Monday, September 17, 2012

Foliage Follow-up, a day late and totally random!

Usually I try to have a kind of theme for my Foliage Follow-up posts. While Bloomday is a sort of cataloging of the flowers in my garden, Foliage Follow-up is a more selective post. Well this month not only am I a day late, I’m also without a theme…unless the theme could just be what caught my eye as I walked around my garden on this September day?

In the order you would encounter them walking with me through my garden...first Fatsia polycarpa 'Needham's Lace'...


I love this plant more everyday. I just hope I didn't plant it in too small of a space.

Bocconia frutescens (Tree Poppy), why oh why couldn't you be hardy!...

Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue'...I think this is it's third summer, and it will be the first year I don't cut it back in late fall. We'll see what that means come spring!

Aloe distans 'Jeweled Aloe'...this little plant looks like it might explode at any moment. It just gets plumper and plumper...

Grevillea victoriae, planted in the area where I removed the Rhody last spring. It is growing at an amazing pace, as are a few other things in that area. Spring is going to mean some heavy editing. I love how there are always different colored leaves on this plant...

Leucadendron argenteum...

I can't even tell you how much I love this one. It's leaves are as soft as my dogs ears (which are pretty damn soft) but are silver, they glow. While I would be ecstatic to live somewhere that I could grow this plant in the ground (tree size!) this little guy is the very next best thing.

Nothopanax delavayi, I bought this a couple of years back with only 2 or 3 leaves (at the Cistus "tough love" sale). It was not looking good, but was cheap. It's not planted in it's ideal place but it's still impressing me with it's growth. Maybe I need to try and find it a better home...

Aloe dorotheae, this plant has kept it's great color all summer...

Banksia serrata, I can't believe how much this plant has grown over the summer. It's even starting to branch!

Dioon edule, new leaves contrasting with old, lovely.

Clianthus puniceus, I bought this is a tiny little 4" container at Annie's in March. It's grown, a lot! There are only three "branches" though. I'm not sure if there should be more...

Euphorbia stygiana...pure Euphorbia beauty. My neighbor, Bridget, has grown this plant over many years and says it always looks good, no matter the season. With that recommendation, and my love for it, I guess I'll be giving it all the room it wants...

Albizia julibrissin ‘Summer Chocolate’ is rebounding nicely from it's crispy state in early August.

Okay now we've gone out to the front garden. I planted this Verbascum bombyciferum 'Arctic Summer' where one of my Echium that bloomed, and passed on, had been. I didn't really "plan" the fact that I can see it from the living room when I planted it, but I definitely love that I get to see it throughout my day...

Cordyline...I wish I could remember which one, or had the time to go dig through my pile of tags! It's not hardy here, that I know. Either it dies with the first hard frost, or I dig it up...

Finally we end with Rheum palmatum...

I bought this plant in June of 2011, and have mistreated it ever since. This is the best it's ever looked. I'm determined to leave it here and see just how big it can get. Bonus...I can also see the underside of the leaves from the living room!

So that's my Foliage Follow-up...yesterday (the 16th) was the official day for posting. Pam (Digging) is our hostess and on her blog you'll find links to other bloggers participating for the love of foliage.

32 comments:

  1. You are a true foliage fiend, Loree, with so many great plants whose leaves are the true stars, even if they flower. That Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue' is knocking my socks off, but so is that yellow-orange aloe!

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    1. Guilty as charged! I'll take a great leaf over a flower any day....

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  2. Agh! You and Peter always give me an education and an eyeful of plants to lust for when you post for Foliage Followup. So much that looks amazing that I've never heard of... Although I do have a Rheum palmatum, but its veins are nowhere near as red as yours.

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    1. You know Peter and I are in cahoots to drive you to the poor house...or at least give you lots to hunt for.

      I don't know how I've gotten so lucky with that Rheum, maybe after all that it's been through it's trying to let me know it is really happy where I've got it and it wants to stay there?

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  3. fun foliage follow-up! there are so many plants there that catch the eye! I love your melianthus and didn't know you had 'antonows blue,' its soo wonderful! I love all that colour with your aloe in its happy green pot. And the Euphorbia stygiana is really beautiful.

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    1. I think I've been lazy and just referred to my Melianthus as M. major and not typically thrown in the antonows blue'...but since I'm now kind of lusting after 'purple haze' I thought I'd better start to distinguish.

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    2. oh purple haze is beautiful too! you must get one! Mine just says melianthus major on the tag but it's soo blue and so I don't think it's the regular one. Unless they exhibit high amounts of variation. Which is also likely.

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  4. You've got the foliage show dialed IN! That Fatsia polycarpa 'Needham's Lace', is it as tough as fatsia japonica? Can it handle dry shade do you think?

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    1. In my very limited experience I would say yes. But I only had it in the ground through last winter...which was a piece of cake. You should talk to Sean at Cistus. That's where mine came from and he can answer your questions a lot better than I am able to!

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  5. Great foliage as always! Love your 'Needham's lace' Finally put mine in the ground & hope it gets as good looking as yours! About Bocconia frutescens, Oak leaf hydrangea is nearly as lovely of leaf and tough as nails...

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    1. I believe when Sean looked at it the other night he mentioned 12 ft tall...so it looks like soon I can be under-planting it!

      You know you're right about the Oak-leaf Hydrangea, but where's the fun in buying something hardy? And besides...there are the flowers to deal with too...

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  6. Tree Poppy...wonder why thry call it that...thank you so much for giving the names...do you know what zone this will grow? I love the summer chocolate too...

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    1. Well because it's a tree (in it's happy habitat) and in the poppy family. Winter hardiness only 25-30F...mine is in a container for winter protection.

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  7. I'd love them ALL! But where to put them?
    Guess I'll have to visit you here for updates. :)

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    1. Oh you can squeeze them in somewhere...trust me.

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  8. What wonderful foliage. Sometimes I need a little push to look at my foliage a little more closely - and with more apprciation.

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    1. But foliage is what makes a garden! Get out there and appreciate!

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  9. Pretty good theme: walking around your garden with an eye for foliage. I'm just about to do my FF post, and it will be way more scattershot than that.

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    1. I look forward to reading your post, and more importantly seeing your garden next month!

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  10. You are absolutely killing me! So many gorgeous things here I can't grow and I'm already maxed out with what I can bring in the house in the fall. That Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue' is out of this world and into the next.

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    1. I'm sorry, I know the feeling. When I see big beautiful Agaves in the ground on other blogs I want to move SO BAD!

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  11. You really have a nice variety of leaves and color. I'm a big fan of the hairs, spines and ferny foliage. These are nicely mixed together. Although some plants like Spurge should not be placed into the garden even if they are beautiful:)

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    1. I rarely have issues with Spurge in my garden, probably because I trim the spent flowers before they start popping seeds. Last May when I visited the Huntington Gardens with my husbands family they all stood in amazement listening to a Euphorbia do it's snap-crackle-pop impersonation. So fun!

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  12. You've got fine taste in foliage Loree :) The Fatsia 'Needham's Lace' is such a special plant isn't it? And would love to get hold of Nothopanax delavayi here!

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    1. I would imagine a great deal of these are also growing in your garden?

      When you guys finally make it to Portland we'll let Cistus know you're coming and you can get all the plants you want there (like the Nothopanax delavayi) and they can arrange for the proper paperwork for you to get them home! How 'bout next summer?

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  13. Everything looks wonderful, Loree. I'm thinking Leucadendron argenteum is really much to soft to be dangerous.

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    1. oh but Grace there is the other side of dangerous...and that's falling in love with plants that aren't hardy in your zone and a little persnickety about their winter growing conditions. That Leucadendron argenteum very much fits the bill.

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  14. Great variety, not to mention the chartreuse and orange pots. And if that one plant near the beginning overgrows the space, you probably know that is really a place for a new, smaller plant, right?

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    1. Oh yes...new, smaller...and hopefully I can relocate it. Because it's just too special to loose!

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  15. I will especially be interested in seeing if Cordyline terminalis will make it in your garden. If it does I will be snatching up some choice colored ones from the houseplant broker next time I head into SF. I would not have thought it could take more than the lightest chill or fail but you definately have changed my mind on many plants!
    I had a big Silver Tree in my garden and like others I have seen, they go gangbusters for years, then croak right in the middle of summer. No idea why. Great post! Loved the post as always!

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    1. Is that what it is? (the Cordy) I bought it expecting that it would just be an annual. I needed a dark contrast in that spot and it worked wonderfully. We'll see...

      Really? Your Silver Tree died! That would be painful...so sorry!

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    2. I think the silver tree decieds that, one day, you look at it with a bit too much satisfaction, and show it off with a bit too much smugness and it doesn't like it so it teaches you a lesson. If you ignore it then it is happy. LOL!

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