Santolina chamaecyparissus, also known as lavender cotton or gray santolina, is a beautiful evergreen shrub with silvery gray and green foliage. It belongs to the family Asteraceae and blooms with button-like flowers in the summer.A great candidate for borders, beds, rock gardens, and as a xeriscaping plant, lavender cotton adds a subtle but silvery gray-green color to a green space and grows as tall as 2′ feet.