May 2010 Foliage Follow-Up

Yet again, I'm late... but here's my Foliage Follow-Up for May 2010.  I'll keep it short and sweet, though, with many picture but few words.

Sea kale is always a star in the front garden.  I love the way it echoes the crinkles of the purple lyreleaf sage that sprouted below it here:

And how it combines with the blue tinges on the variegated iris, and lavender:

More blue foliage, first a blue-green on the emerging sedum:

And then a different lavender, contrasting with the dark purple elderberry foliage:

Similar colors, but very different leaf shapes mean a more subtle contrast.  Here, 'Sagae' hosta and blackberry foliage:

A gold-and-green hosta, name unknown, with the golden foliage of 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort:

More subtle contrast, this time with the same plant form but one standout color:

Form makes for subtle contrast, too.  Here, the vertical, fine-textured green chive foliage adds interest at the feet of the blackberry:

The last of the subtle contrast photos.  Golden lemon balm next to the foliage of my red currant:

And golden oregano picking up the golden veins of the 'Ivory Prince' hellebore it underplants:

Golden oregano provides a little more drama in other areas of the garden.  Here with 'Northern Halo' hosta and Japanese maple:

And here with a stepping stone (in the spot where the dog tends to pounce, when she sees another dog walking on the street) and the bronze-leaf carex buchanii:

Golden thyme is another pretty contrast herb.  Here, with sprouts of red orach, silene flowers, last year's beech leaves, and a few tips of fallen asparagus:

More of the red orach--it's a prolific reseeder, but when you can eat the seedlings you pull, that doesn't seem to be so bad.  Especially when the seedlings look so lovely with Japanese painted fern:

And 'Sum and Substance' hosta, too.  That's sedum album (top) and leptinella (lower) between the stones under the grape arbor:

The large-leaf hostas are often really pretty with purple foliage.  Here's another unnamed hosta with 'Frosted Violet' heuchera planted next door:

Actually, they look pretty with heucheras in general, I think.  Here's another unnamed hosta (might be 'Lakeside Shore Master'?) with various peach-leaf heucheras temporarily planted nearby:

I said temporarily because those will likely get potted up into planters later in the spring.  This beauty, however, stays put all year round:

And that concludes my Foliage Follow-Up for May 2010.  I hope that you forgive me its lateness--and its length!  It's just so hard to pick only a couple of things to showcase in May, when the foliage is so fresh and beautiful in the garden.  :)

For more foliage delights, check out Pam's Foliage Follow-Up Post... and don't miss other garden bloggers' posts, too, linked in the comments there at Digging!