Foliage Friday (July 31)

I am working on all of the fun stuff still--a badge, the little function that allows you to include a link to your post in mine, etc.--but the lack of those bells and whistles just doesn't seem like a good reason to let Foliage Friday fall by the wayside!

I am also running out the door right now, on my way to work at the garden center for the afternoon and early evening. I'll be back later tonight to see what foliage has been highlighted around the garden blogosphere (explain why I'm still at the garden center in late July!) but I will leave you with a few things that have caught my eye in the backyard this morning.

A lovely (and untagged, when I brought it home from the garden center at the end of last year) hosta, which absolutely glows when backlit by the morning sun:


The luscious leaves of 'Key Lime Pie' heuchera, dotted with droplets from last night's rain:


Both of the above are in the "currant bed," which is the first thing I see when I step out my back door. As I round the corner of the house, the Japanese bloodgrass always catches my eye. This is my first view of it during every trip to the backyard:


As I continue into the backyard, I stop to admire how both it and the Russian sage behind it pick up fresh, chartreuse-y green tones when the sun comes streaming through them:


As I round the corner of the bed, the bloodgrass colors flatten out a little bit once the sunshine is more "in their face." I still love the contrast between the grass, the cascade of woolly thyme behind, and the sedum cauticola 'Lidakense' at its base:


I think that foliage combinations are even more necessary to add interest when the floral show wilts in the heat of midsummer, don't you? What kinds of foliage combinations do you have featured in your yard? I could use some more inspiration for a few particular areas in my gardens... so I'm looking forward to seeing your foliage posts when I return tonight!