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COLORFUL LEAVES
BY
If you don’t
think flowers bloom long enough or you don’t want to deadhead to get
them, you can still have a fairly bright colored yard just by choosing
leaves! Their colors last
all summer and won’t fade after producing seed.
Since shade is
one of the more difficult areas to have color, Hosta has been hybridized
greatly in the last few years. A few years ago it was listed as the most
purchased plant in the
Leaves have an
enormous variation in their shape, size, thickness, color, and
variations. Some are fuzzy,
some thorny, some fragrant, some stink.
We can eat some, others are poisonous. There are people
constantly searching for plants with medicinal properties.
Just spend some time talking to a herb gardener and/or someone
who is a cook.
On the front
parking strip (also known as the “hell strip”) because of the hard
conditions, I have fuzzy ones.
Most are gray which almost says it doesn’t need a great deal of
water. Lambs Ears and some
of the others exist in dry areas.
Next to them are the tiny Pussy Toes, a Native of Nebraska
prairies. Next to them is Mexican Hair Grass which has a mop of blond
hair by fall that stands all winter.
I have a new plant I put in this Spring, called Horehound
(Marrubrium). It has a tiny green leaf with a white edge that originally
grew in stony fields of Europe and
Probably over
30 years old, in the backyard, is Palace Purple (Heuchera), a bronze red
about 24 inches tall. When I bought it, instructions said to keep it in
shade. However, I have another one out in front beside the driveway in
full sun. They both need
damp soil. I have never been impressed with the flowers so cut them off
early. But that purple color is so good! Now the plant scientists have
come out with Heuchera (Coral Bells) of every color. For me the lighter
the color (even white) the less likely they are to survive (even in the
shade). They have neat names like Chocolate Ruffles, Purple Petticoats,
Peachy Keen, and Color Flash. I try a new one each year along the edges
of my many paths.
The
Along a path in
back is a 12 to 18 inch golden leaf Talinum that looks “juicy”.
Thick stems for its heights carry clouds of tiny reddish blooms
well in the air. In the fall
they become beadlike, bronze orange jewels, the “Jewels of Oprah”. The
next spring masses of plants will come up where those jewels fall.
Another Talinum I have on the front parkway, also has upright
clusters of juicy stems in spring And follow in July and August with
bright purple dainty blooms
One of my
favorite beds has several clumps of Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa
sp.) one of the few grasses that likes shade and water.
The clumps are slow growing but elegant, with leaves 12 inches
long, lying thin, almost flat with a slight arch.
There are various color variations but I have the golden one. In
between clumps I put Caladium bulbs each spring, with their reds, pinks,
and white combinations. They must be dug in the fall, usually they are
smaller that when I planted them.
This means I have to get some new ones quite often. This spring
This gives you
a few of the colorful leaves for you garden. Will try to cover more in a
future article. Copyright 2011 |