February's Foliage Standouts

Tired of burying my head and hands in the weeds, I took some time to appreciate the foliage in my garden before the flowers take over with their early spring blast, which is already gearing up, encouraged by weeks of warmer than usual temperatures.

I'll start with a few succulent vignettes before focusing on individual stars that deserve closeups.

This grouping in my north-side garden includes Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue', A. 'Kichijokan' (in the small pot), A. parryi var. patonii, A. pygmaea 'Dragon Toes', and A. victoriae-reginae

Also in the north-side garden is this combination of Agaves and Mangaves, most notably Agave funkiana 'Blue Haze' and Mangave 'Lavender Lady'.  The smaller Mangaves include 'Purple People Eater' and 'Catch a Wave'.

This mix in the succulent bed in front of our garage includes Agave attenuata, A. 'Blue Glow', Phormium 'Rainbow Sunrise', and very red Aeoniums, which may be 'Velour'

On to the closeups!  I'm proceeding alphabetically for lack of a better plan.

Acanthus mollis goes entirely underground in the summer months here, which wasn't the case in my former, very shady garden just 15 miles to the north.  It's always a welcome sign when the 3 plants I have materialize once more following our winter rainy season.  Two of the plants are in the front garden and the third is in my south-side garden, half-buried under a large Vitex trifolia.

This mix of various Aeoniums is a personal favorite, with the red color of some of the Aeoniums playing off the red bark of Arbutus 'Marina' and Phormium 'Amazing Red'.  That Phormium was planted in 2014 but hasn't looked this good in years.

This clump of Aeonium, which I think is comprised of more cuttings of the 'Velour' cultivar, looked near death on the dry back slope during the summer.  It was restored by the rain.

This is Agave angustifolia 'Marginata', which I recently cleaned up after is was covered in leafy debris.  A mimic, Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata', can be seen poking out of its spot inside a nearby stump to the agave's right (commonly used as a toilet by the local raccoons).

This clump of Agave attenuata on the back slope was planted from pups taken from the front garden years ago.  I removed some of the rosettes in the late fall but it's still a dense clump.

The foliage of 5 Drimia maritima (aka sea squill) bulbs emerged on the back slope following our progression of rainstorms.  Choked by ivy and self-seeded alyssum (Lobularia maritima), the sea squill occupies an area along our fuzzy property line with the next door neighbors on our south side.  There's no fence between us but the land does drop off relatively sharply on their side.  Much of the ivy, the Yucca, and the ornamental pear trees are on the neighbors' side. There are self-planted calla lily plants mixed in with the sea squill bulbs too.

I grow Echium candicans 'Star of Madiera' as much for the foliage as for its blue flowers.  I cut this one back hard after it finished blooming last year and was worried that I'd gone too far.

Echium webbii is my second favorite in the genus.  I've had a hard time keeping its size contained in the past.  This plant came from the original Annie's & Annuals as a replacement for a prior specimen.  I haven't previously had success propagating it from cuttings and I've never found it in local garden centers so I hope I can manage containment and/or propagation this round.

The gophers made a mess of the Hesperaloe parviflora in my south-side garden last year.  I recently cleaned it up and cut out most of the Salvia clevelandii that sits next to it so it's looking good (even without flowers).

This 'Red Wing' Mangave is another of my favorite succulent plants.  There are signs of pups underneath its leaves I need to carefully extract.

Melianthus major (aka honeybush) is off and running once again after yet another hard pruning.  Its leaves look like they were cut by pinking shears.

This noID staghorn fern (Platycerium) has been sitting in a pot for a couple of years now.  I've been planning to get it properly mounted or at least set up in a basket but have yet to get to that.  However, even in a pot, it has personality.  I should save it from the rampant bird-planted asparagus ferns at the very least. 

This Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' (aka mint bush) is happy in this back garden space off the patio.  The 3 I had in pots didn't hold up over the long term.

This Yucca rostrata 'Sapphire Skies' may not look like much but I have great hopes for it.  I got it in a 4-inch pot by mail order from Annie's Annuals & Perennials in 2019.  It spent its first 2 years in a pot to bulk up before I planted it here in my street-side succulent bed.  It's bigger but has yet to develop anything like a trunk.

The creep of spring flowers can't be ignored as the foliage of various bulbs and seeds signal that flowers are in the offing.

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Iris germanica at the bottom of the back slope, the only place they're really happy; Iris hollandica 'Pink Panther', one of many Dutch Iris I've planted;  seedlings of Lagurus ovatus (aka bunny tail grass), off to an early start; sweet pea seedlings (Lathyrus annuus), already climbing the support in my cutting garden; lilies (Orienpet Lilium 'Moon Blend' in this case) sprouting in front of and behind the Yucca 'Bright Star'; and one of many calla lily plants (Zantedeschia aethiopica) growing on the back slope

That's a wrap for this week.  All too soon, I'll be flitting around my garden to collect photos of flowers for Bloom Day - between weeding sessions of course.  Weather Underground is projecting a thirty percent chance of light rain late next week, whereas AccuWeather is showing a sixty percent chance.  It wouldn't be all that surprising if that prospect simply evaporates over the next several days but I can't help hoping it comes through - we've been very dry since early January, and February is historically our wettest month.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party