Who needs flowers…

when you can have fabulous colour from foliage? Young leaves especially can be quite bright, but don’t forget the stem colours and buds too. My little Acer shirasawanum ‘Auereum’ has fabulous pink and green colouration when the leaves first burst through, which turn bright golden/lime green later, and the dark green nettles behind provides a good contrast. The Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum Garnet’ has beautifully dark garnet foliage, and when planted next to Thymus lanuginosus (which has lovely deep pink bud and tiny hairy leaves), Saxifraga umbrosa (with it’s succulent bright green leaves, pink stems and pale pink flowers) that not only contrasts the colours but also the textures and leaf shapes. The golden oregano is looking splendid just now and the leaves of the Pieris Japonica ‘Forest flame’ have now faded from bright orange/red to golden. The young foliage on some roses can look very pretty too. ‘The Generous gardener’ has very bright young red/bronze leaves, while the red flowered rose (could be ‘Erotica’) has deep purple leaves. Astilbe ‘Fanal’ red has bright red stems, some green leaves and some bronze/purple leaves just before the red flower spikes appear. The Hebe’Pink paradise’ picks up the purple colour of the Heuchera (Rachel) in it’s stems and the pinks buds go well with it too. Another combination that I love for both colour and texture is in the corner by my ramp: The huge bronze leaves of the Rogersia podophylla along with young bronze of it’s neighbour, Osmunda regalis ‘Purpurascens’, and the green of the Polygonataum multiflorum. The pond too has a variety of leaf colours and forms. I would have liked to show you my Cotinus ‘Royal purple’ and Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack frost’ but they have only just been planted and they don’t look great yet. I would have loved to show you the ferny bronze foliage of my Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’ (bronze fennel, but something has been eating it!! I have never had this problem before but this year the fronds have not been allowed to grow bigger than an inch or two (showing my age now). Snails, slugs, mice, I don’t know but I have been getting rid of all slugs that I find on my morning slug patrols, and the black birds and thrushes are dealing with the snails. Do mice like fennel?