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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Foliage Follow-Up January 2014

 
Many thanks to the globe trotting Pam Penick at Digging for starting foliage follow up on the day after Garden Bloggers Bloom Day each month to help us remember the importance of foliage in our gardens. 
 
Here is some foliage I found interesting in my garden this January -
 
Lomata tinctoria, also know as Guitar Plant from Tasmania.

Bergenia 'Bressingham Ruby' is one of my favorite winter foliage plants!

As is Arum italicum.  How can you not love a plant that shines all winter long, dies back in the summer and produces beautiful red berries in the fall?


Fatsia japonica 'Spider's Web'

Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow'

Sciadopitys verticillata

Azara microphylla variegata.  Did I mention that there was a  windstorm happening when I went out to take pictures?


Hardy cyclamen




 
Signs that a new garden season is beginning! 

 
Make sure to click over to Pam's Blog to see images from her recent Tanzanian safari! 
 


35 comments:

  1. I do love Arum and Cyclamen foliage, it has such pretty markings!

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  2. You have great taste in foliage Peter!

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    1. Oh golly, thanks guys. You're the masters of foliage!

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  3. Oh, Peter your garden season really starts! I love new growths and the foliage in your garden. Particularly the cyclamen is very bright and green.

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    1. The cyclamen have been green since fall as have the arum. Those plants grow in the winter and are dormant in the summer. Silly plants!

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  4. The foliage on your Lomatia tinctoria is so different from mine that I'm now wondering if I ended up with the right plant! Maybe it's just age? Has yours ever bloomed?

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    1. Mine had much finer foliage when it was smaller. Maybe the Lomatia tinctoria died and this is some other seed that was in the pot with it- I sort of lost track of the plant for a while.

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    2. Finer is exactly what mine is. No doubt (as always) you knew exactly what you were doing.

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    3. Oh Loree, I never know what I'm doing. When in doubt, I just make up Latin names that sound like they might fit.

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  5. The PNW is rightly known for its beautiful foliage. Everything you've shown is wonderful but I particularly like the Leucothoe, which of course isn't remotely suited to SoCal.

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    1. The abundance of beautiful evergreen foliage makes up for the gray winters.

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  6. I'm a huge fan of Cyclamen. They are naturalizing beautifully under a japanese maple in my garden and give me great joy. The Arum is more of an unknown. Is it a well behaved plant? Because these leafs are so tempting I'd like to add it to my list...

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    1. Cyclamen are amazing and take all kinds of abuse. I've heard other gardeners bemoan thuggish Arum italicum but that's not been my experience. (Probably these other gardeners water their plants or have soil that isn't mostly sand and rocks.) Because they make bright orange/red berries in the fall that something must like eating, I find them popping up in different areas of the garden but they're welcome because often they come up where herbacious perennials have died back. It's a perfect partnership since in the summer the arum are dormant except for putting up barely noticable spathe and spadix flowers which, by fall, become beautiful orange berry covered cylinders. Try this with black mondo grass and you'll have a great foliage combination in the winter and in the fall when the orange/red seeds are present, the black and red combination will knock your socks off. In the spring when the arum leaves die back, throw in some annuals with chartreuse flowers and enjoy a different combination. Arum and hostas would be a great combination because they have foliage at opposite times of the year.

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    2. Thank you for all the information. I certainly have a lot to think about. Planing the new season in the garden is great fun!

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  7. Does your 'Spider Web' also produce those Spunik-like flowers? If so, I think I've found my Fatsia. The rest of your finds are pretty special too.

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    1. It does create those flowers but they're a little smaller than standard F. japonica flowers and this year they were cut back by the freeze. This fatsia grows very well with some shade and it lightens up dark corners. It's not as robust a grower as regular Fatsia japonica but it's a favorite of mine. Jerry at Jungle Fever has his growing in a big red pot in front of a grove of golden culmed bamboo and it's spectacular there. Spider's Web seemed to be everywhere a few years ago and now is a little harder to find. I know that Far Reaches had some last year & probably Cistus has a mother plant or two lurking around in their propagation area.

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  8. Your Leucothoe and Arum italicum are nice looking plants. I have always enjoyed leucothoe in the garden but was not familiar with the Arum italicum that looks almost tropical in nature.

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    1. It's offered by a lot of the spring bulb catalogs and does look tropical although it's tough as nails.

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  9. Your plants look great. Many I've never seen--the Sciadopitys verticillata reminds me of papyrus and is likely not so thuggish.

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    1. Not thuggish at all, it's a lovely small tree commonly called an umbrella pine.

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  10. The Arum leaves really are winners, and I don't think I've seen such glossy cyclamen leaves. But when I saw your Narcissus leaves poking up, all I could think was - NO FAIR!!!!!

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    1. The gloss on the cyclamen leaves is caused by the rain which is nearly always present in the winter here. Our spring bulbs do get an early start here where spring is a really long and drawn out affair that starts pretty much now unless we get some sort of cold weather in January of February.

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  11. Oh my, that's a spider web I can get on board with!

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  12. It is all about foliage in winter here. I have had comments from other bloggers throughout the country about how green it is here in the winter. Yep. It is.

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    1. We're so lucky to live in this climate. While I sometimes envy Californian gardeners, there's something mystically magical about our fog in and around our towering firs and cedars!

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  13. I am admiring those silvery beauties, the Fatsia 'Spider's Web' and Azara. That coloring really pops, doesn't it?

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    1. Yes, especially in the shady areas that they tolerate!

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  14. Arum is one of my favorite plants for foliage, primarily because it looks so good in winter. Locally, it is one of those old garden plants.

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    1. I don't see it used here as much. Maybe because I don't tour as many gardens in the winter as in the summer but it sure is a great plant!

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  15. Nice foliage photos. I think I need another Azara.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.