Foliage Day, March 2015

The Wearing of the Green

An apt phrase for March in Texas if there ever was one, with apologies to revolutionaries everywhere.  No doubt this ditty was sung in the past week somewhere in Austin, Texas, but my focus is on verdant foliage in my spring (officially!) garden. With thanks to Christina of Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day, spring has most definitely sprung in my home town. Let’s take a quick stroll through this Texas spring garden, shall we?

The columbines are flowering, but their leaves are lush during fall, through winter and into spring bloom time.  This little one is paired with a passalong daylily leaf, emerged from winter dormancy, which won’t bloom until early summer.

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And this group of columbines leads in a nice foliage vignette which includes a potted American Century PlantAgave americana and Cast Iron PlantAspidistra elatior.

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I grow only the native Texas columbines, the Aquilegia chrysantha and the Aquilegia canadensis because others will fry to a crisp in the Texas summer heat.

Engelmann Daisy or Cutleaf Daisy, Engelmannia peristenia, sports deeply lobed fuzzy, gray-green foliage.

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The bright yellow blooms will accompany the foliage later in the season.

Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, is attractive  year round,

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…and the foliage makes an excellent ground cover.  I planted Lyreleaf as a groundcover in the area where my honeybee hives are located. The plants withstand moderate foot traffic and we can place our beekeeping equipment on the rosettes with little negative impact, as long as the Lyreleaf are not blooming or setting seed.

IMGP6354.new And once the blooms open, the bees don’t need to travel far for gathering nectar and pollen.

Glorious in burgundy rimmed foliage are the leaves of the Martha Gonzales Rose.IMGP6220.new

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There are currently only a couple of roses open, but I love the color of the tender, new leaves.

Golden Groundsel, Packera obovata, is in full blooming mode, but its foliage demonstrates a bit of a split-personality.  Most of the year, the plant acts as a low ground cover with ovate, serrated leaves hugging the ground.  As the bloom stalks shoot upward to their flowering ends, the leaves along the stalk form lance-shaped and fern-like.IMGP6222.new

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It’s a foliage twofer.

One of my favorite plants for shade/part-shade is the White Yarrow, Achillea millefolium. It’s always lush, elegant and beautifully spring-green.IMGP6224.new

I know many people suffer oak allergies and I am sympathetic to their sniffling and stuffed-headed misery, but the pollen tassels on the Shumard Oak, Quercus shumardii, are golden and gorgeous.

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I look forward to seeing them every year.IMGP6227.new

This Shumard branch shows off its new chartreuse leaves,

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…accessorized with a tassel skirt, amidst a background full of the stunning native small tree, Mountain LaurelSophora secundiflora. The dark green leaves of the Laurel are punctuated by clusters of the signature fragrant, deep purple blooms.  Nothing speaks early spring in Austin like that pairing!

What foliage do you sing about this bonny March?  Have a look at foliage from gardens everywhere by visiting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day and happy spring to Northern Hemisphere gardeners and a good autumn to gardeners in the Southern Hemisphere .

Foliage Day, February 2015

Here we are on the cusp of spring–some of us closer to that cusp than others, but we in the Northern Hemisphere are all headed in the same direction and whooping it up as buds are swelling and leaves are greening.  Those in the Southern Hemisphere–happy almost autumn to you! Regardless are where the gardens are planted, thanks to Christina of Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day set aside for profiling and parading foliage–for this gardener, of the late-ish winter garden.

Blackberries.  Yum.  I can’t wait to make pie and cobbler, but also to pick the berries right off this vine in May. For now though, I simply appreciate the burgundy blush that winter’s chill left on some of the prickly leaves of the Rosborough Blackberry vine (Rubus, sp.), ‘Brazos’.

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Opposite in the color and texture spectrum of the deeply colored and thorny foliage of Blackberry is this Heartleaf Skullcap, Scutellaria ovata ssp. bracteata.IMGP5204.new

This winter spreading, spring and summer blooming perennial, sports subtle gray-green leaves which are soft to the touch.

The morning sun backlit this pairing of Bamboo Muhly, Muhlenbergia dumosa  and Cast Iron Plant, Aspidistra elatior.

IMGP5210.new I love the effect.

In the same garden, just down the pathway,  I also really like this combination of Cast Iron Plant (at top), Sparkler Sedge, Carex phyllocephala ‘Sparkler’, and Iris straps (unknown variety).IMGP5304.new

All are evergreen and hardy, water wise, and lovely plants year-round.

And this fun combo includes tawny, crispy about-to-be-pruned-to-the-ground, Inland Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium, graceful Giant Liriope or LilyturfLiriope muscari, snazzy Variegated Flax LilyDianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’, and lacy and lovely summer-blooming Yarrow, Achillea millefolium.  IMGP5307.new

Oh, and also fallen oak leaves which STILL need raking up.

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There’s more foliage gorgeousness to see from beautiful gardens at Creating my own garden of the Hesperides.  Check it out!

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Foliage Follow-Up, November 2014: The Non-Freeze

My gardens are slowing down in preparation for winter, but haven’t experience the frosty nip that was promised earlier in the week. Thank goodness!  I’m not quite ready to give in to the dark season.  Not Just Yet.

Focusing on mid-November foliage, I’m joining with Pam at Digging for Foliage Follow-Up.

In one corner of my garden with dappled light most of the day and some direct sun off and on, are a couple of favorite foliage vignettes.  One such is of Iris straps, Blue MistflowerConoclinium coelestinum,  and cobalt-blue containerized succulent Ghost Plant, Graptopetalum paraguayense.

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Planted alongside that mix are several  Dianella or Variegated Flax Lily, Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’. IMGP1865.new

I love the wide, grass-like foliage of Dianella with its snazzy white stripes down the sides.IMGP2017.new

When a freeze was predicted this week, I covered the Dianella, though my concerns were unwarranted.  Last winter, I covered all of my Dianella each time the temperature sank into the ’20s, especially for extended periods. They soldiered through winter like the garden champs they are and thrived in our long, hot summer. Dianella nicely combine with Iris and Soft-leaf Yucca straps,IMGP1864.new

…as well as with these snuggly Love-Critters.

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Ghost Plant is unkillable:  it goes for months without water, isn’t fazed by freezes (or at least mine haven’t been), can re-grow if a stem is broken.

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My kinda plant.

Maiden GrassMiscanthus sinensis ‘Adagio’ is in its glory now.IMGP1868.new

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The beautiful seed heads reflect the sun as it briefly peeked through our mostly cloudy week.

Toasty-seeded Inland Sea OatsChasmanthium latifolium and the green swath of Cast Iron Plant,  Aspidistra elatior are a striking pair.

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Added to this scene is Purple HeartSetcreasea pallida, which dramatizes that story a bit.

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Big MuhlyMuhlenbergia lindheimeri and Soft-leaf YuccaYucca recurvifolia  are cool weather troopers.IMGP2399.new

Graceful while also lending structure to the garden, these two are beautiful companions throughout the year, hot or cold.

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I took this photo of  evergreen Yarrow, Achillea millefolium and Chile Pequin, Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum,  just before what was supposed to be a freezing night.  I figured the fruits wouldn’t survive the plunging temperatures and wanted to record them for posterity.IMGP2529.new

I’m happy to report that the fruits are still available for dining by interested birds.

I love the twisty-curvy foliage of Corkscrew RushJuncus effusus spiralis, silhouetted over a pair of Mexican FeathergrassNassella tenuissima.

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Finally, the leaf change is beginning on my Red Oak, Quercus coccinea.

IMGP2641.new Here in Central Texas, our tree foliage color change occurs later than that of our northern kin, but beautiful and appropriate for our climate and region. There will be more of this in the weeks to come.

Digging hosts Foliage Follow-Up–drop in for a look at November foliage fanfare.