We have Pam at Digging to thank for hosting this monthly celebration of foliage. This month I’m focusing on some of the leaves that impressed me during recent garden travels as well as examples from the back pages of AGO. If July is exposing bare earth in the garden, that’s a pretty good sign to give some enduring foliage a little more consideration.
Hostas and perilla in a Long Island, NY garden
Boxwood and Japanese forest grass, hakonechloa, enclose an empty pot in a Long Island, NY garden
Sasa veitchii against a low fence of rough-cut logs at Longhouse Reserve, Long Island, NY
The golden creeping jenny, Lysimachia nummularia, in a container contest at Longhouse Reserve
Bromeliads in the conservatory at Planting Fields Arboretum
Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
The parterre at the home garden of the owners of Landcraft Environments, Long Island, NY
A row of succulent-filled urns at Landcraft, Long Island, NY
Containers filled with Oxalis vulcanicola and succulents, garden designer Rebecca Sweet’s Bay Area garden
Dudleyas in a container in the Bay Area Testa-Vought garden designed by Bernard Trainor
Aloe striatula, reddish trunks of Arbutus ‘Marina’ behind a low wall in the Testa-Vought garden.
Dark-leaved ginger, Zingiber malaysianum, garden designer Dustin Gimbel’s home, Long Beach, California
Weeping Acacia pendula, Dustin Gimbel’s garden
Palms underplanted with mounds of mattress vine, Muehlenbeckia axillaris, Huntington Botanical Garden
Los Gatos, California garden designed by Jarrod Baumann
Los Gatos, California garden designed by Jarrod Baumann
I had no idea Perilla would grow in so much shade…good to know!
The heck with foliage, that serpentine wall just slays me. Want! Want!
Ooh, that line of succulent-filled urns — swoon! Also, I missed the little seashell planter at Rebecca’s. Well, all your pics are lovely examples of foliage done right. Thanks for sharing.
Perilla has begun forming forests in parts of my garden. Nice forests though.
You get the prize for the most well traveled foliage photog this month!
@Scott, see Sue’s comment. I didn’t know either.
@Hoov, that’s some rockwork, huh?
@Pam, that was a really spectacular lead in to their “tiki hut.” I took very few photos of this garden. Too busy absorbing.
@Sue, I figured. I remember pointing this out to you and your less than bowled over reaction. I never see perilla local.
I spotted Zingiber malaysianum in a container at the Miller Garden in Seattle yesterday, simply gorgeous! Dustin’s garden is going on my short list of places I hope to visit someday.
Your photos show that you don’t need flowers to make a garden interesting, there is so much contrasting foliage to play with. Your first photo is stunning, so cool, calm and I would like to sit beside it!
Serious foliage variety here, but the container contest of planted boxes is my favorite, since it’s so unusual and has a feel of motion. I like all the fodder you got from photos of your travels…I must do that.
Oh my goodness, that undulating stone wall is amazing! I love the dusky agaves filling it too.
Beautiful images – and a demonstration that massed plantings and repetition goes a long way to add bang to foliage compositions. I love the 2 compositions by Jarrod Bauman.
Oh my!!!! how wonderful. Love your shots from Landcraft. So different from views I took. Love seeing things through someone else’s lens. Really love that dark ginger and the undulating wall. Marvelous!
@Loree, he really has a gem of a garden, with new details to see every time I go.
@Pauline, so true. Perilla perishes for me!
@David, that was a favorite of the group I traveled with too. There was an unfortunate entry with dolls’ heads…that’s all I’ll say about that.
@Heather, for more of that great wall, there is a little movie on this garden here: http://agrowingobsession.com/?p=9823
@Kris, it really does, and I’m trying hard to remember to “drift.”
@Deanne, I’ll ask Dustin where he nabbed that ginger when I see him next.