Thursday, December 16, 2010

Foliage Follow-up: December 2010

On the sixteenth of each month, Digging sponsors the Foliage Follow-up to allow gardeners to show off the leafy aspects of their garden.  Freezing temperatures have only given my garden the briefest of kisses, thus much of my "fall" foliage is just now starting to show some color.

The high canopy of my trees tends to require one to tilt one's head back far to appreciate any fall color.  But when the sunlight catches the yellow leaves of the Black Cherry Tree, it is certainly worth the effort.

And the leaves of the Red Oak against a clear blue sky make a captivating sight.

In the understory, the lower shrubs try to add some small patches of fall color.  The leaves of the Chinese Indigo (Indigofera kirilowii) are fading to yellow.

As are those of the Goldmound Spirea (Spiraea japonica 'Goldmound') showing a very nice mixture of green and gold.

Philippine Violets (Barleria cristata) lower leaves are beginning to add a burgundy  touch to the garden.

And the newly acquired Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa) will hopefully grow taller and fill in as an understory tree, and provide an even larger swath of fall color.

Be sure to visit other Foliage Follow-up postings at Digging to see more of other garden's leafy sites.

4 comments:

  1. Wow! For a shady gardener, this is high season. I love your trees, esp. the red oak! It's so tall and full. What a treasure.

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  2. The sound of the red oak leaves in the breeze reminds me of growing up on the east coast where we had tons of trees and lots of fall color! That's a beautiful shot.

    I recently bought a Philippine Violet after seeing it on the Rock Rose blog...where do you have yours planted? What kind of sun does it get? I haven't planted mine yet as I'm not sure exactly what it can handle as far as sun goes...is yours in a totally shady spot?

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  3. Like Cat, I have been meaning to try Philippine violet in my shady garden, so I'll check back to see your reply. Your trees are definitely showing off this time of year, but the understory is nicely colored too.

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  4. Abbey: Thanks - the large trees were what originally attracted me to this lot. I can plant small shrubs and trees, but not sure I have the time to watch a young red oak sapling grow into a 4o foot giant.

    Whimsical & Pam: I have a few Philippine Violets scattered about, all in varying degrees of dappled shade. The more sun the plant gets, the more full it appears and the greater the number of blossoms (Rock Rose's gets quite a bit more sun and is much larger and prolific than mine - check out the last picture in here posting here; mine is just a stick in comparison).

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