Bello Grigio, Fairest of Them All

I first encountered Stachys Bello Grigio a year ago in California. The common name for Stachys is Lambs Ears, which is a pretty apt description of the soft furry leaves of these plants, but none of them are as crisply white as Bello Grigio.

Bello Grigio immediately became my must have plant for the year. Except it was nearly unheard of – even on Google. This year I got lucky and managed to get two. I gave one to my mother and kept the other one.

My Bello Grigio

Rumored to be hardy in zones 7-9, I decided to play it safe by planting in a pot. It also calls for part to full sun and since I’m still battling Chameleon weed in my limited part-sun locations a pot prevents any accidental contact with herbicides.

Initially I thought it would be a good mate for the striking but tricky to showcase Heuchera ‘Black Pearl‘, and tried to make that arrangement work in one of my dark brown pots from last year. I included some other plants with both dark foliage (Non Stop Mocca White Begonia) and silvery foliage (Calocephalus Bed Head) but it just did not look right. So last weekend I started over. I’ll show you later what I did with Black Pearl.

I kept the Non Stop Mocca White begonia.

And the Calocephalus ‘Bed Head’.

I added Dianthus Paint the Town Magenta and Festuca Blue Whiskers.

I also added a white Angelonia, and put it all in a more neutral toned pot.

This planter is almost as pretty at night as it is during the day time.

Stachys Bello Grigio at a glance:

Still relatively new, there is not a lot of information about this plant yet. Produced from tissue culture, if you are lucky enough to find it expect your wallet to take a hit.

Exposure:

Sun to part-sun

Moisture:

Drought tolerant once established

Height:

10-12″ (25-30 cm)

Spread:

12-18″ (30-45 cm)

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