With my interest in plants becoming more and more foliage based there are few flowers in the garden at the moment. However, the garden is still full of color and texture from the various evergreens. I adore the Melianthus major; it hasn’t stopped performing all year. Grown from seed probably three years ago this plant is around 4ft high now. I have two other plants all grown from seed at the same time but they are much smaller and in shadier situations so it shows how much the plant benefits from some direct sunshine.
And you can’t go wrong with Fatsia japonica for evergreen interest. This plant is probably around 7ft tall and is smothered in flowers at the moment. I see so many Fatsias planted out in full sun looking ill and more yellow than green; despite their exotic looks they need shade to do well.
A plant that is increasingly growing on me is Buddleja salviafolia. A new acquisition this year which seems to like its location on the back bank. The leaves are gloriously soft and velvety a little like Stachys byzantina. It will be interesting to see how it fairs through the winter.
It wouldn’t be a Foliage Follow Up post without the inclusion of some ferns. The two I have chosen are deciduous so will probably disappear in the next couple of weeks. Above is Athryium niponicum, the most elegant of ferns. This variety is probably ‘Burgundy Lace’. Below is an unknown fern although I suspect it is another Athryium as the foliage shape seems very similar to the Athryium niponicum. I like the warm buttery tones it takes on in the Autumn which until recently were picking on up on the autumn colouring of the Prunus kojo-no-mai which it is planted by.
Another plant that delivers in more season than one is the Kirengshoma palmata whose leaves also take on a buttery tone as they fade.
Getting to the other end of the size range to the Fatsia we have cyclamens which are really winning me over. I find myself buying them for their foliage rather than the flowers which are to be honest either white or a shade of pink. But who could not fall for the marbling on the leaves above. I am pretty sure this is Cyclamen hederifolium but this assumption is based purely on the fact that it is an autumn flowering cyclamen. Below is another one and you can see how much the leaves can differ.
I have recently discovered Cyclamen graecum which generally have darker green leaves and the one below was bought because of the darkness of the leaves. It is still a young plant but hopefully in a year or two it will be stunning.
For more foliage follow up posts visit Pam at Digging – a favorite haunt of mine on a gray damp Autumn day.
