Favorite foliage, anyone? Post any leaves you see that make you say wow.

Kadee said:
Got a photo ? I’d love to see that ….We don’t see many maples in South Australia it’s to hot in summer for them
I’ve seen a few really nice ones in Australia’s capital city…called Australian Capital Territory (known as / called Canbera ) it’s 2 days drive from where I live …
they are only about 5 ~ 6 foot tall and growing in shaded front gardens @papa tiger
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I want to see a maple leaf imprint on the pavement. But since you like maples here is one I was gifted a couple years back. It especially looks good in February as it did in this photo.

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We are going to Canbera this July so I’ll take photos…….but … but it will be winter 🥶 🥶…so they wont have any leaves …in winter ..I guess ? …no use taking photos …
 
MarkD said:
You have a lot of great foliage.
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Just as well I have a big verandah … I must take a photo if what my Hubs calls “ the gum tree” it’s a variety of a ficus I’ve had it 30+ years and it’s always struggled a bit ….but this last 12 months its grown heaps ( I may have already posted a photo of it ) @MarkD …we’ve done all the establishing of the garden ourselves …don’t believe in paying others for things we can do ourselves….hubs put up the back verandah I mentioned on his 60th Birthday
he’s 78 now
 
The ficus ..no idea what’s its proper name is …the verandah is 9 foot high in that corner so it gives and indication how big it is …..It had one leaf on this same plant last summer…..so we tipped it out of the pot ..and “ pruned “ the roots with a old bread knife ( had nothing to loose it looked like it was dying anyway )
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Kadee said:
Just as well I have a big verandah … I must take a photo if what my Hubs calls “ the gum tree” it’s a variety of a ficus I’ve had it 30+ years and it’s always struggled a bit ….but this last 12 months its grown heaps ( I may have already posted a photo of it ) @MarkD …we’ve done all the establishing of the garden ourselves …don’t believe in paying others for things we can do ourselves….hubs put up the back verandah I mentioned on his 60th Birthday
he’s 78 now
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I understand that some people would just like a nice garden to go into when the mood hit and there nothing wrong with that. It keeps my garden designing friends in work. But I’m more like you. I’d no more give over the design of my garden to someone than have someone else train my dog or keep my wife happy. There is some ‘work’ it just seems silly not to want to do yourself.
 
I’ve mentioned we live on a corner …5 mins walk to a windy ( most of the time ) beach ..huge reserve across the road from us ..so we get horrific winds mainly in the winter and summer , so we’ve got very hardy lowish growing conifers in our front garden …so nothing exciting in front garden ..got a few plants we put in to where we had a small patch of lawn ….impossible to grow here ..most only have some sort of hardy plants in front gardens .

We've got a jacaranda I planted in 2008 , we actually removed a lower branch last weekend cause the tree has a permanent lean due to the winds we get here
 
squatting dog said:
A lady friend of mine in New Hampshire bought a scraggly little maple tree for 2 dollars in 2008. Every year, she sends me a picture of it. It just gets better every year. :cool:



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On the subject of fall color - one area where my Mediterranean climate does not excel though of course we have some - I did put together two galleries of red foliage and gold foliage which are dominated by fall photos.

On Flickr where I started the Fabulous Foliage group there is something called a gallery where you can select photos you particularly like into a gallery. Many of my photos have been incorporated into other people's galleries so as I was perusing photos submitted to the group I started collecting my favorites which are still viewable on Flickr if anyone is curious. If you look through some of the comments in each gallery you'll see that people are usually pleased to have their work included and say so. Each of my galleries includes 17 photos, probably the limit at that time.

An ode to red foliage: https://flic.kr/y/b7YH25

Great Gold Foliage: https://flic.kr/y/b3tCei

Unlike with albums, as far as I know, it is not possible to show the photos as a slide show. But if you follow the link you should be able to see the photos and select on any one of them to enlarge as you please. I should point out that though fall color is often involved in these galleries they are not exclusively so. Also there are other colors as well, in fact in the Gold foliage gallery gold with red becomes a theme in part.
 
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johndoe said:
Foliage here in January is only a memory, and at the same time something to look forward to.
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I remember that from when I started high school in Maryland just outside of DC. The forests beyond our backyard were nearly impenetrable in summer but wide open in winter. Kind of blew my mind.
 
Got up extra early so after making a cup of tea I bundled up and went out with Ember to see what was up in the garden. Found some nice foliage looking extra nice in the early morning light.

The first photo is of Plectranthus oertendahlii which used to be classified as a coleus. Colorful enough but the leaves are much more substantial.

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This next one is Oxalis palmifrons whose name really suites it I think. Don't they look like tiny palm leaves?

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The other day I tried again to photograph the big fancy leaves of this Monstera. Not sure of the name as it was a gift from a wonderful friend and garden designer sadly now deceased. I'll have to post a spread of photos taken over the years in her own wonderful garden in the Oakland Hills in my diary thread.

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Someday I expect it will frame the little portico in front of my back door.

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Edited to add this picture of the parent plant for my Monstera growing in Sherry's garden:

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And for anyone who wants to see more of her garden, all the photos I can find online are in this Flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsiQr9Aif
 
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Kadee said:
If you don’t mind me asking @MarkD how long have you and Mrs D lived where you are ?

We’ve been in this home 18 years and it was just the house no concrete paths ( we had it built ) nothing just a dust bowl so we know what it’s like to establish a garden from a windy dust bowl
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Sorry I missed this. Lia and I met in 82 and married a year from that date. She had moved in here in 77 with her ex but kept this building and lot instead of the lot with two large, conventional houses on it. We lived together here for a year while we test drove the car and kicked the tires. So we've been together and here for more than 40 years.

I was thinking you might enjoy the person, Robin Parer, who was a member of the California Horticultural Society but went on to start a garden-visit group we call the Hortisexuals. She has been a nurseryman for a long time and started her nursery called Geraniaceae as described in this article from the Marin Garden Center near her home. They do ship if you see anything you want though I can't for sure if they'd be allowed in or if she'd ship it that far. If any plant could put up with being mailed a long way it would be a pelargonium.

Geraniaceae’s Robin Parer – Marin Art and Garden Center
 
MarkD said:
Sorry I missed this. Lia and I met in 82 and married a year from that date. She had moved in here in 77 with her ex but kept this building and lot instead of the lot with two large, conventional houses on it. We lived together here for a year while we test drove the car and kicked the tires. So we've been together and here for more than 40 years.

I was thinking you might enjoy the person, Robin Parer, who was a member of the California Horticultural Society but went on to start a garden-visit group we call the Hortisexuals. She has been a nurseryman for a long time and started her nursery called Geraniaceae as described in this article from the Marin Garden Center near her home. They do ship if you see anything you want though I can't for sure if they'd be allowed in or if she'd ship it that far. If any plant could put up with being mailed a long way it would be a pelargonium.

Geraniaceae’s Robin Parer – Marin Art and Garden Center
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I didn’t mean to sound personal @MarkD cause I was curious how long it had taken you to establish the beautiful garden you have
Hubs and I are on our second marriage as well …we met in 1986 married in 1987 so we are getting close to 39 years together cause we wanted to be together so I moved 400 km to be with hubs
I’m 79 next month but really don’t fell much older than I was in my 40’s because I ( we ) keep active doing our garden / dancing / walking.
Think I mentioned I love MrsD name ..say hello to her from another keen gardener who lives in Australia
 
Our very hardy plants in our front yard …..looking down the street towards the beach …you can see a Norfolk Island pine tree ( it's showing as also ….next to my jacaranda tree in photo ) That how far away the beach is ..and why we get so much wind .
The reserve has drainage ponds to catch rainwater ..which then runs from the ponds ….through pipes to the beach
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