Late Color - Page 2


© Marge Talt
Page 2

 

  One that really surprised me is Hosta sieboldiana. This leaf is from a seedling I'm growing on, hence its smaller size. But the normal leaf color for these plants is a glaucous blue-gray-green...not a color you'd think would turn chartreuse/gold at the end of its days! This is one that simply glows when the sun hits it.

I love the leaves on this honeysuckle. One or two pairs below the flowers form perfect circles around the stem. New leaves have a purplish cast, changing to a dark bluish green for the summer - another coloration that you wouldn't think of as turning bright green and gold in fall. If you haven't tried this vine, I highly recommend it. It is not rampant, like Lonicera japonica 'Halliana' (Hall's Honeysuckle), which has escaped gardens to rampage through the woods, strangling everything in its way. This species, hardy from USDA zones 4 to 9, will grow up to twenty feet (6.09m) tall, but it takes a while. Flowers aren't fragrant, but they're lovely long trumpets - a soft, dusky scarlet on my cultivar - ranging from reds to yellows. There's a major flush of bloom in late spring - early summer, with some flowers appearing all season. I have a friend who lives in the District of Columbia, a more sheltered location than mine, who has had blooms right up through November on his vine.

             

Now, the yellow-twig dogwood doesn't surprise me with its fall color at all, since the leaves (at least on my plants) start out and stay a fresh, lettuce green all season. Turning shades of yellow and gold seems a natural progression, and one that compliments the yellowish-green stems. Stem color is more pronounced on new wood, so this is a shrub that needs hard pruning every few years. This one will self-layer whenever a stem gets within range of soil (sometimes, I think the roots start to form when a stem smells soil!). It is incredibly easy to root, too. Plants are stoloniferous as well, but not rampantly so. A group of this shrub will make a splash of fresh green all year around in gardens from USDA zones 4 to 7. It doesn't do as well farther south. The species is noted for its red stems and I've seen photographs of groups of the two colors next to each other that were quite enchanting in winter. These are fast growers, getting anywhere from six to fifteen feet (2-5m) tall, with the same spread (if not cut hard back for stem color periodically). They are very adaptable plants, doing well in part shade to sun and, according to Dirr, tolerating higher pH soils than most of the genera. My local deer herd does like the new leaves, but the plants seem willing to leaf out again, with no visible ill effects.

       

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