A look at the Foliage

Two things I noticed while I looked out of my window today.

One- Winter has settled in like a bad house guest, and Two- I miss the foliage in the garden.

 I love foliage, which brings us to this post about

Foliage, or leafs, whatever you prefer.

Whether it's solid, variegated, striped, molted, or speckled, big, ruffled, fuzzy, spiky, or dramatic,  foliage is fantastic.

A green garden is just a garden where the focus is on the color green, mostly from foliage.

Think forest, moss, or even a lawn.

I love working with foliage plants, many of my containers rely on it heavily. In certain situations I prefer it to flowers. A planting of foliage plants to me is in some ways like a "smart planting"

Smart in the sense that you had to make a conscious and artistic decision on how to use the foliage in a planting

Spring foliage

I love the sight and fresh color of new foliage in the spring, everything is fresh and new. Newly emerging foliage has not had to fight summers scorching heat, or the crimes of water neglect, or hungry insects.

 Above, new growth on the yews contrast with the old dark foliage. The yews look like they have tiny green lights on them. Ostrich ferns are fresh green in the company of the yews and the foliage of the grass. This is a composition of foliage

There are many plants that are just used for their foliage, it can be used to add just as much color as flowers would. Coleus comes in a huge assortment of colors, growth patterns, shapes and sizes. The flowers are not much to look at and I usually clip them off.

When you decide to do a foliage planting the whole new world of texture comes into play. Texture and foliage go hand in hand.

Tropical foliage form these bananas is bold and stunning, who cares that these plants will never produce fruit. The leaves are large and take up a lot of air space too. Alacasia's will also give that Tropical look with their large leaves, and will even grow in the shade.

Ruffled and curly leaves such as these on lettuce and ornamental cabbages add color and texture to this spring planting. Yep, you eat can it too, think salads.

Wall baskets filled with foliage

The foliage of these lime colored Coleus add a striking color to this annual border. The silver color of Dusty Millers foliage can either cool down a planting or bring more heat, It depends on how you use it.

Trailing, twisting, foliage mingles well at a garden party.

This is a trend that I'll be exploring more with this year mixing a lot of foliage plants together in no particular pattern and letting them weave in and out with each other.

This late fall planting makes the most of foliage combinations. Ornamental cabbages, lettuce, and preserved Eucalyptus branches.

When planting your garden this year don't forget the importance of foliage

There are lots of foliage plants I didn't even mention here.

Of course this is just a small sampling of foliage, just a tip of the iceberg.

We'll look at foliage again in a future post.