New England is famous for spectacular foliar color through autumn. Such color is merely seasonal though, and almost exclusive to deciduous vegetation. With few exceptions, its color range is limited to variations of yellow, orange, red or brown. It happens thousands of miles away, and is difficult to replicate on such a grand scale with locally minimal chill.
For smaller scale home gardens, there are many options for foliar color at any time of the year, regardless of chill. Some are deciduous. Most are evergreen. Colorful foliage might exhibit variegation or monochromatic coloration. Variegation might involve stripes, spots, borders, veining, or any combination of divergent colors. Some might entail a few colors.
Besides autumnal yellow, orange, red or brown, foliage can be pink, purple, blue or gray. Variegation can feature any of these colors, as well as white. The size and form of plants with foliar color ranges from small annuals and perennials to vines, shrubbery and trees. A few of such plants that are deciduous might change to different colors through autumn.
Various Hosta, Euonymus, Coprosma, Pittosporum, Hedera and Bougainvillea are some of the more popular plants with white or yellow variegation. New Zealand flax is popular for bronze, brown, gold or pink variegation. Canna can display evenly bronze or purplish foliage, white patches on green foliage, or neat yellow and pink stripes of varying widths.
Purple leaf plum and some cultivars of smoke tree, beech Eastern redbud and Japanese maple have the best purplish foliage. Other cultivars of smoke tree, as well as arborvitae, juniper, Monterey cypress and honeylocust, generate impressively yellow foliage. Agave and blue spruce contribute soft blue. Coleus impresses with various color combinations.
Whether deciduous or evergreen, most colorful foliage displays its best color while fresh and new in spring. For some, color fades through summer. Junipers that are gold through spring may be plain green by summer, particularly in dry conditions. Although light colors and variegation are appealing within shady situations, shade can inhibit such coloration.
They were impossible to miss. They came at a weird time too.
No, this is not a Paris daisy. It is a common euryops daisy, Euryops pectinatus. It is obviously related, but the flowers are bright yellow rather than clear white with yellow centers, and the foliage is darker green. It is more resilient, so became more common in landscapes as quickly as mow, blow and go ‘gardeners’ replaced real gardeners who actually know something of horticulture. There is certainly nothing wrong with it. It is just cliché.
Pluots, plumcots, apriums and peacharines! Who comes up with this stuff?! Aren’t good old fashioned plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines good enough? Who decides that these weird hybrids are somehow better than their parents? Some of them are actually quite weird, or downright ugly. Several do not even look like they would taste good. It may be an acquired taste; but I have all the good taste that I need without acquiring any more.
Not just any nuts, but precisely the sort that I recently discussed with a colleague, as I explained how they do not grow here. The nuts that is. The big thicket forming shrubs that are supposed to produce them not only grow here, but are a relatively common native. I just rarely see even a single nut on them. I sort of wondered how they mange to procreate with such rare seeds that invariably get taken by unconcerned rodents or birds.
Tony Tomeo 