How Kate / Beangenie managed to put up a post is beyond me, as we have had a few days of howling winds here – [...]]]>

Garden bloggers foliage day is hosted by Christina at My Hesperides Garden.  I am rather late for this meme and I have failed rather miserably at it too!

How Kate / Beangenie managed to put up a post is beyond me, as we have had a few days of howling winds here – non of my plants would stay still enough to be photographed.

Today was different – a lovely October day with blue sky and brilliant sunshine. A complete delight. Sadly, the majority of the pictures I took were quite rubbish.

Here on the coast – we do not get the fantastic Autumn colours that are round and about. Travel just two miles inland and it is a different story with the wonderful shades of red and gold that are Autumn. I suspect that it is because our trees tightly hang on to their leaves, refusing to let them change colour and then whoosh - along comes a big gale and all the leaves blow off without having “turned” very much.

When I first started blogging about the garden – I remember being rather sad that this garden didn’t seem to have very many flowers – it does now. but while I was looking at foliage to-day I believe that now-days my garden is mostly about texture and layers, which in October is stalks and seed-heads.

The leaves that are looking wonderful just now belong to the Ensete Maurelli (Red Abyssinian Banana)

This was a small plant that I bought in May at the Malvern Show. It has not been particularly happy this summer – but the hot weather we have had during the past 10 days or so have encouraged it to put on some growth and throw up a few new leaves. However – it will be coming into the house sometime over the next week as I suspect it will not like the Welsh Winters!

Also appreciating the warm weather we have had recently is the Canna “Durban”

This has also failed to thrive during the grey summer months, no flowers and very little leaf growth which is a shame.  It is 6 years old now – and I do lift it for the winter and put it in our unheated greenhouse. Its failure to thrive means that it has kept its leaves – my other cannas were shredded during the high winds experienced in the last 3 days.

So those are the “dramatic” foliage plants that are looking interesting in the garden to-day.  For me foliage is not always about drama, but can also be an understated backdrop for something;-

This is the small cornus capitata at the bottom of the garden and at this time of year – the healthy green leaves set off the red fruits beautifully.

Thanks go to Christina for this meme – and for those of you that like useless facts, Christina and I have known each other for;- ooooo about 25 years, give or take!