Bold Foliage

Hosta cv.
(HOSS-tuh)

This was a nice gold leaf Hosta I saw this summer. The leaves had kind of fresh look to them. With foresight I took a picture of the tag so it could be identified later but it came out blurry. Taking pictures of plant tags often requires the camera to back focus and that only happens when you don’t want it to. So this Hosta will remain nameless. It would probably help if I could remember where I took the picture.

Boldly colored foliage plants have always been a favorite of mine. It can be easy to go overboard but often a few well placed drifts can really light up the garden. This next groundcover often lights up the garden with grey green colored light, which under the right lighting conditions looks fantastic. ‘White Nancy’ is one of the best Lamium cultivars that can be readily available for use. If happy it makes a nice patch and is an awesome garden accent. The second Lamium is ‘Purple Dragon”. It seems to be getting some traction in the market and is getting more popular. The fine purple edge is very subtle but handsome. The flowers are a darker shade then most.

Spotted Dead Nettle

Lamium maculatum 'White Nancy'

(LAY-mee-um) (mak-yuh-LAH-tum)

Lamium maculatum 'Purple Dragon'

Hosta

Hosta cv.
(HOSS-tuh)

This Hosta has a couple of the qualities that I look for when selecting them, it has boldly colored foliage with good crinkling. The flowers are nice with a slightly purple buds opening to a white flower. They are nicely fragrant and seem to last a long time. It is also kind of slow growing, which negates frequent dividing. Most seasons we cut the flowers off the Hostas around the garden because they are not very showy but this variety seems to look good and is allowed to flower.

Tropical Waterlily

Tropical Waterlily
Nymphaea
(NIM-fee-uh)

Here are two different tropical water lilies that were blooming in two different places. The pink one was at in the outdoor lily pond at The Kampong in Coconut Grove, Florida. It was our first visit to this public garden and it is really a spectacular place. In some ways it is almost the perfect Florida estate to me (only missing a swimming pool). With a large house and lot, deep water anchorage, water views and a super plant collection it pretty much sums up everything you would want to enjoy the southern Florida lifestyle. If you read the linked Wikipedia article you will see that it was the home of Dr. David Fairchild who among other things was responsible for introducing around 30,000 different plant species to the United States. I would recommend a visit to Kampong if you are in the area. This picture was shot across the pond with my new 80-200mm/2.8 lens. It was mounted on my back up camera a Nikon D70s giving an effective focal range of 300mm.


The second Nymphaea photo was taken last week in the water garden room at the New York Botanical Garden. It was nice to see them blooming indoors. The large Jade Vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) over the water was blooming and dropping its unusually colored and shaped flowers in the water. I don’t care for the more washed out color in this cultivar (compared to the first photo) but there was something calming and delicate about it.

For more flower pictures from around the world check out:
Today’s Flowers .

Since it is Sunday here is a bonus flower. It is just one of the Hosta types from the estate’s gardens. The leaves are plain green and unremarkable but the flowers are nice with the touch of purple and fragrance.


Hosta
(HOSS-tuh)

Hosta Flowers

Hosta Flowers
(HOSS-tuh)

It has been a while since the picture posted here was taken the day before. I had a quick run around the garden yesterday with the D70 and 24mm/1.8 Sigma lens and got this picture of an unidentified Hosta variety. Hostas usually doesn’t get to bloom in this garden because the deer and rabbits pretty much reduce it to a few stalks by the time it is suppose to bloom. They didn’t get his one this time as it is under the deck with a few leaves and flowers poking out. The flowers are nothing special on Hosta in IMO. There are a few fragrant varieties that are nice but for me it is all about the foliage.

In my low-key project to shoot pictures of a few NYC landmarks this summer here is the United Nations Building on the east side of Manhattan. Here is the story of the complex from Wikipedia.

Painted Nettle

Painted Nettle
Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Kingwood Karnival'
(sol-en-oh-STEM-on) (skew-tell-ar-ee-OH-ih-deez)

This year Planting Fields Arboretum had a Coleus collection planted in one area. There were at least 15 different types and ‘Kingwood Karnival’ was one of them. Now a Coleus Collection where everything is planted rather rigidly is probably not great for the home garden it was nice to see all the different cultivars lined up. I learned two things by researching this post. One was the fact that the common name for Coleus is Painted Nettle and two the scientific species name is really long and hard to pronounce.

There seems to be a few more Coleus to choose from each year. We had several good ones in the garden last year but it was difficult to keep the slugs off them. If you are looking for more information on Coleus check out this website:
Coleus Finder.org

I will certainly be using that as a reference tool when shopping in the spring.

This Hosta was nice and puckered. Not sure what variety it is but it had interesting shading. Over the last couple of years we have been collecting some different Hosta types and planting them in one garden. It is fenced which helps keep the deer and other animals away. It has turned out well and I have actually been enjoying the flowers. In the past we mainly planted them for the foliage.

Hosta 'Cathedral Windows'

Hosta 'Cathedral Windows'
(HOSS-tuh)


They had some wonderful Variegated Hosta at the nursery. They were in 5 gallon pots (huge!) and while expensive the quality was super. This cultivar caught my eye and had me racking my brains to think of a place to use it. It is according to the PDN catalog “intentional tetraploid mutation” of ‘Stained Glass’. It is from the famous Hosta breeder Hans Hansen. It has 40 inch flower stalks and the flowers are fragrant.

They had ‘Stained Glass’ at the nursery. It looked nice, too. This Hosta is ‘Sea Thunder’. It was developed by the “Queen of the Hostas”, Mildred Seaver. The green and gold variegated Hosta are some of my personal favorites.

Black Elephant Ear

Elephant Ear
Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic'
(kol-oh-KAY-see-uh) (es-kew-LEN-tuh)
Synonyms: Taro, ‘Jet Black Wonder’

This is actually the underside of the leaf with the sun shining through it. I have been trying a few foliage macros and these two were the best from yesterday. That is what I wanted to do with this blog from the start, take the picture the day before and then post it. That is only practical during the season and even then it is difficult.

The Elephant Ear is a great plant to have in the garden. I used several in containers this year and it is working out nicely. They are a little smaller than if they were growing in the ground but that is okay, they still have that gorgeous black color.

Lucky the sprinklers had just gone off before I tried to take a picture of this Hosta leaf providing the water drops. I don’t remember the variety off hand but it is a beauty. Large puckered leaves and bluish green color.


I will post a flower picture here just to keep us true to the name Digital Flower Pictures. This was one of the Daylilies at the big farm. They have a fairly large collection. The garden is doing beautifully over there. I worked almost the entire day in the rose garden just stopping to prune a few Viburnums and Lilacs. A lot of the roses needed to be deadheaded and cut back. The deadheading isn’t so bad because at least that way I knew there were a lot of flowers. The three best roses right now are ‘Showbiz’, ‘Strike it Rich’ and ‘Tropicana’. They were still blooming heavily while the other varieties have started to slow down.

Silverleaf Ponysfoot

Silverleaf Ponysfoot
Dichondra sericea
(dy-KON-druh) (ser-IK-ee-uh)

This plant was marked Dichondra sericea at Wave Hill. There wasn’t much information on that particular species. I have been growing a plant similar to this but it has smaller leaves and more of a trailing habit. That might be Dichondra argentea but I am not really sure (maybe some one can help me out here). Either way having a silver plant with the trailing habit has been a real treat in the garden. This one was growing in a container and I think I will try that next year. It really looked nice against the terra cotta colored pot.

This second plant is Hosta ‘Peidmont Gold’. It is a striking large leaf Hosta that was planted in partial sun. I loved the color and the texture of the leaves. I am not a big fan of Hosta flowers and much prefer them for their foliage.


As promised here are a couple of pictures of the new dog. These photographs are property of Susan Boyd and Morningstar Huskies.com. It is going to be a long two weeks until we get her.


If you are looking for a great Siberian Husky puppy contact them. The dogs from Morningstar have a nice temperament and they are beautiful. This maybe the first time that I have posted a photograph on this blog that someone else took.


I finally got around to visiting some of my favorite gardening blogs yesterday. Problem with not visiting for awhile is it takes that much longer to catch up. Everyone is growing and posting such wonderful stuff.

Hosta plantaginea 'Honey Bells’
(HOSS-tuh) (plan-tuh-JIN-ee-uh)

I had almost given up growing Hosta because of the deer. It seems every other animal likes to eat the foliage too. I even saw one of the dogs at work chewing on a couple of the leaves. Now I have moved most of the Hostas to areas that the deer can’t get into and they seem to be thriving. This particular Hosta is outstanding because of its fragrance. It has a nice habit; it doesn’t seem to get to large. I would put in the medium sized grower category. The clear white flowers are abundantly produced in late August. One thing I am not doing is dividing any more Hosta unless they really, really need it. I keep getting more and more plants and soon there doesn’t seem to be any place put them. Even though it is Sunday I have a couple of work appointments and I have to get busy with that work.