Plants In The Foliage Garden

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Following a request from Dottydaisy to list the plants in this photo, I thought it would be easier to put them into a blog

This section was planted four years ago, and the idea was to only use plants with coloured or variegated foliage.

So, starting on the left:
Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’ , the golden hop, spilling from a nearby arch
Rhododendron bureavii (rusty foliage), with phormium ‘Jester’ behind it, and ajuga reptans ‘Purpurea’ growing over the path
Behind the phormium are zenobia pulverulenta (looking rather green but it actually has blue-green foliage), and rosa glauca
The small patch of purple on the extreme left belongs to persicaria microcephala ‘Reg Dragon’
In the back left corner is sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’, with choisya ‘Sundance’ beside it (there were three of these, but one drowned last year and has been removed)
Low down is the glaucous foliage of hosta ‘Halcyon’, next the purple foliage of berberis thunbergii ‘Rose Glow’
Behind, clinging to the fence, is schizophragma hydrangeoides ‘Moonlight’, again with a blue-green leaf
The back right corner has cornus alternifolia ‘Argentea’, with the brown weigela ‘Naomi Campbell’ and Maureen looking out above catalpa bignonioides ‘Aurea’, the golden-leaved form of the Indian bean tree – this is cut back hard in spring to produce bigger leaves
The conifers on the extreme right are chamaecyparis lawsoniana ’Pelt’s Blue’ (which were recommended by GOY member Bluespruce as only reaching eight feet tall)
Podpocarpus ‘Young Rusty’ again looks green, but has brown-green foliage, and behind it the silver artemisia ‘Powis Castle’. To the right of that is hydrangea macrophylla ‘Tricolor’, the foliage of which has two shades of green, along with splashes of white. You can just about make out the stems of cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ which was a winter casualty
In front is berberis thunbergii ‘Admiration’, with the tall stems belonging to crocosmia ‘Saracen’ which ought to be browny green but aren’t
Acaena ‘Blue Haze’ is making a mat over the path, with geranium ‘Dusky Rose’ nearer the camera
In the small pots are milium effusum ‘Aureum’, Bowles Golden grass (front left), holcus mollis ‘Albovariegatus’ (back left), festuca ‘Elijah Blue’ (back right), and carex berggrenii (front right), with astelia nervosa ‘Silver Spear’ in the big pot in the middle
There are other things in there which you can’t see in the photo including acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, out of shot on the left, ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ growing in extremely dry shade under next door’s conifer, prunus x cistena behind the weigela, and fuschsia magellanica ‘Versicolor’ out of shot near the hydrangea. There are also cyclamen, which are currently resting, and other herbaceous plants which grow among the shrubs.

For an interesting comparison, here is the same area taken three years ago

• 13 Jul, 2013
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