Once again , it is the time of the month when Christina asks us to have a look at the foliage in the garden, rather than the flowers. It has been difficult to photograph the foliage without flowers creeping into the photos, there are so many of them, I did try to avoid them.
I like to go for combinations of different foliage, hosta with ferns and astilbe.
From the bottom, fern with pulmonaria, hellebore, and Gallium odoratum in the background with white flowers.
Astilbe with Rogersia.
The same Rogersia with Iris behind.
Ignore the flowers, the leaves of the Zantedeschia measure at least 21 inches, they are huge!
Fern and Iris pseudacorus variegata
A mass of foliage from Acanthus mollis.
Acanthus mollis in the foreground with Crocosmia Lucifer behind.
Cardoon contrasting with everything around it.
The yellow foliage of Fuchsia Genii
Santolina Lemon Fizz
Darmera peltata behind the scree.
This Zantedeschia is planted in the paving beside the scree, all the water drains here, but the leaves are only a tiny 7 inches compared to the ones in the bog.
Rosa glauca with Cotinus in the background.
I just love the ruffles on this fern, they catch the little light that there is in the woodland.
Hosta June looking happy on the rockery, but is that a bit of bindweed I see?
Hellebore with foliage of Hemerocallis.
Aeonium Zwartkop.
I feel that I’m lucky in having inherited so many shady and boggy areas, as there is such an amazing selection of wonderful foliage that can be used to form interest when flowers are in short supply. In contrast, I struggle in sunny areas to find interesting foliage!
Thanks Christina at My Hesperides Garden for getting us to look at our foliage, do pay her a visit to see foliage from around the world.
I love the way you combine shapes and texture with the different foliage plants. You certainly have plenty of foliage to enjoy in your lovely garden. One day, I would love to see it.
Thanks Chloris, I do love the way foliage can be just as interesting as the flowers, but in a different way.
Your foliage is wonderful Pauline. It also appears to be free of insects – no nibbling, no holes. So healthy !
I have plenty of insect nibbling Rosemarie, I was just careful not to show it!
Our front garden is planted with succulents – where I can get interesting foliage. Huge to tiny leaves. Grey and orange foliage among the greens. The arum leaves are a dramatic bonus wherever they grow in my garden – but they would prefer wet feet, if I could.
Succulents wouldn’t like our heavy soil Diana, they would just turn up their toes and die! I have tried so many plants with silver leaves and they have all ended up the same way unfortunately.
Your Hostas always look pristine Pauline, but I see from a a comment above that you are selective with your images, however it still means you have a lot of plants with no damage! It is lovely to hear you sing the praised of shade and damp when so many people complain there aren’t any plants that grow in that situation. For very hot positions only silver foliage works really well but your garden is possibly too damp for some of those to thrive. thanks for your contribution to GBFD, sorry I was a bit late posting.
A few hostas are full of holes Christina, mainly ones near the house, where I suppose the blackbirds and thrushes don’t come searching for slugs and snails. I had to grow to love all the shade that we have and our heavy soil, our last garden was very sunny and on sand, so I was able to grow lovely silvery plants there!
Your post has still not arrived with me, so I will have to pop over to you manually!
Foliage appreciation, this is such a lovely idea and you have really done it justice. I am going to set aside some time today to try and take foliage pictures in my garden. Your Zantedeschia is impressive at 21 inches! Hosta ‘June’ is just lovely and is one of my favourite hostas.
Over the years Denise, I have found that beautiful foliage grows very well in shade and boggy areas,there certainly are beautiful plants for every situation. I’m amazed at the size of the Zantedeschia leaves, they have never been this huge before, it must be all our rain!
Wonderful textures Pauline. I’ve come across Rogersia several times this week, something I’d not paid attention to before so was interested to see yours. Looks great with the Astilbe.
Rogersias are beautiful plants for boggy or damp areas Susie. Mine starts off with foliage a wonderful metallic bronze colour, but slowly change to green. This year the flowers are better than ever, it must be all our rain!
Not usually a big fan of Hostas, but I love the way you combine the big blue-green hosta leaves with the ferns.
Glad you like the combination Jason, so do I! I find that hostas contrast with lots of other plants so I use them a lot.
Your foliage is all positively glowing in these photos Pauline!
Must be all the rain Cathy, we have certainly had plenty recently!
The combinations are excellent and a shady green foliage garden filled with these pairings is the perfect alternative to sunny borders filled with flowers, so I guess you have the best of both worlds!
I really need to convince my friend to share his ‘June’, the foliage really is exceptional.
Thank you Frank, I also feel that the various shades of green give the eyes a rest from the colourful,flowery, sunny borders! The Hosta June that I showed is planted in quite a lot of sun, I have another in the shade and it’s nowhere near as eye catching.