Don't leave me out

Game on!

                                                                                                      

If formal annual garden design was a game of hockey, foliage would be the first line of  offence: a reliable performer always ready to put the puck into the net. Unlike the unbearable anticipation required by the over-rated slow-to-develop flower, the leaf enters early in the game, exhibiting an immediate show of colour and texture. Vibrant hues, light-capturing indumentum, radiant vein-work, the luminance of stained-glass -- the attributes are endless. 

      
(Bettina's Gardening Rule number 2: Always look at the big picture)

(Iresine, Coleus, Alternanthera, Taro, Duranta, Sedum, Echevaria

Red Banana, Canna, Secretia, Strobilanthes, Perilla.....) 

For a gardener, creating visual interest throughout the season is a formidable task. Immune to the flower-pickers and never with a dead-head to remove, foliage is a key component of the medium that perpetually challenges and engages. 

No colour, no texture? 

Five minutes in the penalty box!

Dew drops on a Black Calocasia leaf. 

Fresh drops on a fallen Ginkgo leaf

Underneath a Canna leaf in the rain.