Foliage Follow-up: November, 2015

Sneaking in with another post just in time for Foliage Follow-up hosted by Pam at Digging. At least this time I was working all day, instead of just being clueless like I was for Bloom Day. I have a lot of foliage pictures, but I'm saving most of them for a more in-depth post evaluating the fall appearance of various plants in my garden, to come later this week (hopefully). For now, here are a few of the nicer photos.

First up are three new succulents I picked up at Garden Fever, in Portland. The first and third were produced by Fleetfoot and Foulweather Succulents, a grower that supplies several nurseries in Oregon with delectable succulents. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite plant sources, though indirectly via the retail nurseries they supply.

Of course I would forget the name of this Gasteria. I haven't had time to memorize it yet, and spent too much time in its presence simply feeling the pebbly texture of the wonderfully tactile leaves. Look at the V-shaped ridges of bumps formed by the imprint of each leaf on the one next to it.

Kalanchoe rhombopilosa has been on my wishlist for about a year now. The shape and colors of the leaves are just so fantastic. 

Echeveria purpusorum was a lucky find. One of the people at Garden Fever told me how she spotted it on the delivery truck and grabbed it for the store, and it was the only one they had! Lucky me! The leaves are covered in a dense pattern of silvery spots that actually glitter in the light. The spots are more distinct on the undersides of the leaves. I love glittery plants, whereas man-made glitter is a plague of evil.

 Moving on, here are a few foliage shots from the garden.

Sempervivum 'Plum Fuzzy' from Annies Annuals, is even less plum now, but the fuzz looks like a frosting of long ice crystals. 

My two Artemisia schmidtiana have flopped and are starting to look rather worn, but this part, backing a Carex testacea, still looks good. Next year, I will follow the advice to cut them back before they bloom, to keep them growing in tight, leafy mounds. I skipped that step this year because I had just planted them and didn't want to hinder their establishment. I don't think I really need have worried.

A little preview of the redesigned driveway island. The newly relocated Molinia caerulea 'Variegata'  looks wonderful next to the weeping laceleaf Japanese maple, with the late afternoon light shining through both and highlighting some moss and Asarum caudatum under the maple. I'll be doing a whole series of posts through the various incarnations of this bed.

It doesn't at all do it justice, but this may be one of my new favorite foliage combos: Astelia nivicola 'Red Devil', Andromeda polifolia 'Blue Ice' and a bronze form of Carex comans. The Astelia was in the freebie pile at work near the end of summer (I've since purchased three more), so it's a bit small and shows poorly against the mulch. I know, I'm being very optimistic about how much these three plants will grow, planting them so far apart. I expect the Andromeda and Carex to grow significantly, and hope the Astelia will do likewise.

Saxifraga stolonifera celebrates fall by adding shades of ruddy red to the leaves. This plant was a little crispy over summer, despite only getting a few hours of morning sun. The plants under the Hakonechloa to the right were big and happy. I think I'll move more of it under the Hakonechloa to cover the ground in the winter when the grass is dormant.

I never get tired of cyclamen foliage, but this time I'll let this Cyclamen coum represent the lot, instead of photographing all of them.

All my other deciduous azaleas have more or less ended their fall foliage display. 'Mt. St. Helens' and 'Molalla Red' still have a few leaves, but 'Golden Lights' takes the prize for late-season color.

I think I've chosen a good place to plant this Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snow Queen', and her two siblings. The lower angle of the sun allows the light to shine through the thin band of trees to the south, right through the colorful leaves of the hydrangea. Now I just have to actually get them in the ground.

It's so important to look at the garden from different angles. From the patio, this variegated Japanese iris doesn't look all that great, and was going to go on my "fall ugly" list, but I love this view from the south, where you can see some stronger variegation that was protected from the summer sun, visible now as the plant begins to fall apart. In the background, from the lower left to the upper right, are Podocarpus lawrencei 'Blue Gem' (I need more of these), Berberis x stenophylla 'Corallina Compacta', Molinia caerulea 'Variegata' , Cedrus deodara 'Feelin' Blue', and an unknown Amsonia.

And here's another angle I hadn't paid much attention to before, looking west at the Leptospermum lanigerum 'Silver Form', backlit by the late afternoon sun with a Yucca filamentosa providing a nice dark background.

That's it for this edition of Foliage Follow-up. Hope you're enjoying some beautiful foliage in your garden.