Foliage Follow-Up is hosted by Pam Penick at Digging on the day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day each month to remind us of the importance of foliage in the garden every day of the year! Click on over there, and join in the fun!
Random shots of foliage that caught my eye while wandering:
Rhododendron 'Wine and Roses,' a new hybrid that I got from the Rhododendron Species Garden.
Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' had some rust issues last summer so I treated the soil with copper. Hopefully that will take car of the problem. Looks like it'll b time to divide this next year if the rust goes away!
This part of the garden is fairly green all year long.
Rhododendron 'Super Flimmer'
Impatiens omeiana 'Silver Pink'
Helleborous 'Silver Dollar'
Rex Begonias in the greenhouse.
Rex Begonia 'Fireflush' was doing very well until someone left the pot soaking in water. Who would do such a cruel thing to a plant? Perhaps it will recover.
Erythrina crista-galli that Danger gave me last year grew very well through the summer until someone forgot to water it. (So hard to get conscientious and knowledgeable garden help!) I thought that it might recover in the greenhouse over the winter but it mostly sat there. Now look at it! For it's great effort, it will get a bigger pot in which to stretch it's roots.
Banksia grandis putting out new growth. So, how does one fertilize a phosphorous sensitive plant? Blood meal? Would well rotted manure bother it? I found an answer here.
This guy looks a bit like Sideshow Bob with his new Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' hairdo.
Sideshow Bob image copyright 20th Century Fox.
You have some great foliage to show off! I didn't know that Podophyllum got rust, what a bummer. Hope you fixed the problem.
ReplyDeleteI've never had a podophyllum with rust before this one. It started a couple of years ago and never spread to any of the others in the garden. Hope the copper fungicide takes care of it!
DeleteWhy don't I grow Podophyllum, as they're native here. Maybe it's the water requirements...
ReplyDeleteI think it's difficult to go wrong when planting in a head. Almost anything works as long as it hides the "hairline" somewhat.
You should try Podophyllum - it might kindle another plant obsession!
DeleteI agree, but there are days when it seems that one can't seem to get ahead. (Sorry, the devil made me do it.)
Oh! Oh! Oh! That path with the round tile-ly things in the middle of the circle! I love it! What did you use for the centers?
ReplyDeleteThe round things are concrete stepping stones with glass on top that I made years ago when I put in the path.
DeleteYour Banksia grandis looks divine. Mine, not so good. In fact it's crispy.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that! What happened?
DeleteI wish I knew.
DeletePlants will try their best to recover from the abuse they suffer at our hands: how lucky is that?.
ReplyDeleteI'm at awe over Rhododendron 'Super Flimmer'; it's so unusual. I'm requesting another picture when it blooms
Very lucky indeed. If my plants were human children, there would be a CPS caseworker knocking on my door!
DeleteYour slipshod garden help can't keep good plants down. How come your Rhody foliage all looks so healthy? Are you doing anything special?
ReplyDeleteI only showed two that were new. Actually, my Rhody foliage on plants in the ground doesn't look bad at all except that over the last two years, I've had a weevil problem. Never before had these pests bothered my garden and then all of a sudden, an explosion. I've sprayed beneficial nematodes a few times a year and they still seemed to proliferate and move around. A lady at a recent plant sale said that Weevils don't like to walk on coffee grounds so instead of putting mine in the compost heap, they're going around the rhodies. Couldn't hurt, right?
DeleteOh, thanks...I'll try that.
DeleteI'm hoping to find a Rex begonia or 2 or 3 at the spring plant sales here - I haven't had any since I moved and your photos remind me of how much I miss them. The foliage color on your Rhododendrons is dramatic - is it fair that plants that produce such fabulous flowers also have such fantastic foliage? I wish I could grow them here...
ReplyDeleteThe blooms are fabulous and I remember thinking how exotic and tropical they looked to my Alaskan eyes when I first saw them blooming all over town. Usually the foliage is fairly dull and it's not worth a once a year show to put up with boring foliage the rest of the year so I only grow ones with fab foliage!
DeleteOoh, I'm gonna need one of those Helleborus 'Silver Dollar'.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking how interesting the color and texture might be next to Mahonia 'Windcliff Silver' maybe with some black mondo grass in the forground and a nice black limbed corokia behind...
DeleteFirst..love the foliage on helleborus 'silver dollar', I'll need to keep an eye out on those and second...I'm clearly late to the show as I just didn't realize how quickly podophyllum expands. I want some for a future project and it seems like keeping it in a container is the right way to go.
ReplyDelete'Silver Dollar' has way cool foliage! Depends on the podophyllum and the growing space - some spread more quickly than others.
DeleteThere is a lot of foliage popping out now all around here. Love it!
ReplyDeleteAin't spring grand?
DeleteLove the Begonias. I'll look for one this spring, too.
ReplyDeleteThe brick path is inspirational. I have to do something at the Mule Barn steps in an area about 6' x 5.5' with a side path to the left going to the greenhouse and a straight line going toward the house. On a slight slope. I'll put it on my Seedscatterer blog.
Glad you like the path! Most of the bricks were pavers that the city dug out from the side of the road when they were putting in handicapped accessible sidewalk ramps. They said that they were going to haul them to the dump and that I could have as many as I wanted. This was before I had a wheelbarrow so I carried two five gallon buckets back and forth until I'd rescued all that were there. That whole area was one big lawn when we moved in with the big trees on the side. What fun that was!
DeleteI like using foxtail fern for the Sideshow Bob hairdo, but Cousin Itt works ALMOST as well. ;-) I'm in love with that frosty silver Helleborous. Nice selection, Outlaw!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, foxtail fern would be perfect for that hairdo!
DeleteLove your Begonia 'Fireflush' , Peter. Great foliage/
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nadezda, it's also a favorite of mine.
Deletelove the different shapes and colours of the leaves, Peter. That banksia is one of my faves. I have seen special fertilizer for natives for sale, but don't bother with it. Just apply compost and love and hope ... That acacia looks very cute in that pot. I like the idea of green hair but wouldn't have the courage to actually make it happen.
ReplyDeleteI've never fed any of the plants I have in the Protea family and they seem to be just fine. compost sounds like a great idea! Thanks.
DeleteHad to wait a while until I thought of what it was my long-ago neighbor Francine planted around her mailbox that she called 'Redheads' . It was some kind of Amaranth, maybe A. tricolor. I'm not going to plant anything related to pigweed but it was fun when she used to have those gaudy things growing.
ReplyDeleteA. tricolor does look like it would be a lot of fun!
DeleteI find myself more and more intrigued by Begonias. Their foliage is just too varied and cool! I do love that B. luxurians you a gave me, and another fave is the one with the reptilian looking leaves. It is currently on the mend. (I didn't treat it very well this winter.) Likewise, my Cousin Itt has sadly passed away. Would love to get a Banksia, but am fearful of what I'd do to it...
ReplyDeleteBanksias are used to growing in poor soils and are fairly drought tolerant. I've not killed mine in the pot so I'm sure you'd have no problem at all!
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