April 2015 Foliage Follow-Up

Thanks to Pam Penick at Digging, we have a meme to celebrate the importance of foliage in our gardens.  Each month on the day after bloom day, Pam hosts the foliar frolic.  Click on over to her blog to see what foliage is catching the eye of garden bloggers this month!   I once tried to have a theme but have given up and just shoot random shots of foliage in my garden that I like. Here, then, is this months offering.

Pittosporum 'Tom Thumb' beginning it's magic of putting out chartreuse new foliage that looks stunning against the dark older foliage.

Tulip 'Fire of Love.'  Who cares if it blooms or not?

Fatsia japonica variegata 

This Acer palmatum (name slips my mind) really is this vibrant for a month or so after which it calms down a bit.  

Crazy rhododendron that I got in a tiny pot at Heronswood a million years ago, has become a very handome shrub and puts out new growth that looks like this year.  Now up to my chest, it's yet to bloom but I chose it for the foliage.

 And speaking of Heronswood, this variegated daylily was among the last plants I purchased there before they shut down a few weeks later.  Wouldn't it have been nice if someone had removed last year's dead leaves before taking a picture?

Another Acer palmatum.  There are so many out there now...

Syneilesis  

Our native Corydalis scouleri puts up this nice three foot tall clump foliage every year.

Varigated Stachyurus praecox

Podophyllum  delavayi and Ribes sanguineum 'Brocklebankii'

Clerodendrum 

 Helleborus argutifolius 'Pacific Frost'

Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger'  AKA Tiger Eyes Staghorn Sumac

Pieris Japonica  'Mountain Fire'  (The screaming orange new growth goes through a color change before it turns green.)  Pay no attention to the weeds.

Now it's your turn to share your foliage.

Foliage Follow-Up January 2015

Each month on the day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, the inspirational Pam Penick from Digging hosts Foliage follow up to rmind us of th important role foliage plays in our gardens.  Here are a few random leaves from my garden:

Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb'  is this delicious color year round and in the spring, it's chartreuse new foliage is shockingly gorgeous against the dark foliage!

Common but gorgeous Bergenia takes on lovely burgundy tones in the winter. 

One from the greenhouse - I've temporarily misplaced the tag of this foliage plant with golden tomentum that came from one of my visits to Windcliff this summer. I'm amazed that it not only lived but is thriving in it's nursery pot.  

Back outside is the darling Acorus minimus aureus.  It's so tiny that it's cute!  Also featured is self seeded Cardamine hirsuta (shot weed.) Thank you for noticing.

Euphorbia wulfenii  appears shy as it gets ready to bloom.  We know better.

Lomatia tinctoria (Guitar Plant) not covered with rain.  How did that happen?

The promise of foliage to come.  Inherited Galanthus poking up through the litter that someone should clear away or cover with a light layer of mulch. The foliage of most spring bulbs looks a bit tatty after the flowers fade and the foliage ripens but not the snowdrops!  They make sweet tufts that resemble drifts of ornamental grass then suddenly, they disappear.

What foliage is catching your eye in your garden?   Happy weekend all!  And remember that the Northwest Flower and Garden Show is coming up soon (Feb 11 - 15.)  You won't want to miss the show gardens, the free (FREE) lectures and workshops, an incredible lineup of vendors, and more. Check out their website here. Hope to see you there!

Foliage Follow Up May 2014

Welcome to the Oops, I forgot to take foliage pictures for Foliage Follow up and it's almost dark outside, more random than ever edition of foliage follow up.

Nifty succulent combination

Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida'  I've had a couple of these for several years. They don't seem to be putting on much growth but produce a nice crop of these cool leaves each year so I'll not complain.

On the other hand Banksia grandis has grown very rapidly from a small 4" pot.  It even lived through the winter in the glass room.

Pelargonium 'Indian Princess'

 Symplocarpus foetidus aka Skunk Cabbage 

 With foliage like this, who needs flowers?

We all love the gorgeous blue flowers of pulmonaria but it's spotted foliage that lasts all summer for me is equally beautiful.  The debris all over everything is courtesy of the huge cherry tree we inherited with the garden.

Rhododendron sinogrande is the largest leaved rhododendron that we can grow. I've never seen one in bloom and don't care if this never does as the huge foliage is what does it for me with this plant!

New leaves unfurl dramatically.  They'll hold on to this white color for a while before turning glossy greeen. 

Speaking of foliage that unfurls beautifully, many members of the araliaceae, like this Schefflera delavayi, are certainly drama queens!

Impatiens omeiana is looking happy despite the heat.  

Pam at Digging hosts Foliage Follow Up each month on the day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day to remind us of the importance of foliage in our gardens every day.  Click on over to her site to see foliage catching the eye of garden bloggers all over the place!

Foliage Follow - Up a Day Late

Sincere apologies to the fabulous Pam Penick, host of Foliage Follow Up for starting my post with a flower and for talking about plants that are inside for the winter.  The rain has been coming down sideways outside so I decided not to venture out to see all of the foliage out there.  Do visit Pam's blog  and look at the responses area to see foliage from lots of other gardens!

I've been aware of Tillandsias for quite some time and have admired them on blogs and at nurseries but  it wasn't until recently that they really started speaking to me.  Maybe it's a midlife crisis romance sort of thing. (Oh right, mid life.  How many 104 year old men do YOU know?)  It all started with this one looking so gorgeous at Molbak's house plant sale last month.  At the time, none of the purple flowers were present, just the big pink whatchamacallit from which individual blooms emerge.

She's been putting out blooms one or two at a time, since we brought her home. 

 

Then, at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, they seemed to be everywhere this year. 

 

They've always been used at the show, especially in the hanging glass terrariums but this year they seemed to be telling me that some of them wanted to come to Tacoma to live. 

It's easy to love a plant that requires no soil, grows and blooms and can make a quick centerpiece by throwing it in a bowl of oranges!

 

Ownes Gardens, a Tillandsia grower from Monroe, WA was once again at the show and I was ready to adopt some pups!  These don't need paper training, won't bark at guests, and don't leave hair all over your house.   They're not much fun to cuddle with though and don't even try to teach them to fetch a toy, it's a huge waste of time. 

 

Sylvia at Dig Nursery had some of these in slightly larger than a thimble sized terra cotta pots last year - very sweet and I kicked myself for not getting some then .  Here they were without the pots but easy to throw in a bag!

Once I started putting these in my bag, it was hard to quit.

A lady who seemed fascinated by these little gems asked me what I was going to do with them, would they all be used together, etc. I had no idea but remembering a comment that Loree made "I looked around the house for a tillandsia."  made me think that it was a good idea to get them anyway just to have on hand for any tillandisa emergency that might come up.

I kep seeing interesting varieties of these, I found T. seleriana (left) at Swanson's Nursery on Saturday.  It bears a resemblance to an artichoke.  

They work well in shells, on wood,  clay and glass.  They're even happy to sit on soil and some will even throw anchoring roots down.

A great part about not needing soil is that these can sit atop glass vessels and still allow light to play through the glass. 

Some of you may remember the jade trees, stripped of their stone leaves and blooms that I wrote about here.  They ended up going to the basement until I could do something with them.

Here's what I did with a couple of them with finds from Owens Gardens and Alpine Nursery.

 

 

I've added a few more tillandsias to the trees since I took these pictures but you get the idea.  Have you grown tillandsias?  Do they thrive for you & increase in number?