It is a pleasure to make the first report of the new year for Garden Bloggers Foliage Day, a monthly review focusing on our garden’s foliage, created and hosted by Christina at Creating my own garden of the Hesperides.
The weather has turned in our region of North Carolina, at least for the next few days. I spent a very happy…and warm… hour yesterday in the garden, trimming the pansies and violas of frost damaged blossoms, cutting back a few hardy herbs to stimulate their growth when it warms, pruning a Knock Out rose, and taking photographs of foliage plants in the garden for this report. Each of the plants pictured here have (so far) survived a very cold winter for our region. I don’t know what the next month or so will bring weather wise, but the demonstrated hardiness of these is reason enough to be confident.
‘Ascot Rainbow’ Euphorbia x martinii keeps its variegated foliage through the winter; its new growth comes out in striking deep red.
Variations in leaf form, color, and size: Carex morowii ‘Evergold,’ Heuchera villosa ‘Caramel,’ and Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Autumn Fern.’
Top: Ajuga reptans ‘Mahogany’ and Cupressocyparis laylandi ‘Golconda’
Bottom: Ilex cornuta ‘Carissa’ and Liriope muscari ‘Variegata’
Iberis sempervirens ‘Candytuft’ held up well to the cold and is now showing buds galore.
Top: Heuchera dolce ‘Beaujolais’ and Euonymous japonica ‘Aureo-marginata’
Bottom: Gelsemium sempervirens ‘Carolina jessamine’ and Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Sungold’
Thuja occidentalis berckmanii ‘Berckman’s arborvitae, Nandina domestica ‘Gulfstream,’ and Aucuba japonica ‘Mr. Goldstrike’
The parsley has survived quite nicely on the patio, is still available for our use, but will soon go to seed, become bitter, and will be replaced with a fresh batch.
Please visit Christina at Creating my own garden of the Hesperides and see what others are reporting in their January gardens.
A Walk in the Garden 
Thank you for joining in GBFD again this month John; Your garden is full of interesting evergreen shrubs and trees, It must always be interesting even under snow! I am very envious of ‘Ascot Rainbow’ Euphorbia x martinii , I have several Euphorbia but none are as lovely as this one. I will have to search the suppliers to try and find one. Does it reproduce itself from seed? I imagine not as it is a ‘x’ variety. Do you take cuttings?
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Thank you, Christina. I appreciate your creating the GBFD. It is a motivator to get out in the garden and observe what is going on…even in winter. ‘Ascot Rainbow’ is the first euphorbia I have planted and then only two plus years ago, so I don’t have a lot of experience with it. Any seeds that may have dropped have never germinated around the parent, so I agree with your assessment that it is probably sterile. I haven’t tried cuttings. I have reached the stage in my garden that, if I want to put in something new, I have to take something old out.
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I just love seeing pictures of life from other places. I really like the leaf shapes of the Iberis.
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Thanks, Debra. We usually look at Iberis as a mass of green, rather than the individual leaves and blossoms.
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Parsley is a surprisingly tough little cookie. I’ve had it survive Chicago winters some years.
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Tough yes, and curly:) But I still have to replace it. Thanks, Jason.
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Hi John, it’s fun to see what is growing in your area. I haven’t noticed my iberis looking as far along as yours. It’s one of my favorites.
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Thanks, Susie. I have several plots of Iberis and the one in the picture is farther along than others. I can’t explain why. Must be like children.
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You certainly have lots of lovely contrasting foliage, they make the winter garden look so interesting. I think everyone will be wanting to plant your Euphorbia, it is so colourful!
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Thank you, Pauline. I hope you can find the euphorbia. Maybe in my next gardening life, I can create a complete foliage garden, non-deciduous, variation in sizes, shapes, and colors, for year round beauty (and low maintenance). Such are dreams made of.
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Have you had a cold winter? I’m outside DC and it seems like winter has been mild. Parsley is so tough. Even mine is still a little green. I love your Ascot Rainbow. They do well for a while for me and then just fizzle out. I don’t think they like my clay loam. I may have to try them in a pot.
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Thanks for your comment. I haven’t had Ascot Rainbow long enough to know how it will survive.
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