While on my morning wander, I couldn’t help but notice all the different shades of green that are in the garden and the countyside at the moment. In spite of not having any rain during April until yesterday and today, there are so many new leaves on the trees and shrubs, they are putting out their new leaves even though we have had frost every night so far this month and for most of the month have had a freezing cold wind each day too. What a strange month it has been, flowers have come and gone but seem to have lasted much longer in the cold weather . I have just taken a few long views to show all the different colours of foliage.
Looking across the rose garden with the box balls and looking out to the wider coutryside, I was amazed at all the different greens, golds and purple, you wouldn’t think we have had a drought!
Looking across the circular lawn to the Box Chinese ginger jar I can see that the jar will soon need clipping, which will change it from golden to dark green. It is a shame that it will lose its colour but like me it is putting on too much weight and needs to slim down!
The circular lawn which has the purple elder, Sambucus Black Lace in the distance, soon this will be covered with pink flowers, but in the mean time it contrasts with all the different greens around it.
Looking through to the bog garden at the right of the circular lawn, the contrast of the Amelanchier tree is pronounced against the fresh green of the Viburnum plicatum Mariesii in front and the dark green of the conifer.
Still by the circular lawn, but this time on the lawn by the field looking across to the woodland in the distance. So many different greens showing here.
Looking through from the circular lawn to the woodland at the back, I just couldn’t get the camera to focus on my pot with the Ophiopogon, but hopefully you can see all the different foliage on the rockery and the further border.
A closer view of the rockery showing the contrast with the golden foliage of Philadephus coronarius Aureus in the background.
While I have been replanting I have added some coloured foliage to this part of the rockery that will be with me all year, a dwarf purple Berberis and a purple Heuchera, after all foliage is with us much longer than flowers, so let’s enjoy it!
Looking the other way on the rockery you can see that there aren’t many spaces left to fill, but I must make sure I have some late flowering plants for later in the year, I can’t have it just flowering in the springtime.
Acer Osakazuki is now covered with lovely delicate spring leaves and red flowers which can be seen if you get close enough, these really show up against the yew behind it. In the autumn the leaves of the Acer turn a really bright red, the same colour as the tiny flowers are now, hard to believe at the moment.
I’ll finish with the view that you have seen many times before, which shows all the wonderful colours of the foliage at the moment.
Usually I concentrate on close ups of the flowers which are so important to us gardeners, they are beautiful, but I think just as beautiful is the spring foliage that we are enjoying at the moment. Hopefully we will get a few more spring showers to keep it all looking so fresh, just at night time of course, although I feel Bank holiday Monday is going to be a washout!
Thanks for highlighting the different shades of green, Pauline – as you say, green can so easily be overlooked in the garden but of course it is integral to the overall effect. I know parts of it are out of focus, but I really like that view from the circular lawn to the woodkand beyond
It would have been a nice photo Cathy if only the camera had done what I wanted! I forgot to include the new foliage of the Horse Chestnuts and the Oaks, they are a very yellow green at the moment, I’m still waiting for all the Ash to come into leaf. Doing this post reminded me that I miss doing our foliage posts.
Beautiful shades of green Pauline. The last month must have put gardens and gardens under a lot of stress. We’ve had similar weather too although fortunately staying above freezing most nights. There has been some rain over recent days and it looks as if the Bank Holiday is going to live up to form for mist of the country.
I think we had every different kind of weather thrown at us last month Anna, what surprised me most was the horizontal snow one morning! The rain over the last couple of days has been most welcome, by the plants and me, but tomorrow is going to be dreadful, batten down the hatches!
Your photos really do show the value of foliage Pauline, and not only its many shades of green but other colours too. It was also lovely to have a tour of the garden too and see how beautifully designed it is.
Thank you Denise, I have to admit though that the garden wasn’t designed all in one go, it was done a bit at a time and hopefully joined seamlessly together over the years, it took 13 yrs altogetherto do it all! All the time while planting though, foliage was so important, colour, shape and texture of leaves make it all more interesting I think.