Foliage Follow-Up, June 2015

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Tina

It’s been awhile since I’ve participated in showing off foliage after bragging about blooms, but today I’m glad to join in with Pam at Digging for Foliage Follow-Up. Additionally, June 15-21 is Pollinator Week and along with fab foliage, we’ll take a look at a few of the many pollinators that happily and diligently work for free in the garden.

Many of my native Texas perennials shoot forth in foliage growth during wet years and this year is no exception to that general rule. The leaves of Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus, are wide and lush and a bit holey, due to munching insects abundant this spring and summer.

I don’t really mind the chunks taken out because those eating machines do little damage to the plant as a whole. The Turk’s Cap flowers are good for pollinators like this hummingbird who happily nectared last fall in preparation for migration.

Turk’s Cap foliage complements other interesting foliage, like the slender, bright leaves of Flame Acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii,

…and the gray, aromatic leaves of Heartleaf Skullcap, Scutellaria ovata.

Both Flame Acanthus and Heartleaf Skullcap are excellent pollinator plants.

Oops! That damselfly visiting the Flame Acanthus is a beneficial insect in the garden, but not a pollinator.

On the other hand, Ms. Honeybee, nectaring on the Skullcap, is certainly a pollinator worth cheering on.

The sandpaper-rough, dark foliage of the perennial Goldeneye, Viguiera dentata, pairs nicely with the soft, ruffly foliage of Globe Mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua.

Goldeneye flowers,

…and Globemallow flowers,

…attract all kinds of pollinators and both are favored by native bees.

Mountain Laurel, Sophora secundiflora, is a beautiful tree year-round. Waxy, softly rounded, evergreen foliage perfectly augments the lusciously drooping clusters of spring flowers, which are visited by many kinds of pollinators.

After the blooms have ended, the foliage is attractive–really attractive.

Mountain Laurel blooms are stunning, but the abundant and verdant foliage, as well as the graceful form of this tree is its selling point for me.

Mountain Laurel is a winner–in the urban garden or viewing on a hike in the Texas Hill Country.

Finally, this ‘Sparkler’, Carex phyllocephala, has no value to pollinators that I’m aware of.

But I’ve welcomed it and two more to my gardens. It’s cheery–downright sparkly–evergreen and white, as well as drought tolerant. What more could you ask from a foliage-driven plant?

What are your leafy greens (or maybe purples? reds?) doing this June? Show them off and then pop over to Digging for a look at foliage shared by other gardeners.

Foliage Day, March 2015

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Tina

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.

And this group of columbines leads in a nice foliage vignette which includes a potted American Century Plant, Agave americana and Cast Iron Plant, Aspidistra elatior.

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.

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

Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, is attractive year round,

…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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I look forward to seeing them every year.

This Shumard branch shows off its new chartreuse leaves,

…accessorized with a tassel skirt, amidst a background full of the stunning native small tree, Mountain Laurel, Sophora 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 .