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Plants In The Foliage Garden

AndrewR

By AndrewR

12 comments


Following a request from Dottydaisy to list the plants in this photo, I thought it would be easier to put them into a blog

This section was planted four years ago, and the idea was to only use plants with coloured or variegated foliage.

So, starting on the left:
Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’ , the golden hop, spilling from a nearby arch
Rhododendron bureavii (rusty foliage), with phormium ‘Jester’ behind it, and ajuga reptans ‘Purpurea’ growing over the path
Behind the phormium are zenobia pulverulenta (looking rather green but it actually has blue-green foliage), and rosa glauca
The small patch of purple on the extreme left belongs to persicaria microcephala ‘Reg Dragon’
In the back left corner is sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, with choisya ‘Sundance’ beside it (there were three of these, but one drowned last year and has been removed)
Low down is the glaucous foliage of hosta ‘Halcyon’, next the purple foliage of berberis thunbergii ‘Rose Glow’
Behind, clinging to the fence, is schizophragma hydrangeoides ‘Moonlight’, again with a blue-green leaf
The back right corner has cornus alternifolia ‘Argentea’, with the brown weigela ‘Naomi Campbell’ and Maureen looking out above catalpa bignonioides ‘Aurea’, the golden-leaved form of the Indian bean tree – this is cut back hard in spring to produce bigger leaves
The conifers on the extreme right are chamaecyparis lawsoniana ’Pelt’s Blue’ (which were recommended by GOY member Bluespruce as only reaching eight feet tall)
Podpocarpus ‘Young Rusty’ again looks green, but has brown-green foliage, and behind it the silver artemisia ‘Powis Castle’. To the right of that is hydrangea macrophylla ‘Tricolor’, the foliage of which has two shades of green, along with splashes of white. You can just about make out the stems of cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ which was a winter casualty
In front is berberis thunbergii ‘Admiration’, with the tall stems belonging to crocosmia ‘Saracen’ which ought to be browny green but aren’t
Acaena ‘Blue Haze’ is making a mat over the path, with geranium ‘Dusky Rose’ nearer the camera
In the small pots are milium effusum ‘Aureum’, Bowles Golden grass (front left), holcus mollis ‘Albovariegatus’ (back left), festuca ‘Elijah Blue’ (back right), and carex berggrenii (front right), with astelia nervosa ‘Silver Spear’ in the big pot in the middle
There are other things in there which you can’t see in the photo including acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, out of shot on the left, ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ growing in extremely dry shade under next door’s conifer, prunus x cistena behind the weigela, and fuschsia magellanica ‘Versicolor’ out of shot near the hydrangea. There are also cyclamen, which are currently resting, and other herbaceous plants which grow among the shrubs.

For an interesting comparison, here is the same area taken three years ago

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Comments

 

I love foliage and leaves more than flowers.

13 Jul, 2013

 

Thanks for this, very informative and a great way to get all year round colour.

13 Jul, 2013

 

I've lost count on the amount of times I scrolled back up to look Andrew - it's beautiful and what a real difference a few years make.
A useful blog for someone like me who doesn't have an 'eye' for the over all size of a plant as it matures.
Thanks for posting this - I now have an idea of what some of my plants will look like in a few years time.

13 Jul, 2013

 

Scottish - a really useful book is the RHS Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants. Not only does it list their height, but also their width at maturity. Not a cheap tome, but well worth the price if you're a serious gardener

14 Jul, 2013

 

Thanks for the recommendation Andrew - I've a few books but not that one - for the Christmas list I think :)
Although I do pay attention of the labels - it's the visualisation that troubles me - but I'm getting better at it as my experience grows!

14 Jul, 2013

 

Andrewr i need to get that book as i plant things too close together !i'm so impatient i just want an instant full garden !!

18 Jul, 2013

 

Thanks Andrew, a fine list of plants, and some excellent choices, I should imagine it is quite stunning, pity we do not have panorama photos on here, will you take your Astelia in, ours was to go in the ground, at the moment it is filling the pot very quickly......

19 Jul, 2013

 

No, It's in a very large pot, so I'll just fleece it and keep my fingers crossed

20 Jul, 2013

 

Ok, I lost our last one due to the wet, but the position was wrong, and the soil too heavy.

22 Jul, 2013

 

I found a copy of RHS Encyclopaedia of plants in Oxfam for £4. Plants are never out of date.

16 Feb, 2015

 

What a great find. I'm sure you'll get lots of use from it.

16 Feb, 2015

 

Oxfam are very good for books Andrew. They send books to one local branch.
Find it and you will save a lot of money to spend on your garden. I did.

18 Feb, 2015

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