Leaves with a Silver Lining

Leaves with a Silver Lining


Houseplants with silvery sheen and veins add glow and flash to your foliage collection.
Go on a mining expedition in your local garden center and you may strike silver. Houseplants that exhibit leaves with silvery sheen, veins, and variegation are simply thrilling. Here are six indoor plants that will add glow and twinkle to your houseplant collection.

Sterling Silver Scindapsus
Scindapsus are related to pothos and philodendron. Sterling Silver (aka Moonlight) Scindapsus has showy thick, heart-shaped leaves that are overlaid in silver. This member of the Trending Tropicals® collection is new to the marketplace and belongs in your collection. Also check out, Scindapsus pictus 'Exotica' which offers large, thick green leaves etched in silver.

Polka Dot Begonia
Get your silver fix with the showy, metallic dotted leaves of Polka Dot Begonia (Begonia maculata). The flamboyant foliage of this cane begonia is ideal as a focal point plant or as a part of a bigger plant collection. If you are smitten with indoor begonias, try Rex 'Silver Limbo' which is a compact, small-leafed variety with beautiful metallic-silver foliage that has purple-red backsides. 

Medallion Calathea
Calatheas offer amazing pattern and coloration on their large leaves. Calathea roseopicta 'Medallion' offers dark green leaves with silver and emerald green bands. The backs of the leaves are dark purple. Every part of the leaf is a festival of color. 

Watermelon Peperomia
If you love stripes and silver coloration, then Watermelon peperomia (Peperomia argyreia) should be part of your collection. Watermelon features beautiful tear-drop shaped green leaves that are painted with dramatic silver stripes. This plant also offers red leaf stems.

Dark Mystery Pilea
Silver-variegated Pilea Dark Mystery offers a shimmery little plant for terrariums or shelves. The small beauty has a mounded growth habit and silvery shining upright leaves. Try other silvery pilea varieties such as Norfolk and Silver Tree. And Aluminum Plant (Pilea cadierei minima) features green leaves marked with metallic-silver variegation.

Written by Karen Weir-Jimerson