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Ornamental Foliage Augments Spring Color

Variegation contrasts nicely with darker foliage.

Spring bloom is the most colorful color in the garden here. It is not the only color though. Some deciduous foliage will provide color at the opposite end of the year. Bark can add a bit of color, particularly while deciduous trees defoliate for winter. So can colorful fruit. Furthermore, ornamental foliage, both deciduous and evergreen, can contribute color.

Ornamental foliage is not the same as deciduous foliage that is colorful only for autumn. The distinction is that it is colorful from the beginning. Generally, it is most colorful while fresh during spring. If both deciduous and colorful for autumn, it changes from one color scheme to another. If evergreen, it may remain more or less colorful throughout the year.

Ornamental foliage of this sort displays various colors and patterns. Variant colors might be yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, pink, bronze, white or gray. They can be variegation such as stripes, margins, blotches, spots, patterns or blushes. Alternatively, they can be monochromatic. Most fade to some degree during the warm and dry weather of summer.

The colors of ornamental foliage are not as vibrant as floral color. They are not intended to attract pollinators. In fact, most of such color serves no practical purpose. Blue, gray or white foliage mostly originates from high altitudes or harsh desert climates. It reflects a bit of excessive sunlight to avert scorch. Most other ornamental foliage is mere mutation.

In the wild, such mutant foliage is generally a disadvantage. White portions of variegated leaves contain less chlorophyll. Consequently, they can not photosynthesize as much as green portions. Such foliage only perpetuates unnaturally within cultivation because it is appealing. Some mutant ornamental foliage can revert to more vigorous greener growth.

Ornamental foliage can be annual, perennial or woody. New Zealand flax, canna, coleus and caladium are the most variably colorful. Coprosma and various pittosporum are a bit more limited. Euonymus, hosta and ivy display white or yellow variegation. Smoke tree, redbud and some maples are surprisingly diverse. Agave blue spruce and some junipers can contribute gray and blue. There are too many options to mention.

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Euonymus fortunei

Euonymus fortunei can be shrubby or vining.

Like ivy, Euonymus fortunei creeps along the ground while juvenile, then climbs as a clinging vine where it finds support, and finally produces shrubby adult growth that can bloom and produce seed when it reaches the top of the support. Most cultivars (cultivated varieties) are juvenile plants that make good small scale ground cover that will eventually climb and mature to adulthood if not contained. As vines, they work nicely on concrete walls, but should not be allowed to climb wooden walls or painted surfaces that they can damage with their clinging rootlets. Cultivars that are grown from cuttings of adult growth are strictly shrubby.

The finely serrated, paired leaves are about three quarters to two inches long and about a quarter to one inch wide. The most popular cultivars of Euonymus fortunei that are grown for their variegated or yellow foliage do not grow too aggressively or get too large. Those with green, unvariegated foliage can slowly but eventually climb more than three stories high. Docile variegated plants can sometimes revert to unvariegated and become more aggressive. (Reversion is mutation to a more genetically stable state.)

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Variegated Foliage Adds Color And Brightens Shade

Variegation can be neatly symmetrical, or strikingly irregular like this.

With spider plant, croton, pothos, dracaena and the various ficus, variegated foliage seems to be very popular among house plants. Remember the wildly colorful variegations of coleus when it was a popular houseplant in the 1970’s? Variegation is most commonly white or some sort of yellow; yet can be just about any color.

In the landscape, variegated shade tolerant plants brighten shady spots even without bloom. Variegated acanthus, Japanese aralia, andromeda, hydrangea, aucuba and angels’ trumpet show up nicely, especially when they can contrast with the darker green of other plants; although andromeda and hydrangea do not bloom as well in darker shade. Variegated periwinkle and English ivy are nice ground covers, (but potentially invasive).

Variegated trees, like tulip tree and certain maples, stay smaller than their unvariegated relatives, so can be proportionate to large atriums that could use their brighter foliage. Some of the variegated pittosporums likewise function like the unvariegated forms used for informal hedges, but work better in tighter spots.

Even if there is no need to brighten areas that are already sunny, variegated holly, lily-of-the-Nile, bougainvillea, pampas grass and silverberry add nice contrast where there is an abundance of rich green foliage. (However, some people who grow variegated pampas grass are not too impressed by it.) New Zealand flax presently happens to be one of the most popular variegated perennials, with many different personalities of color to choose from. Variegated varieties of several specie of agave and yucca are striking big perennials for the sunniest and even inhospitably hot spots, as long as they are kept at a safe distance. (Many have dangerous spines and teeth!)

Some variegated plants, particularly New Zealand flax, andromeda, Pittosporum tobira and the various maples, try to produce unvariegated mutant growth that grows faster and bigger, and overwhelms the desirable variegated parts. It is therefore important to watch for and prune out unvariegated growth as it appears. For New Zealand flax, this involves diligent digging and splitting to removed unvariegated shoots from the variegated parent plants.

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Foliar Color Goes Beyond Green

Foliar color can exceed floral color.

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.

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Coprosma X kirkii

Variegated Coprosma X kirkii has very glossy light green leaves with white margins that look great cascading over retaining walls.

Coprosmas are so innately undemanding and complaisant to all sorts of conditions, that some types self sow and thrive untended in riparian or coastal environments. If they were more aggressive, they would likely naturalize (proliferate as if native) where the soil does not get too dry through summer. With such glossy foliage that looks like plastic, they might be appealing weeds.

Coprosma X kirkii is a resilient ground cover that mostly stays less than two feet deep and five feet wide, although overgrown plants can get three feet deep. Varieties with colorful or variegated foliage probably stay too small to be reliable ground cover over large areas, but make nice edging, or can cascade nicely from raised planters or urns.

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‘Marjorie Channon’ Pittosporum

Finely textured and variegated foliage is the main attribute of ‘Marjorie Channon’ pittosporum. The small leaves are only slightly undulate.

Pittosporum tenuifolium (or nigricans) has been employed as a resilient shorn or unshorn hedge for decades. The more contemporary cultivar ‘Marjorie Channon’ though, is grown more for variegated foliage. The light green leaves have creamy white borders and undulate margins. Mature unshorn shrubs get only eight feet high and broad, and are not quite as dense as the straight species. They may not be so useful as large hedging, but can provide striking contrast and depth to deep green foliage.

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Variegation And Other Foliar Color

Bright white variegation brightens shady spots.

Foliar color is not limited to autumn. Some deciduous plants display colorful foliage from spring to autumn. Then, some of these change color for autumn. Some evergreen plants display colorful foliage through the year. Variegation of foliage can be more colorful than associated bloom. So can unvariegated bronze, purple, red, yellow, blue or gray foliage.

All sorts of plants exhibit variegation or other variations of color of their foliage. They can be annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, trees, or houseplants. Although many are popular primarily because of their foliage, some provide appealing bloom as well. Blue and gray foliage is a natural advantage in harsh climates. Other colors are selections of mutations. 

Because variegation deprives portions of foliar surface area of the chlorophyll needed to perform photosynthesis, it inhibits growth. This can be an advantage for plants that grow too vigorously otherwise. However, many variegated plants occasionally develop growth that is not variegated. If not removed, it can overwhelm and displace desired variegation. 

New Zealand flax, dracaena palm (Cordyline australis), gold dust plant, euonymus, coral bells and hosta are some of the many plants that are more familiar with colored foliage or variegation than without. If simple unvariegated coleus, croton or caladium are available, they must be notably rare. Blue spruce is always blue. Purple leaf plum is always purple. 

Although both gold and gray junipers are popular, the most common are green. Bronzed and variegated cannas are likewise not quite as popular as those with simple lush green foliage. Pittosporum tobira is so much more vigorous without variegation than with it, that the two distinct types of this same species perform different functions within landscapes.

Golden honeylocust supposedly produces lighter shade than darker green honeylocust. ‘Ruby Lace’, a bronze cultivar of honeylocust, supposedly produces faintly darker shade. Some golden or variegated foliage is more susceptible to scorch; although sun exposure enhances foliar color and variegation. Fresh new spring growth gets the best foliar color, but is likely to fade through summer.

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Foliage Can Provide Color Too

There is considerable variety in variegation.

Flowers get all the credit for color. They certainly are the most colorful features in the garden, as well as the most fragrant. However, foliage can do so much more than simply provide green. It can be hued with yellow, red, blue, purple, bronze, gray, or variegated with white or yellow. Plants with colorful foliage can range in size and function from small annuals and perennials to shrubbery, vines and even trees.

Hydrangea, hosta, ivy, English holly and various pittosporum are some of the more popular plants for white variegation, and are often variegated with yellow. Euonymus can conversely be variegated with white, but is usually variegated with yellow. New Zealand flax can be variegated with pink, bronze, brown or gold. Box elder is a good sized deciduous tree that can be variegated with white, or alternatively frosted uniformly with gold as new foliage emerges in spring. There is even a variety that has slightly purplish or smoky colored new foliage.

Silver mountain gum, silver Mediterranean fan palm, lamb’s ears, artemesia and the various dusty millers have remarkably silvery foliage. Silver mountain gum can grow into a mid-sized tree with a stout trunk. Lamb’s ears is a low perennial. Olive trees, some junipers and the various lavenders have gray foliage. Colorado blue spruce and some agaves have striking blue color.

Various purple leaf plums and Japanese maples are famous for their purplish foliage. Smoke tree and some beech have even darker purplish foliage. Some New Zealand flax and cannas can be just as purple or comparably bronze.

Actually, New Zealand flax and cannas, as well as junipers known for blue or gray foliage, can alternatively be bright yellow. Golden arborvitae, golden honeylocust and golden Monterey cypress really stand out nicely against darker green.

Colorful foliage tends to be most colorful as it develops freshly in spring, and tends to fade somewhat through summer. Gold junipers can actually fade to basic green by autumn. Shade inhibits most types of coloration, but can show off variegation better. There really is so much variety with colorful foliage that it is impossible to generalize.

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Pittosporum tobira

There are too many other plants known as ‘mock orange’ for Pittosporum tobira to still go by that name, which is why it is more commonly known by its Latin name, or simply as ‘tobira’. The pleasantly fragrant flowers do not smell too much like those of orange anyway. The glossy and dark green leaves are like those of some hollies, without the distinctive prickly points. ‘Variegata’ has lighter green foliage variegated with white, but does not bloom as much. Dwarf cultivars, both variegated and unvariegatd, bloom even less. ‘Variegata’ has a tendency to occasionally produce stems of green (unvariegated) foliage that grow more vigorously and can overwhelm the original variegated growth if not pruned out. Common green Pittosporum tobira can grow as a small tree in the partial shade of larger trees, but is more often maintained as dense shrubbery less than ten feet tall. It makes a nice dense hedge in full sun, but unfortunately does not bloom if shorn regularly. All cultivars are resilient to drought once established.

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Mediterranean Spurge

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Peculiar bloom tops handsomely colorful foliage.

Seed for this species is all or nothing. The straight species of Mediterranean spurge, Euphorbia characias, seeds abundantly. It can actually be a bit too prolific. However, fancier and extensively bred cultivars either produce no viable seed, or produce only a few seed that are not true to type. Such seed grows into plants that resemble their ancestral species more than their direct parents.

Foliage of common Mediterranean spurge is slightly grayish green. Cultivars exhibit more distinctly grayish, bluish, yellowish or variegated foliage. Appealingly weird and generally greenish floral trusses bloom on top of upwardly arching stems about now. Mature plants are less than four feet tall and broad, with neatly rounded form. They slowly lean toward sunlight as they grow and bloom.

After old stems get cut to the ground in autumn, new stems develop through winter, to repeat the process. Established plants are surprisingly resilient to harsh exposure, warmth, wind and lapses of irrigation. They just dislike shade and constant dampness. However, even the healthiest live for only five to eight years. Those that toss seed can provide their own replacements before they go.