Looking Good

Begonia, “Arabian Sunset”

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I want to join Eliza, who is participating in a new Friday meme begun this week by Gillian at  Country Gardens UK  called “Looking Good.”  Gillian invites us to celebrate what is looking good this week in our own gardens.  Gillian takes a close look at wild roses, blackberries and other berry producing plants at their peak now in the hedgerows around her garden this week.  Her photos are stunning.

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Begonia Rex

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Admiring what is doing well in one’s garden is a happy way to end each week, and I will join in on Fridays as often as I’m able.  If you want to join Gillian’s meme, please be on time.  She plans to close her link at noon Saturday Greenwich time.

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Oxalis has proven one of my favorites this season. It takes sun or shade, has lovely leaves and flowers, and roots very easily in water. The bag of little tubers proved a good investment.

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First thing this morning, I spent a few minutes admiring a few of our dark leaved plants on our deck.  Our cat joined me in the early morning mist with my camera.  The beautiful Coleus is now mostly gone, thanks to a determined squirrel who has made destroying it his project lately.  But he hasn’t touched the ornamental peppers.  Our cat has given us the alert to his presence several times so we could chase the squirrel back into the surrounding trees.

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Anna, at Flutter and Hum, and I both are drawn to dark, jewel tones in flowers, leaves, and berries.  She wrote to give me the name of a Colocasia she photographed for a post about her more dramatic plants, and it reminded me to savor my own.  Reading her post again, and seeing her Colocasia  ‘Black Coral,’ inspired me to take this series of photos.

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Ajuga

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A bit of our dark leaved sweet potato vine is left, and looked especially nice after early morning showers.

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This ornamental sweet potato vine has wonderful dark leaves. It looked much better on Monday before the squirrel began destroying it.

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My favorite dark leaved Begonia now has a name.  A helpful reader, who goes by “DS,”  told me this morning it is called Begonia, “Arabian Sunset.”  A very evocative name, don’t you think?  We have thoroughly enjoyed its dark red leaves which grow even darker and glossier with sun.

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A simple bit of Tradescantia pallida  given to us a few years ago by a friend has saved a hanging basket this summer.  The original Petunia met an untimely end by early August.  But rooted cuttings of the Tradescantia took hold in this  hot, dry spot. 

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Tradescantia

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This is one tough plant and has thrived in all the places I’ve stuck cuttings into Earth.

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I am always drawn more to interesting foliage than to flowers.  And this year I was delighted with several seedlings from last year’s ornamental peppers which cropped up in pots on the deck.

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They worked beautifully with plants I had already planted this spring in the pots.  What a bonus!  Now their tiny flowers are giving way to little pepper fruits.

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A volunteer pepper came up in the same pot with a volunteer Petunia. Last summer’s beauty lives on!

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This is a lovely way to ease into the change of seasons.  We still have several weeks left to enjoy these beautiful foliage plants.

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Woodland Gnome 2015

 

About woodlandgnome

Lifelong teacher and gardener.

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