The most common silver-colored native would be Silver Buttonwood. Other plants, non-native, with silver color include Begonia Imperialis, Coccothrinax argentata "Silver Palm" and Tabebuia caraiba "Silver Trumpet tree".

Michael, I don't know if native to FL or not, but some of the Artemisias are both handsome and unusually trouble-free plants. Maybe one or more of them could help you in your design.

+oM

Wow Fawn, thank you for the heads up on that one. It is a little big, but would make an excellent specimen tree. If I had the right microclimate for it. My book says it is a Zone 10/11 tree and IFAS says 10b/11. Still, with the way winters have been, I might be able to push it. I will keep that on my list for future possibilities.
Tom, I could be wrong, but I don't think Artemisias handle our summers all that well, which is when I would need the silvery foliage the most.

Yes, you could certainly be right about that. Clearly not plants adapted to high humidity/daily rain showers. Speaking of which, you're getting quite a lot of that liquid sunshine down your way, aren't you?

+oM

Yes indeed. As dry as this summer started, in my area at least, the past two to three weeks have been a deluge a day. I took the following picture yesterday when water was coming through one of the downspouts in what looked like fire hydrant fashion.

Hi

Lucky you !!! lol Last time i checked my area was 11 inches below normal .

Always look forward to the rainy season to do most of the watering . WAY too hot and sticky for an old man to be out !!lol gary

I also have been looking for silver and variegated plants to break up my green. How about variegated duranta, pineapples, variegated sage, and silver or variegated Cuban oregano?

June

i didn't figure Dichondra would handle the heat?? Think I might try some of that in a fern bed

Michael how about coleus?? name a color there's a variety in several shades of it Even black and white lol. i particulary like the metallic strains though I've only been able to locate a copper but they also come in bronze ,black steel gray look like polished metal.

Only complaint about them is they tend to grow into bushes but you can prune them into any shape as a bonus the cuttings are the worlds easiest plant to propagate though I don't find them invasive .

Another might be evergreen caladiums while I find they do go dormant they extend the growing season by at least 3 months .There's a strain called

"Stained glass" which comes in colors you don't see in regular caladiums such as blue, yellow browns blacks and a gazillion combinations gary

Strobilanthes-AKA Pershian Shield-might do something for you. True, it's probably usually considered more of a purple-foliaged plant, but there are hints of silver throughout.

+oM

Good suggestions by most of you, though not exactly fitting my needs. Which is my fault for once again not fully explaining what I was looking for. This picture below of my shrub bed is an example of my problem:

Everything here is just green. If the clump of Salvia wasn't in bloom, it would just blend together with everything else. Behind the salvia is a Wax Myrtle (1) and a Simpson Stopper (2), but in the picture you can't really see either. I know where to look and yet I have a hard time seeing them. Part of this is because both shrubs are surrounded by a ring of Dotted Horsemint. Most things in this bed are 2 1/2 to 3 ft tall with the exception of the shrubs. As they grow, they will begin to stand above everything else, but they will still be a blob of green in a picture. What I am looking for is something to help separate one mass of green from the next. The Persian Shield idea would almost work, except this area gets too much sun. I have some in my Tropical Bed where they get some shade from nearby plants, but even still they can bleach out a bit. I do have Gold Mound Duranta, you can see one in the bottom left, which would also work to break up the blob, but I am using them more as accent plants than mass plants. I am open to other options, such as maybe loropetalum, but silver is one of the colors that is really lacking in my yard and I wouldn't mind adding some of it.

Thank you for the suggestions thus far.

Michael, another thought popped into my head: What about one of the silver-foliaged Buddleias, aka butterfly bush? These things can get some real size, at least some cultivars are quite silvery-gray in foliage color, and I'd think would do well in your interminable summers. Then too, I could be totally wrong about that last point, but for example, a cultivar like 'Buzz Midnight" might get you close.

+oM

ps...Edited to add: Maybe Buddleia is invasive in FL. That thought popped into my head just after posting the above. Otherwise, could be one answer.