Here is a list of my favorite foliage plants - every single one appears somewhere in my yard, and in many cases, more than once! Campbell-tried and tested...
Chocolate or Burgundy Foliage
Razzleberry (Chinese Fringe Flower), Coral Bells (Heuchera), black-leaf Dahlia, Sweet Potato Vine, New Zealand Flax (Phormium), Canna, Purple Fountain Grass, Japanese Maple
I'm going to do you a favor. It's pronounced "HOO-ker-ah." It took me years to find that out and it drove me nuts. Since Coral Bells appear on every one of these lists, you might as well know how to go to Summerwinds and ask for it! It's a marvelous plant that comes in a myriad of gorgeous colors from silver to lime to rust to black.
Of all on this list, and the chocolate/burgundy are my favorite, the Razzleberry (aka Chinese Fringe Flower) is by far my favorite. Lacy spires of foliage and it blooms delicate pink in early spring, Jan/Feb, when it's just warm enough to go outside again but nothing else has come back to life, yet. One shrub can reach 5' tall, so it's a great anchor plant for a large flower bed.
Silver or Variegated Foliage
Coral Bells (Heuchera), Variegated Hydrangea, Lamium (Dead Nettle. Unfortunate name.), Spanish or French Lavender, Mexican Sage (Salvia Leucantha), SunStripe Agapanthus, Licorice Plant (Helichrysum), New Zealand Flax (Phormium), Variegated Society Garlic, Artemisia, Lamb's Ears (Stacchys byzantina)
I've always loved the silvery froth of the licorice plant but had no idea just how hardy and persistent this monster can be! I set two small containers of licorice in a bed at the side of my house and forgot about them one fall. See photo above for what I found a few weeks later. Now it's a battle between the licorce and the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (brunfelsia)!
Plant these in darker, shadier areas. Most of them need partial shade anyway, and their sublte colors show up better in the shade or against dark fences. Artemesia is my favorite from this list - another fast-growing anchor plant, spreading to 3' wide, it's soft, feathery foliage lights up dark corners and contrasts beautifully with just about everything else! Once established, this California native doesn't like over-watering and similar to Lavender and Rosemary, will die back in large sections as a result.
Chartreuse/Lime Colored Foliage
Coral Bells (Heuchera), Foxtail Fern (Asparagus Fern), New Zealand Flax (Phormium), Japanese Maple
I can't find it on Monrovia's website but I picked up a chartreuse chrysanthemum that is under my Japanese maple and I love it. Big frothy, lacy lime-green foliage. It got leggy and I hacked it back to the base and it's coming back out beautifully, just like any well-behaved chrysanthemum should.
Succulents, a huge class of plants, appear all over my yard in pots and in the ground, and these offer a huge array of color and texture. Don't buy then - they are slow growing and therefore ridiculously expensive, but they are also ridiculously easy to transplant. Find a friend how has one or two, and ask for a pinch. All of my resulted as pinches from another garden-loving friend! Stick the pinch in a pot of dirt and water regularly. That. Is. It. Super easy show-stoppers.
Looking for something in particular? Use this amazing search feature at Monrovia.com to search by foliage color, plant type, water usage, height, zone, you name it. You can even create wishlists that you can later print and take with you to the plant nursery as a shopping list.
What are your favorite landscape show-stoppers?
