The garden has its glow on

I'm always a little startled when I realize that the colors in my garden are shifting.  Blues and pinks dominated over the past couple of months.   There are still blue and pink flowers to be found but this week I noticed that my garden seems to be getting its glow on.  Yellow flowers and variegated foliage have been grabbing my attention at every turn.  The tree-sized Leucadendron 'Pisa' was the first plant to signal the color shift.

Leucadendron 'Pisa' sports silvery foliage year round but in spring it suddenly develops luminescent yellow bracts that look like flowers

From that point, I began seeing glowing color everywhere.

The flowers of Cistus 'Second Honeymoon' are more white than yellow but the plant's variegated foliage draws the eye too

The blooms of Hymenolepsis parviflora (aka Coulter bush) seem to appear all at once

This is the first time the Lomandra hystrix 'Tropic Belle' I purchased for their foliage have flowered.  The flowers are much splashier than those of other Lomandra species in my garden.

Here are some of the foliage specimens that stood out.

I have several Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope', two of which are shown here.  They've been producing fresh foliage stems.

These are two other varieties of Abelia, 'Confetti' on the left and 'Hopley's Variegated' on the right.   'Confetti' remains fairly compact while 'Hopley's' will climb to the stars if allowed to.

Although Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold' has pale pink flowers, its grown mainly for its foliage color as indicated by its name.  I have several of these shrubs in both my front and back gardens.

Corokia x virgata 'Sunsplash' is more demure than many of the other plants I've included in this post but both the color and the texture of the foliage draw second glances from visitors

I planted almost a dozen Heuchera 'Marmalade' plants last fall.  The five I have in the front garden get more shade (and possibly more water) and they're happier than those in the back garden.

Nasella tenuissima (syn. Stipa tenuissima aka Mexican feather grass) is striking at this time of year but it also self-seeds freely so I "comb" the plumes periodically

Yucca 'Bright Star' with Coleonema 'Sunset Gold' and Nasella tenuissima in the background

All of the foliage plants shown above have been in place for some time but perhaps the more intense sunlight made the plants stand out more than they had earlier in the year.  However, in the case of the flowering plants, the sheer volume of flowers is generally what caught my eye.

Arctotis 'Large Marge' is a relatively new introduction and not yet prolific but the flowers' color could be described as fluorescent

In contrast, Cotula lineariloba 'Big Yellow Moon' spreads fast and wide

Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' has both variegated foliage and sprays of attractive yellow flowers

Osteospermum 'White Flame' has been self-seeding in this area for years now and the flowers are beginning to mutate

Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' is one of the stars of my front garden.  It blooms year-round but the blooms have been heaviest this spring.

Leucospermum 'Goldie' is the most floriferous of my "pincushion" shrubs

Mimulus bifidus is the most successful of my monkey flowers

I introduced Osteospermum 'Double Moonglow' to my garden last year and it came back better still this year

 Achillea 'Moonshine' is on the brink of flowering in the back garden.  When it's in full bloom, it will draw the eye of anyone who walks through the space.

I planted this Achillea on both sides of the flagstone path and well into the wide back border to give it greater impact.  It's had buds for weeks but is only now beginning to flower.

I recently popped another Achillea 'Moonshine' into this pot outside my shade house, accompanied by a new (to me) intergeneric Argyranthemum 'Grandaisy Yellow' along with a pale yellow Petunia and a brownish coleus

It was toasty yesterday with the temperature briefly reaching 92F (33C).  Even when the temperature came down a bit, it was uncomfortable to do much in the garden, especially as the wind picked up.  It was still 80F (26C) at 9pm, which isn't a good thing.  We're expecting more of the same today with a slight cool down over the weekend.  I hope you can make the best of the weekend, regardless of your weather conditions.

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party