19 January 2010

Finally following up with my Foliage Followup


As many other garden bloggers can tell you, our good friend and fellow blogger Pam @Digging came up with the delightful idea for a Foliage Followup to follow Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Since I was fashionably late with the bloom day post, it only goes without saying that I'd be behind the eightball with this post as well.

Let's start with this splendid leaf, shall we? Oh, what can that be from? Confused? You'll understand in a few minutes.


I don't have a huge number of really interesting-leafed plants indoors, but I did pick out a few that tend to particularly please me. The cyclamens are the best, with their various patterns of green and silver-appliqued leaves and their lacy edges. I like the first photo (top lefthand) because it also caught a bit of rainbow from a crystal snowflake hanging in the window, during a rare episode of sunlight on Sunday. So pleased was I to see sunlight that I spent a good deal of time just playing with the light on leaves, which looked variously like roadmaps or weird chlorophyll landscapes. My other indoor faves include a lovely succulent, several variegated hoyas with a LOT of rosy colour in their foliage, and an intriguing syngonium that came in a container stuffed with three other plant species and pleaded with me to rescue it. Oh, and the coolly dramatic posturing of my Cycad, which I adore for its prehistoric moodiness.


Outside, there's quite a bit more going on. When I created this montage, the program would not cooperate and put the rhododendron leaf photos beside one another. They're on the same shrub, an eight foot tall beast; the leaves that were basking in sunlight had relaxed and were looking almost springlike, while those in shadow were remaining sullenly, chillily rolled up in protest of winter. I know how they feel.

There are only a couple of deciduous trees/shrubs included; one is a fragrant viburnum, I think Burkwood, which has kept a few of its leaves; the other is my small copper beech, which hangs onto its leaves obsessively until spring. The other non-conifer offering isn't foliage, actually, but the flowerheads of Miscanthus 'Huron Sunrise', which I just included because I'm a rebel sometimes.

I've mentioned before that I really love conifers, particularly those with bright, interesting foliage; included here are a few of my favourites. Clockwise, from top righthand corner: Chamaecyparis 'Heatherbun';
bottom right, Thuja 'Rheingold';
bottom left,
Thuja 'Sherwood Frost', with its ivory tips;
second from top left, another ancient, fascinating plant, Thujopsis dolobrata, the only member of the genus Thujopsis.
Centre: One of my favourites just because I like to say its name: Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Plumosa Aurea Nana'.

Now, about that leaf at the top?

This is my answer to my ongoing trouble with hollyhocksp: I bought this sculpture of a hollyhock plant a few years ago, and it stands in the back garden, oblivious to all assaults of weather. It may not be botanically exact, but it doesn't die off from winter rot, or come out pink when it's supposed to be yellow-flowered, or any of the myriad other ways hollyhocks have sought to thwart me. Although I guess the oxidizing of its leaves give new meaning to 'hollyhock leaf rust', don't they?

post written by jodi (bloomingwriter)

33 comments:

  1. Great foliage collection, love your hollyhock solution, the leaf rust gives it more character lol.

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  2. I need one of those hollyhock sculptures Jodi ~ kind of like saying "in your face snow!" Love it.
    Lots of cool foliage you have going on too. I missed both of these postings (bloom day and foliage) so hats off to you. Better late than never.

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  3. Hi Jodi~~ Your hollyhock sculpture is WAY COOL. Perfect for the garden with wicked winters. I like conifers too and your collage illustrates the array of textures and colors within this family. Very nice.

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  4. I probably caught your post (via the feed) before you had a chance to leave a comment with your link on my post, but I hope you will so others can find your FFU post (doesn't that acronym sound dirty?).

    I love all your colorful conifers. There are so few we can use in Austin. You have a nice collection indoors too. Thanks for participating in Foliage Follow-Up, Jodi.

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  5. My goodness Jodi, you have quite a bit of foliage outside. I am glad you named your viburnum that has leaves. I have one just like it and I didn't remember its name. My Fragrant viburnam keeps its leaves all winter and it folds up like your rhodie when it gets too cold. Nice foliage inside too.

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  6. Wonderful photo groupings, Jodi! It makes me sad to see the rhodies all curled up, but I can tell the temp outside just looking at them out the window. Is it a two sweater trip out or three, depending on the curl. Love all the chamaes, but Heatherbun is one I have coveted. Love the little ones. And love your sculpture, and that particular form of rust on a hollyhock! :-)
    Frances

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  7. Playing comment and post catch up yet again and love your faux hollyhock. Great idea. All the foliage is lovely and the blooms and four years of blogging? Congratulations on keeping us all informed, entertained and amused on occasion. I hope you make it to Buffalo so we can share in person gardening tales.

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  8. Dear Jodi, I am always enthralled by your postings. I could not hope to match your digital montage; my best efforts are cut and stick jobs with scissors and glue. My results are definitely not showable whereas yours are imaginative, creative and lovely to look at.

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  9. Nice! The Chamaecyparis in the middle almost looks like the blooms on goldenrod. The iron hollyhock if very neat!

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  10. I loved the hollyhock sculpture in your backyard. Its quite unique :) I am still waiting for our hollyhock to bloom here this winter....:) :)

    The ornamental Foliage looks good to me. Btw I finally managed to buy a pair of red poinsettia's during a flower show this wkend. Keeping my fingers crossed this time so that they last :):) Your tips on them was most helpful.

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  11. Super lovely Jodi! What a great idea..so cool! your foliage mosaic is super gorgeous..terrific work!I enjoyed yrou post very much! Beautiful!
    Kiki~

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  12. You ain't fakin', a whole lotta foliage goin' on! And another new plant (Thujopsis) -- thanks, Jodi.

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  13. I like your hollyhock. They are favorites of mine but I can't grow them--not without a ton of pesticide which I don't use.
    Marnie

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  14. LOL, when I saw that first photo, I thought it was pretty cool -- the leaves almost look "rusty". :-) Love the hollyhock sculpture! The rest of your foliage is pretty spectacular, too.

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  15. OK, I will join the crowd on this, your hollyhock is very cool!!!!
    Great pictures of the conifers, I should invest in some, then there will at least be something to look at besides snow!

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  16. the hollyhock sculpture is wonderful. I like your succulent too. I have a small collection of different varieties inside and outside. The ones in the garden are all under snow of course.

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  17. I'm a foliage fanatic too, Jodi. I adore cyclamens, the Clydesdales of houseplants that seem to love me (re-blooming from season to season) as much as I love them. (BTW ~ great collages :)

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  18. I am loving that sculpture, bet the sluggies don't get anywhere near it on a hot day. LOL.

    Jen

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  19. I resonated with your mention of the Rhododendron. I tend to use the Rhodie at the front door as a visual thermometer in the morning. Tightly rolled you better put a warm coat on...

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  20. Lovely collages of your foliage Jodi. I love the contrast of indoors and out. I so understand your hollyhock dismay! lol... love your solution... at least the rust is even. ;>)

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  21. You have some nice looking foliage. Love that light colored sedum. And your hollyhock sculpture I kept looking at thinking hmmmmmm . . . before I got to where you said what it was. I have a lot of soggy slimy yuks.

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  22. Hehee Jodi I like that one about the Hollyhock rust - thats a good one!

    Well for being up there in the far north where my relatives refuse to stay over the winter you certainly still have some foliage. I love the little conifer you mentioned - I'm useless at spelling its name plus its too long to remember but the its the nana one along with the Reingold. Cyclamen foliage is just great - I love the marble effect on some of the leaves- its very attractive even without the flowers.

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  23. Cycads.... Yeah!!! It's all good, but cycads are special.
    Stormy stormy weather here, and I want to virtually curl up with your covey of kitties until the rain has passed, even scary Toby Soprano fits the bill ;-)

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  24. I do love your hollyhock. People here have agave made out of the same material as your hollyhock ;-) I have been thinking of getting one...no pruning, no water, no frost damage....

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  25. I'm a gardener/writer in Michigan, and found your blog through another kindred spirit. Thanks for sharing the lovely view of your garden!

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  26. There are many wonderful colours and patterns in your indoor and outdoor garden. I love the sculpture of the Hollyhock. When I saw the leaves first I thought it was a real plant with wintry looking leaves. I have only 2 indoor plants one is a Orchid and one is a Bromeliad I received for my 70th birthday last year. They will wander outside as well when their time has run out. I love to look at your cats, especially love the picture of Rowdy Blackcat!

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  27. I love the Conifers, I've decided that I need more of them in my garden and the Thuja 'Rheingold' looks like it would fit right in here.
    I've never seen anything like your Hollyhock, it's really cool.

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  28. The luminescence of those leaf pictures, wonderful Jodi. Any germinination happening on the windowsils at present? You make me laugh talking about pink coming up yellow...ah well, thats life! I really enjoy the blog, it makes gardening NS meaningful, helps me understand how it is here,a seriously interesting blog.
    The Gardener

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  29. Your leaf picture collages are wonderful! The snow makes me a bit cold but your kitty pics on the side warm me up! They are such cuties...

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  30. You have more foliage than I would have expected in a Nova Scotia winter. LOVED the copper hollyhocks! That's the only kind we could grow in sweltering Central Texas.

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  31. Jodi,
    Conifers continue to be one of my favorites, as well. I love your Chamaecyparis 'Heatherbun' and Thuja 'Rheingold' - wonderful winter color. Your hollyhock statue is beautiful.

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  32. I love that hollyhock, Jodi! It does look good with a little rust:) Lots of lovely foliage, but I especially like the lighting--sunlight, what's that? Three to four days of non-stop grayness here, and I may sit under a grow light myself:)

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  33. That sculpture is the only hollyhock I would consider as well. Though the hollyhock seedlings I keep pulling out don't seem to be aware of my distaste for their scabby-looking foliage.

    Gorgeous pictures as ALWAYS.

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