July Foliage Follow-up

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:

Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', the 3rd added to my back border

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)

'Florida Sun Jade' coleus (Solenostemon scutellariodes), currently the star attraction in a pot also containing a Japanese maple and a fuchsia

Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' and peppermint-scented Pelargonium tomentosum, merging together prettily in the side yard

3 Hypericum x moserianum 'Tricolor', slowly spreading in my back border

Strobilanthus dyeranus (aka Persian Shield), used to replace flowering plants in 2 large pots

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:

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.

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.

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.

Summer Slowdown

When summer arrives in our area of SoCal, it generally ushers in a period of high temperatures, low humidity, and recurring episodes of dry Santa Ana winds.   These conditions usually persist well into October.  It's a poor time to plant here and, every year, I tell myself that I'm not going to put in any new plants after the official start of summer on June 21st.  I've reminded myself (again) that planting during this period is a poor investment of time and money.  However, in advance of my summer gardening slowdown, I embarked on a frenzy of new planting activity.

Here's a look of some of what I've put in during the last few weeks:

Okay, this Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' isn't in the ground yet but it was purchased before the official start of summer!

3 Angelonia 'Angelmist Dark Pink' were added to the dry garden to complement Hemerocallis 'Russian Rhapsody", a reblooming daylily, and Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink'

Agastache 'Acapulco Rose' was added to fill a hole created when a raccoon shredded an earlier plant purchase (and it looks good with the daylily too)

Echinacea 'PowWow White' was added to the back border

As was Gomphrena globosa 'Las Vegas Mix', which filled an area formerly occupied by pansies

A group of Angelonia 'Serena White' went into the front border to replace other fading pansies

3 Euphorbia 'Breathless White" were needed to fill the spot formerly accupied by annual Nigella 'African Bride' in the side yard

Some Milium 'Flashlight' was added to give the back border another pop of chartreuse

And I had to pick up Solenostemon scutellariodes 'Fishnet Stockings Coleus' when I finally found it in a local nursery

I decided to give Strobilanthus dyernus (Persian Shield) another try in a pot in a partially shaded area after failing to keep it alive in a sunnier spot last year

While looking for Teucrium chamaedrys, I found this relative, Teucrium cossonii majoricum, a low growing groundcover said to bloom almost continuously  - it's a bee magnet

I picked up this Viola, described only as a perennial variety with double blue flowers, to replace some annual pansies in a partially shaded area

After endless debating as to whether to buy another hybrid tea rose to fill in an empty space in my rose bed created when an inherited 'Sterling Silver" rose suddently died last year, I capitulated to 'California Dreamin'

I'd like to say that this was all the planting I did this month but that wouldn't be truthful.  However, most of the rest of what I planted isn't ready for a spot in front of the camera yet.

Despite all this planting activity and my resolution to hold off on further planting during the summer months, I'm afraid I'm already bending my own rule.  I have plans to join a friend on a nursery shopping trip later this week.  I'm telling myself that the June 21st cut-off date is a bit arbitrary, especially as we've been experiencing cooler than normal conditions near the coast this year.  And I'm planning to buy just a very few things to fill in some empty spots before I really put a final halt on new plantings for the season.  Although, when the last of the pansies go, I may need more annuals to fill the empty spaces...