. It does seem to go beautifully with most anything, though.