Foliage Follow-up: April 2015

Pam at Digging hosts Foliage Follow-Up the day after Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Really, flowers are nice, but foliage is what really carries the garden through the seasons.

Hosta 'The Shining'. I wonder if I'll get more into hostas once the fence is up?

Golden scales adorn the leaves of Rhododendron superbum, one of my vireyas.

Water droplets on Molinia caerulea 'Variegata'

The slightly silver leaves of Helleborus x sternii. I need more of these types of hellebore with attractive foliage and more sun tolerance.

I finally managed a decent picture of Callistemon pityoides 'Mt. Kosciusco Form'. I love the big golden buds!

Feathery new growth on Cedrus deodara.

I love Glumicalyx gosseloides. Aside from a few yellow stems on the bottom of the plant, it stayed beautifully green all winter. It reminds me of a sedum, but unlike those the scented foliage of Glumicalyx isn't bothered by deer. I can't wait for the drooping, orange, chocolate-scented flowers! I'm planning on taking lots of cuttings of this. I want more!

Acer metcalfii, from Far Reaches Farm, is one of the snake-barked maples. I didn't know that it also had this gorgeous, purple-black new growth! This first flush is much more intense than the later new growth.

Bright pinkish red new growth on Mahonia 'Indianola Silver'

The first leaves on the Davidia involucrata 'Variegata' are unfolding from the buds. 

With all the water captured on this leaf, it looks like some wonderful jewel.

Not only did both my little Woodwardia unigemmata survive the winter, but they are sending up these gorgeous new fronds! Can't wait for these plants to grow up!

Epimedium saggitatum foliage. Only a few flecks on this understated beauty.

Conversely, there's really nothing understated about the mottled riot of the new leaves on this Epimedium wushanense.

Pieris japonica 'Variegata' is gorgeous with pinkish red new growth.

My seed-grown tree peonies are resplendent in their red new growth.

A nice Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Ogon' seedling. I need to remember to move it come summer so it doesn't get so washed out.
I'm fairly pleased with the combination of Daphne x transatlantica 'Blafra', Dentaria diphylla, and Ophiopogon japonicus 'Nana'. The large leaves of the dentaria are a nice seasonal contrast to the finer textures of the daphne and mondo grass, and the various shades of green make a simple background for the fragrant white flowers of the daphne. Definitely not slug-proof, though!

Comments

  1. You're so right there with your entry note there regarding foliage. And I still have major lust for Indianola Silver!

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    1. I hope some intrepid plant person will smuggle some Indianola Silver over to the UK so you can enjoy it, too!

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  2. Well tish and pish to your use of Dentaria! (The genus Cardamine, still perennial species, but not this more basal clade, is one of my favored study groups, so I suppose I have some reason to be upset. By the bye, you should look for C. nuttallii in river bottoms right about now. The "pulcherrima" form from under oaks in the Gorge should do well for you, and almost no-one grows it!)

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    1. Sorry, I try to stay current on my plant names, but this is not one of my favored groups. Rather I saw it as more of a convenient design component than a plant, rather atypical for me. Native makes it much more interesting, though. I'll keep an eye out for C. nuttallii.

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  3. Oh, that Glumicalyx has been on my Far Reaches wish list for a while. What a great selection of foliage. Now that you're getting that new fence, the only leaf munchers you'll have to worry about are the slugs. As you know, we get enormous ones, so let's keep our fingers crossed they don't eat as much as the deer used to.

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    1. I find slugs easier to deal with than deer. I just noticed buds on my Glumicalyx. So excited!

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  4. So many beautiful selections I haven't got a chance of growing! I've experienced serious Epimedium envy over the past 2 days. And that dark-leafed Acer - wow!

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    1. Just get back at me by posting some fantastic proteaceous plants that I have no hope of growing up north! ;)

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  5. You've got a lot to be excited about here. The new foliage on the Acer metcalfii, WOW! And the pixelated spots on Epimedium wushanens are pretty fab!

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    1. I was surprised by that maple. The color was probably toned way down from growing in a greenhouse when I bought it. I hope it does this every year for the rest of its life!

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  6. Lots of nice stuff here, but the Acer metcalfii stopped me in my tracks!

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