It’s happening all around the garden…new growth is appearing on the evergreen ferns, shrubs and trees. Plants that disappeared for the winter are making a return. A new gardening season is upon us!
Some of my favorite foliage to appear each spring belongs to Syneilesis aconitifolia, the Shredded Umbrella Plant.
Looking at those tiny fuzzy leaves there’s little indication of the tall, smooth, green leaves they’ll quickly become (lots of photos here).
Veratrum Californicum makes a bold appearance, and I’m thrilled to see the plant is finally bulking up.
A note about these photos — I am sorry if they’re blurry. I’ve been battling a monster flu that’s been making the rounds here in Portland. Everything is blurry to me right now so I have no way of knowing if these are in focus!
The new growth on Adiantum-venustum, Himalayan maidenhair fern, is oddly golden in comparison to the mature green fronds . And it seems impervious to the heavy rain which has beaten down the older foliage underneath.
Adiantum-venustum
When I took this photo I thought it was of emerging foliage on the Daphniphyllum himalaense ssp macropodum ‘Variegated’ — now I see those might be flowers — either way it’s beautiful.
The new growth on the Sambucus ‘Black Lace’ seems extra dark this year, you know that makes me happy.
Lots of bright new foliage on Eriobotrya-japonica. aka Loquat.
I think this is the year I finally need to get in there and limb up the bottom of this thing so it can start behaving like the tree it is meant to be (plus that means new planting space!).
This one shocked me. It seems so early for the Macleaya cordata (Plume poppy) to be up.
It was hard to cut back the Melianthus villosus, since I don’t know a lot about the growth habits of this plant. However the neighbors cat managed to do a number on it, followed by snow and ice. Luckily all seems forgiven!
This combo makes my heart sing! Persicaria runcinata ‘Purple Majesty’ along with Rhododendron ‘Ebony Pearl’ and Fatsia polycarpa ‘Needhams Lace’.
Euphorbia polychroma looks all fresh and spring-like. I can’t wait for the bright yellow flowers.
Setting up a time-lapse video on the Podophyllum delavayi as it emerges would be great fun I think. And maybe inspire a new science-fiction movie?
This amazes me. Its March 16th and look at this bunch of Podophyllum pleianthum…
I’ll wrap this photo essay on spring foliage with a look at Schefflera brevipedunculata — it’s the little praying hands that get me. A close up would have been nice but not possible with the blurry eye thing…
I hope you’re all experiencing the wonders of spring in your garden! With this post I’m joining up with Pam and her blog Digging. On the 16th of each month, the day after Garden Blogger’s Bloomday, she reminds us of the importance foliage plays in our gardens — with her Foliage Follow-up meme.