Find foliage, then repeat

Yes, I grow a lot of flowering plants.  But over the years I've also developed a good backbone of foliage plants.  When I find a plant I like, I often look for more plants in the same species or genus.  After the floral excesses of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, I thought I'd close out the week by featuring some of my favorite foliage.

I also like to combine complementary foliage.  This is Aeonium 'Mardi Gras' with Coprosma repens 'Fire Burst'.

I inherited this clump of Agave attenuata with the garden but I've planted pups from this clump in numerous other areas

This photo of the flaking bark on Arbutus 'Marina' is off-topic but, as all five of my Arbutus are doing their thing right now, I felt I had to share at least one photo

This mass of agaves in my north side dry garden grabbed my attention, in part because the dense clusters of the smaller agave are now encroaching on the larger Agave funkiana 'Blue Haze'.  I didn't have a name for the clustered agaves and I went down a rabbit hole looking for one.  I found similar plants labeled 'Rosa Gorda' and other things but couldn't locate a formally accepted name.  Even San Marcos Growers, my go-to source for plant IDs admitted to the confusion as to its name.  One on-line commentator identified it as a hybrid of Agave potatorum and A. isthemensis but didn't cite a source.

My oldest Agave ovatifolia sits several feet away from the mystery clump in the same bed.  It's gotten rather cozy with the Agave vilmoriniana on its left.

I inherited several Calliandra haematocephala with the garden too, all used as foundation plants, which means they're regularly sheared to keep them within bounds.  The good news there is the fresh new foliage is gorgeous.  I actually like the foliage of this plant better than it's pinkish-red powder-puff flowers.

This is Centaurea 'Silver Feathers', which I like in this location, where it glows.  I've got too many in another location in the back garden and some or all are going to have to come out as one walkway is no longer passable.

I may have over-used Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold' as well.  I have these plants in both my front and back gardens.  Those shown here are in the back, on opposite sides of the flagstone path.  The clump on the right is encroaching on Yucca 'Bright Star' and needs to be thinned.

I only have one Dasylirion longisssimum and I'm not sure I like it here but I recently cut back a blue-flowering mass of Wahlenbergia in front on it to reveal its structure so I can make a decision on whether or not to keep it.  (The purple-leafed plant behind it is Vitex trifolia.)

Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' deserves its name.  I have two, one of which I brought with me from our former house.  It's the one on the left, which gets more sun and glows this time of year.  The plant on the right is in partial shade.

I often forget that I have a Leucadendron 'Ebony' but I caught it peeking above the mass of Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite' in front of it and snapped the photo on the left yesterday morning.  I subsequently cut back some of the Grevillea and took a second photo yesterday evening.  A bit more pruning is required I think.  (The plant behind 'Ebony' is Leucadendron salignum 'Chief'.)

I have more grass-like Lomandra longifolia 'Breeze' than I can count off-hand

Here are more in the back garden, mingling with Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope', the color of which is echoed by Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' in the background

And here's still more in the front garden, mixed with Phormium 'Maori Queen' (and that's not even all of it)

I only have one Melinathus major but it's looking its best right now.  I cut it down to the ground each year.  It's complemented here by Leucadendron 'Jester'.  This 'Jester' is always relatively pale by comparison to the one I have in full sun.

I was ready to pull out this Phormium 'Yellow Wave'  but, after two years of decent rain, it's looking better.  There's a second Phormium behind it, which I think is supposed to be 'Apricot Queen' but just looks like a smaller version of 'Yellow Wave', never having developed any apricot color.

These Yucca 'Blue Boy' sit in the same bed.  The one on the left was given to me by Denise of 'A Growing Obsession' years ago after I reported losing another one to agave snout weevil.  There's a third tiny plant in there too, which I found growing in another bed a year or more after I removed the infected plant.

Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' is a slow-grower.  I planted the one on the right in a decaying tree stump to deter the raccoons from using that spot as their toilet.  It's taken awhile but my strategy finally seems to be working.

That's it from me for this week.  I hope you're finding ways to stay both healthy and sane as the scourge of the novel coronavirus continues to afflict the US.  Seriously, anyone who doesn't mask up when going out in public needs to look in the mirror before complaining about shut-downs and the tanking US economy.  In addition to wearing a mask, be sure to vote in November - we can't afford four more years of this reality game show with people's lives at stake.



All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

A look at foliage before flowers entirely take over

We're clearly on the cusp of spring here and flowers will be demanding more and more attention as the weeks go by - it's hard to ignore them when something new seems to pop into bloom every time I glance at the garden.  I decided that, if I was going to do a survey of the foliage that contributes so much to my garden but rarely gets the attention it deserves, the time was now.  At the outset, I also set myself a challenge, which was to skip all the usual suspects.  That means: no succulents, no Leucadendrons , no grasses, and no trees or tree-like shrubs.  When the list still got long, I also cut out bromeliads, the begonias and other foliage plants in my shade house, and even that attention-hog, Acacia 'Cousin Itt'.

So here's what I decided to share:

Artichokes are one of the few plants that have held up against the challenges presented by my back slope.  Even when they die back in late summer, they come back with our winter rain.

The small-leafed Coprosmas are often disappointing over the long haul but Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' has held up well for me.  I have 3 of these plants in different spots of the garden.  All are resilient and hold their color.

I'm not overly fond of the trunk-forming Cordylines but there are some trunk-less varieties I like.  Clockwise from the left are: Cordyline 'Can-Can', C. 'Design-a-Line', and C. 'Renegade'.

Phormiums look similar to Cordylines in many respects, although they're in a different family.  Many, like the 2 shown here, 'Apricot Queen' on the left and 'Maori Queen' on the right, can get big.

Grass-like Lomandra presents a similar silhouette.  It's in the same family as Cordyline.  Clockwise from the upper left are: Lomandra 'Breeze', L. hystrix 'Tropic Belle', and L. 'Platinum Beauty'.

Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' is best appreciated close-up

Like other Hebes, 'Purple Shamrock' flowers but its foliage is the real draw

I'm featuring Helichrysum 'Icicles' largely because I thought I'd killed 3 of my plants with aggressive pruning but it's proven more resilient than I gave it credit for.  The plants on the left were lightly pruned and the one on the right was pruned down to to sticks.

I've mostly ignored this Ruscus hypoglossum (aka butcher's broom) since I planted it in 2014.  I think of it as a foliage plant but it produces tiny flowers in the middle of its leaves.  I'm not sure I've ever examined the flowers until now.  They look like alien insects, don't they?

Our Xylosma congestum hedges are at their best and brightest when the new foliage comes in following pruning.  The 3 plants we added to extend the hedge on its southwest end (right) are finally looking like they'll catch up with the rest of the hedge one day.

I'll end with the Yuccas scattered through the garden.  From left to right are: Yucca 'Blue Boy', Y. 'Bright Star', and Y. gloriosa 'Variegata'.

What foliage in your garden manages to compete with the flashy flowers of early Spring?


All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

More New Plants!

It's been 3 weeks since my last new plants report.  It's time for another!  Last Saturday, a friend and I drove north to visit some of our favorite plant nurseries as we do at least twice a year.  Our first stop was Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria.

We were greeted by this Gulf Fritillary upon our arrival

Unfortunately for my pocketbook, the nursery seemed especially well stocked

Pentas and Salvias on this table attracted bees, butterflies and feuding hummingbirds.  I tried to catch a photo of the hummers but they weren't accommodating.

I did get a shot of this Salvia semiatrata with its pink and purple flowers.  I exercised some restraint and did NOT add one of these to my cart.

I almost took home a new-to-me Phormium 'Golden Ray' (shown in the left front section of this stand) but I really couldn't think of anywhere I could put it

We toured the demonstration gardens too; however, I didn't take many photos because the light was harsh.

I was shooting into the sun here but, even if a little blurred, I still thought the scene was pretty enough to share

The grasses were abundant

And of course the Succulent Garden always looks good

I found this plant with its red grape-like fruit interesting.  We couldn't find a label but my friend remembered seeing it at The Huntington Gardens and said the fruits are poisonous.  After a little on-line digging, I identified it as Cyphostemma juttae.

After a quick stop at a garden center down the road, we went in search of lunch as we were starving and our usual haunt was closed for a private party.  Feeling sluggish after lunch and given that I'd already mostly filled my friend's car with plants from Seaside, we made just one more stop.

This is Terra Sol, located in Goleta (near Santa Barbara)

It was late in the afternoon when we got back to my friend's house and, facing close to a 2-hour drive south in traffic to my own home, I got on the road fairly quickly after loading up my trunk.

Here's what my car's trunk looked like before I unloaded it.  For the record, I've done worse - I didn't even have to lower the back seats to hold my purchases this time.

Here's a photo of my haul spread out in my cutting garden

I've done relatively well getting most of these plants in the ground so let me give you a closer look at those I'm most excited about.

This is Correa 'Sister Dawn', which looks remarkably like Correa 'Dawn in Santa Cruz', a plant I've been seeking for years

This is Grevillea nudiflora 'Medusa', a selection from Jo O'Connell's Australian Native Plants Nursery offered by Seaside.  As we weren't able to fit in a separate stop at ANPN, I was thrilled to find this and a couple of other of Jo's plants.  This one's a low-growing ground cover.

This one also came from Jo's nursery.  It's Isopogon anemonifolius.  It doesn't look like much here but you can find a photo of it in flower here.

This is Leucadendron 'Cloudbank Ginny', which produces attractive flower-like bracts (which you can see here).  I needed another Leucadendron, didn't I?  I think this makes 21 now.

I fell prey to a Fuchsia of all things, even though those I have in my shade house didn't do all that well this year.  This is Fuchsia 'Hawkshead', which supposedly can get by on a moderate amount of water.  I've tucked it into a mostly shaded area protected by our front hedge.

This was also an impromptu purchase, although that could perhaps be said for a large number of the plants I buy.  This is Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses', reputed to be a drought tolerant perennial ground cover in my area.

The 2 Lomandra hystrix 'Tropic Belle' on either side of Phormium 'Maori Queen' here came from Seaside.  I use a lot of Lomandra as a grass substitute,  mostly the 'Breeze' variety.  I had 2 'Lime Tuff' in this position previously but I was never happy with that cultivar.

This is one of the few plants I still need to get into the ground but I've selected its spot.  It's Senna artemisioides (aka Cassia artemisioides).

I'd like to say that's all the plants I've purchased this November but that would be a lie.  I got some recent mail order purchases planted in the last week as well.

The Heuchera 'Marmalade' here came from Annie's Annuals & Perennials.  It's supposed to hold up better to heat that most Heuchera.  We'll see!

At least planting and puttering in my garden provides a temporary distraction from the daily news feed, which has become essential to my sanity.  I hope you manage to find pleasant distractions to take your mind off things this weekend.  Best wishes.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party