More foliage highlights

Last week I assembled photos for a foliage post but I ended up appending those featuring succulents to a post primarily focused on my north side garden.  As I've been house-bound due to rainy weather recently, I thought I'd go ahead and share the other foliage photos I collected.  As it stands, the ground's too soggy to do much work in the garden right now.

I grow this Ageratum corymbosum for its purple and green foliage as much as for the lavender flowers that appear in early spring

The lower leaves of Begonia luxurians didn't appreciated the windy and dry conditions we had in December and early January but the upper leaves still show why it's called the palm leaf begonia

Beschorneria yuccoides 'Flamingo Glow', planted in March 2022, hasn't done much but I haven't given up on it.  To be fair, the nearby Grevillea lanigera 'Mt Tamboritha'  almost swallowed it up at one point.

Only a couple of Coprosmas have done really well in my garden.  Coprosma 'Evening Glow' is one of them, shown here playing nicely off Phormium 'Maori Queen'.

Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' grows much taller than 'Evening Glow'.  My only complaint is that, as it gets taller, it develops bare legs (partially hidden in this case by Aeoniums at its base).

Drimia maritima didn't produce any blooms last year and I was afraid critters might have damaged the bulbs but the foliage of all 5 bulbs is up this year.  There are signs of scratches and nibbling on the foliage, though.  I'm tempted to relocate one or more bulbs to the upper level of the garden to see if they fare better there.

This is a Ginkgo tree across the street in a neighbor's front yard.  My Ginkgo's leaves turned crispy brown and fell in late summer but I'm hopeful that, as my tree matures, it'll shed pools of yellow leaves like this too.

I cut Melianthus major to the ground every fall but it reliably springs back, bearing its lovely serrated leaves

Given how dry it's been overall this winter, I'm amazed by how much moss we have.  These photos of the back slope were taken before the 2 recent rainstorms.  There's more in the upper level of the garden and between paving stones too.

This is the bromeliad Nidularium wittrockia leopardinum, one of my favorites even though its leaf edges are vicious

One of my favorite Peperomias, P. angulata 'Funky Frog'  (Who comes up with these names?)

I picked up this small coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Flamethrower Chili Pepper') in early fall in the interest of seeing how it'd do in this bed.  I only bought one plant as I thought cooler temperatures might quickly kill it off but it's made a great little groundcover, nicely complementing Aeonium 'Mardi Gras'.

This coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Limewire') is out of control but unbothered by the colder weather.  Protection from wind and sun seems to be the key in keeping coleus alive over the winter months here.  I cut it back after taking this shot to reveal more of Fuchsia 'Voodoo'.

Someday Protea 'Pink Ice' will produce flowers but, even without them, the shrub makes a statement

I think Santolina virens 'Lemon Fizz' should be called "Lime Fizz".  My Santolinas have gotten scruffy in the past after a couple of years but I followed published guidance and gave these a haircut in the fall with great results.

This Trachelospermum is one of many that came with the garden.  I'd assumed it was T. jasminoides but a reader commented that the red color displayed by these suggest it's T. asiaticum.

Prior to last Saturday, our rain total for the water year-to-date (calculated from October 1st) was 3.01 inches.  With the two storms that passed through Saturday and Monday it reached 5.38 inches.  That's not great by comparison to last year's numbers but maybe there's at least a chance of getting something like "normal" rainfall here this year.  "Normal" rainfall would mean getting at least another nine inches by early April and the current pace of our rainstorms makes that goal somewhat questionable.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party