Silver buttonwood has velvety-soft leaves dusted with silvery-gray color and makes a stunning hedge, accent or small tree.
Like all silver foliage plants, this shrub's unusual color contrasts beautifully with all the green in a landscape.
It can look almost white in a landscape or take on a bluish cast.
These plants are especially effective when planted in combination with red, pink, purple, blue and white flowering plants.
They can function as clipped hedge shrubs or left to grow in a more natural shape.
There is a green variety but the silver is much showier and therefore more popular with homeowners.
Because the plant grows in a vase shape - wider at the top - and basically wants to be a tree, it's often somewhat bare at the bottom.
You can encourage this and use the plant as a multi-trunk tree. Or if you prefer the look of a single trunk tree, buy one from the nursery already trained that way.
You can keep a silver buttonwood tree - or shrub - closely clipped for a neatly manicured appearance.
This look works well in a formal landscape design.
In an informal landscape, just trim wayward branches occasionally - and lower branches as the tree matures to allow foot traffic to pass beneath.
When a buttonwood tree is planted near the coast, it can develop a unique and picturesque form from the constant sea breeze.
These are salt-tolerant Florida native plants. They're drought-tolerant once established but will also put up with "wet feet" occasionally, though green buttonwood is a better choice for areas that tend to stay moist.