The focus on flowers during the spring and summer months can relegate foliage to the role of a bit player, at least when it comes to nursery shopping. However, even if colors are carefully coordinated, buying too many flowering plants can create a sense of chaos in the garden, as I've learned from personal experience. Now that I've had a larger garden to play in for 2 years, I think I've finally curbed my flower fixation. When I plan revisions to a planting bed, I'm paying more attention to foliage than I did in the past. I can't say that I've done an 180 degree turn but I think I can claim to be a recovering flower fanatic.
Since the beginning of this year, I've added several new foliage plants to the garden, including:
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| Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', the 3rd added to my back border |
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| Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant', added around the flagstone pathway in the side yard (Sure, it flowers too, but I grow it mainly for the textured, purple-infused foliage) |
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| 'Florida Sun Jade' coleus (Solenostemon scutellariodes), currently the star attraction in a pot also containing a Japanese maple and a fuchsia |
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| Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' and peppermint-scented Pelargonium tomentosum, merging together prettily in the side yard |
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| 3 Hypericum x moserianum 'Tricolor', slowly spreading in my back border |
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| Strobilanthus dyeranus (aka Persian Shield), used to replace flowering plants in 2 large pots |
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| Stipa tenuissima (Mexican feather grass), added to the 3 placed in the back border last year |
I added Rumex to the vegetable garden mainly to add foliage interest to a bed otherwise dominated by rather common vegetables:
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| Rumex 'Raspberry Dressing' |
I also recently also picked up an interesting Chinese Evergreen for the living room. Maybe a house plant shouldn't count for the purposes of a foliage follow-up post but it's too pretty to exclude.
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| Aglaonema (no ID on the variety but it may be 'Siam Pearl') |
As a play on blending the inside and the outside, I also took some pictures of foliage visible from inside my living room. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out very well - in addition to finding a way to manage window glare, I seriously need to spend some time cleaning my windows.
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| Persicaria 'Red Dragon', photographed from the inside of a dirty window |
You can see foliage highlights of other gardeners' foliage selections on Pam's blog,
Digging. Thanks for visiting my blog.
