Lead up the Garden Path

Lovely new foliage is appearing on all the trees and shrubs now, in just a couple of weeks, bare trees have turned to such beautiful shades  of green. The fresh greens of the hedges in all our lanes is such a delicate shade of green and there are so many different shades in the garden too. I’ll start with a long shot taken from just outside the back door, in this view, there are hardly any flowers, but I hope it still looks interesting.

Philadelphus coronarius Aureus in the back garden,  is making a big splash of colour with its new leaves. This has grown quite a bit sideways and must be pruned back as it is getting in the way of the lawn mower, but it will be pruned once it has flowered.

A tapestry effect formed by Dicentra, Hemerocallis, Rhododendron, Milleum effusum Aureum and Pulmonaria.

A purple leaved Heuchera with Stipa arundinacea. Also contrasting with the Heuchera is the foliage of an allium.

Another heuchera with another clump of Stipa arundinacea contrasting with the blue/grey foliage of narcissus.

Lovely new growth on Pieris variegata contrasts beautifully with the old variegated leaves, who needs flowers when the new leaves are as beautiful as this?

Having really stunning bracts protecting the new leaves is Acer Osakazuki. The bracts are the colour that the leaves turn in the autumn and the flowers which you can see drooping down are the same colour. A few years ago I planted some seed and now have two tiny trees which turn the same colour as their parent in the autumn.

Stipa arundinacea contrasting with  foliage to the right, left and behind. This seeds freely in this bed and some have to be removed  each year otherwise it would take over.

More Dicentra, this time with a Martagon Lily and at the front is the foliage and flower bud of Meconopsis cambrica, the Welsh Poppy.

Another Meconopsis, this time M. Lingholm, the beautiful blue poppy which should be flowering in a few weeks.  The foliage is so hairy you can stroke it!

The foliage of Acanthus mollis has been fantastic all winter with us not having a frost. Usually it collapses into an untidy heap, but this year has just kept on growing.

Pittosporum Tom Thumb with a ladybird. The new growth on Tom Thumb starts off green but soon turns dark purple. This variety stays small, it grows to about two and a half feet high.

Lovely new foliage of Lysimachia ephemerum emerges this beautiful colour but soon turns green.

Such a beautiful plant, Brunnera Jack Frost always features in Foliage Day and Bloom Day. The leaves are so beautiful and stay like this till autumn.

With the morning light shining through it, I think the fern Matteuccia struthiopteris looks beautiful. This fern really likes the moist soil in the bog garden.

Astilbe, saxifrage and veronica mingling together to make a pleasing pattern.

Asplenium scolopendrium is slowly unfurling, looking almost snake like.  This fern puts itself around the garden and seems very happy here, contrasting with other leaf shapes.

Colourful foliage of Spirea  japonica Goldflame stays for a long while but eventually changes to pale green.

Pieris Forest Flame, still a small bush but if it grows much more it will need moving.

I seem to remember that this tree is a cross between a Copper Beech and an English Oak to mark the wedding of Winston Churchill and his american bride Clemantine. As you can see, the leaves are the colour of the copper beech but the shape of an oak leaf. The pretty flowers are hanging down and later fruit is formed which look like beech nuts, but they seem to be sterile unfortunately. Can anyone help with its name?

We can still see the box balls, they will need cutting back before they get hidden by all the foliage of the roses round them. About twenty years ago they were just tiny cuttings, now they are so solid you could almost sit on them.

A few silvers together, the main one is a Cardoon, on the right is some foliage of an Hemerocallis, to the left is a geranium, looking rather silver. In the front is a lily with double feverfew.

Lambs Ear or Stachys are next to more hemerocallis and a wild Arum seems to have got in on the act, must remember to move it as they are everywhere.

Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow moves around a bit in the border by the field, You can tell that I haven’t weeded this border yet -apologies!

Lemon balm seeds around everywhere so I have to be strict with it, here it is nestling up to knapweed, Centaurea, which has lovely deep blue flowers in the summer, they look nice together. We quite often keep the lemon balm under control by making a lemon tea from it or some lemon ice cream, it’s good when you can eat your enemies!

In the border by the back door is Libertia peregrinans with Fuchsia Genii behind, they are almost the same colour but there is a contrast in the shapes. There is also some Ophiopogon and  Festuca glauca.

At the other side of Fuchsia Genii is a clump of Colchicums. At the moment the leaves are very lush, but when the flowers come in the autumn, the leaves have all died away, hence their common name of Naked Ladies.

Pittosporum Irene Patterson has very pretty leaves variegated with white, some leaves are almost all white. It is flowering at the moment with its chocolate brown/maroon flowers. This forms quite a large shrub.

Heuchera with Millium effusum aureum and Narcissus foliage looking quite pretty together at the moment, it might be another matter when the narcissus leaves start to die back!

Looking oh, so delicate in the woodland is the hardy maidenhair fern, Adiantum venustum. This pushes up through a carpet of foliage of Cyclamen hederifolium. When the fronds first appear they are brown but soon change to green with black stalks.

Just starting to unfurl its leaves is a Cotinus bush, it is planted next to a Euonymous which has climbed up the hedge behind it and is now at least 10ft tall. The Cotinus gets cut back every few years to keep its shape, plus also the leaves are better when it has had the chop!

Euphorbia melliferra is flowering at the moment wafting honey perfume over the garden when the wind is in the right direction, especially in the evenings. The foliage is evergreen here, so even when the flowers are over and the flowering stems have been cut back, the bush still has presence.

Climbing the wall beside the dining room window is Actintidia kolomikta, a cousin of the Kiwi Fruit. The variegation is just starting to appear, leaves are partly splashed with white or pink, the white will eventually turn pink, but while it has both colours, it is very pretty.

I will finish with another long view, this time through the Rhododendron bed to the back garden. There is a path way through this bed to help with weeding etc, so I quite often look up and this is what I see. Apart from just 2 pathetic flowers on the rhodo bush, this view is just different shades of green. In the background on the right is a yew bush, then to the left by the archway to the woodland is an Acer with feathery foliage, next to Philadelphus coronarius aureus. Right at the top you can see the new fresh leaves coming on all the chestnut trees, the oaks and ash have still to wake up from their winter sleep.

The 22nd of the month is time for us all to look at and appreciate the foliage in our gardens.  Christina at My Hesperides Garden is good enough to host this meme each month, please pay her a visit to see foliage in gardens around the world.