Unsung Garden Hero: Fantastic Foliage

Plant color in the garden is never just about flowers. Stems, berries, seed pods give amazing diversity, but most of all it's about foliage.

Foliage is often overlooked—always in the chorus line, never the soloist. We use it as foil to flowers or background to borders. But let's bring foliage plants to the fore and see how foliage alone creates a green tapestry.

Foliage plants have advantages: less seasonal than flowering plants, generally low maintenance, many make superb ground cover. Above all, huge range of shapes, sizes, colors.

Get ideas from planting schemes that don't focus on flowers.

A Tapestry of Green

This wonderful shade planting shows how foliage alone gives great color, creating a green tapestry. Leaf shapes and colors provide interest—shapes almost as varied as flowers. While seldom bright (colorful exceptions exist), foliage creates a satisfying, sustaining landscape.

Brilliant Color

Few plants have such brilliant foliage as Coleus blumei in this border. In temperate climes, used as seasonal bedding or accent, grown from seed each spring or overwintered in greenhouse.

If Coleus upkeep is too much, try spectacular grass Imperata cylindrica 'Red Baron'. Planted in blocks, breathtaking. Not easiest—needs full sun in moist soil. Color starts at shoot tips in spring, gradually suffuses through plant. Leaves change with seasons and growth stages—some better young, others at leaf fall.

Subtle Palettes

Here a subtle planting of glaucous green gives a restful picture. Limited plant choice prevents border from becoming too busy—crucial for foliage plants in smaller spaces.

Perennials also provide subtle planting. Brunnera great for moist shade. Large heart-shaped leaves make good ground cover; delicate sprays of forget-me-not-like flowers, but foliage is the real winner. This variety Brunnera macrophylla 'Silver Wings' has variegated leaves with silver overlay, contrasting spiky grasses for tropical effect.

Low Maintenance

Foliage-only planting widely adopted in contemporary designs. Main benefits: low maintenance for year-round color evergreens.

Contemporary Style

Contemporary planting at its best in this roof garden. Precise planting shows restrictive, repetitive planting works best. Most leaves have differing colors on upper/lower surfaces—green on top, gray beneath—so wind-prone gardens get ever-changing kaleidoscope.

Lasting Color

Average leaf lasts longer than flower. Truest of evergreens, leaves remain 1–3 years. Three layers of foliage present a wall of greens—emerald Thuja occidentalis, golden young foliage of trimmed Buxus, shieldlike variegated Hostas.

Shadow Effects

Foliage of tightly clipped Buxus made more impressive by shadows cast against each other and on building wall. Shadows as almost fourth dimension—worth thinking about when designing planting schemes. Shadows bring out texture, especially on small-leaved plants.

Subtle Contrast

Amazing sweep of Pachysandra terminalis and Buxus shows why sole use of foliage plants can be dramatic. Both flower, but design emphasis is wonderful contrast of subtle leaf color and texture.

Bolder Statements

Other foliage contrasts need not be subtle. Black grass Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' against golden sweet flag Acorus gramineus 'Ogon' makes a real statement. Be bolder with plant selection—contrasting color, texture, leaf size and shape.

Mass Planting

Love these succulents. Shiny foliage surface adds another dimension to evergreen planting. With one species, intricate differences in foliage color from deep cabbage green to delicious pink-tinged edging.

Perhaps this green wall is the true green tapestry. Vertical jungle shows how diverse foliage is—and how we may not need so many flowers.

More:
Garden Design Essentials: Texture
11 Inspiring Vertical Gardens