Foliage Follow-up: February Focus on Phormium

Okay, I couldn't stop myself with the title of this post - I like alliteration.  However, the Phormium in my garden do deserve attention.  I seem to accumulate more each year we live here.  They do well in my USDA zone 10b (Sunset zone 23/24).  Many are drought tolerant, which is helpful when rain is in short supply and the state of California has declared a drought emergency.  They're also relatively easy to care for and they come in a range of sizes and colors.  I fully expect that more Phormium will enter my garden this year when I plant the new border area (assuming we ever finish digging the lawn out).

So here are the stand-outs in my garden:

2 Phormium 'Amazing Red' went into the side yard border last year - it grows just 2 feet tall and wide

I have no record of the name of this Phormium I planted in the front border shortly after we moved in - my best guess is that it's P. tenax 'Atropurpureum Compactum,' which grows 5 feet tall and wide

Several smaller Phormium 'Chocolate Baby' are also planted in the front border - they grow 2-3 feet tall and wide

I added 3 Phormium 'Dark Delight' to the backyard border last year - they grow 3-4 feet tall and 3-5 feet wide

Phormium 'Tiny Tiger' is indeed small - it grows just 1 foot tall and wide

Phormium tenax 'Yellow Wave' sits in the dry garden - it grows 3-4 feet tall and wide

These lovely Phormium are my contribution this month to the meme sponsored by Pam of the fabulous Digging blog.  Please visit Digging to view her foliage choices and connect to other gardeners' selections.

Foliage Follow-up: November 2013

I've added quite a few foliage plants to my garden this year (and the gardening year's not over for us yet in southern California).  One of my most recent acquisitions is Dampiera trigona 'Purple Wire.'  It blooms, as you may be able to detect from the picture below, but the foliage is what landed it in my cart during a recent nursery trip to Carpinteria.  It's a relatively low-growing, clumping plant suited to a rock garden environment so my hope it that it'll find the soil of this former rock quarry hospitable.

It's hard to get a good picture of this Dampiera.  The foliage really is wiry.

Another recent acquisition is a diminutive Phormium, 'Tiny Tiger,' which I picked up on the same nursery trip up north last week.  It gets just one foot high and one foot wide so it should do fine in its location along the pathway of my dry garden.

I've also added a mass planting of Alternanthera tenella 'Crinkle Red' along the pathway in my renovated side garden.

10 Alternanthera tenella 'Crinkle Red' line the pathway

Close-up of Alternanthera

As of last week, no fewer than 3 Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' have taken root in my garden.

This Prostanthera ovalifolia, placed in the side yard in late September, is getting by on morning sun only so far

My newest Prostanthera ovalifolia, purchased for a bargain price of $8.99 last weekend, is seated in front of a Ceanothus hedge in the back garden

I've posted about my use of Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' in the garden many times (most recently here) but I've also added the smaller-leafed Coprosma 'Evening Glow' to my collection

One of 3 Coprosma 'Evening Glow,' all still relatively small

But the foliage plants making the biggest impact in the garden right now are still the 2 Persimmon trees we inherited with the house (previously featured here), which are in their full fall splendor.

Persimmon 'Hachiya' in the dry garden

Persimmon 'Fuyu' in the vegetable garden

What foliage is lighting up your garden at the moment?  To see other foliage picks, please visit Pam, the host of the monthly Foliage Follow-up at Digging.