Foliage from Adams Flower Show

There may be two posts with foliage. But these will surely be enough for today. As some of you know, I really like colored or textured foliage because it is interesting all season long. None of these would grow in my outside gardens (well, maybe one of the trees), but they all grab my attention.

This is a Dieffenbachia or dumb cane, but it's a cultivar with white leaves. Maybe 'Star Bright.'

Here's one that was completely new to me. It's called Japanese Umbrella Pine, Sciadopitys verticillata. This one MIGHT grow here, but it's pretty fussy. Probably why I've never seen it before. It's a "fossil" plant, the only one remaining from the Sciadopityaceae family since the Pliocene period. It is a conifer, but not really a pine.

I had one of these as a houseplant long ago, but as you can probably guess, it died. This is Firestick Cactus, really a euphorbia, Euphorbia tirucalii. I like quirky things like this.

Here is one I wish would be hardy here, but not quite. It would be great in the rock garden (well, unless it turned out to be too aggressive). This is actually a bindweed, so it gets white flowers like a small morningglory. It's called Silverbush or Shrubby Bindweed, Convolvulus cneorum.

This is another tropical houseplant, fairly common, but it's still very cool. Rattlesnake Plant, Goeppertia insignis (formerly a Calathea).

Finally for today, this one might grow here. The Dow Gardens had a stunning one (even better pic at the link). This is a Korean Fir, Abies koreana, and it's the same cultivar as at Dow: 'Horstman's Silberlocke.' Supposedly it has bright purple cones. I could easily covet one of these.

Yeah, there will be more foliage. But not today.

I got some stuff done, but had a little tummyache this afternoon, so the accomplishments weren't stellar.

See Colors from Adams Flower Show

Three Different Brunnera

I haven't yet showed you the other plant I bought last weekend.

I found a cultivar of Brunnera that I don't have, and that I like. There are quite a few, but a lot of them don't have enough foliage interest for me to pay money for. Of course, there are a couple... One of the attractions of Brunnera is that the deer don't like them because the leaves are rough.

Anyway, I bought 'Variegata,' yeah... it just means variegated. But it's big and has colorful leaves. I had to pay full price even though it was badly sunburned. And it may want even deeper shade than where I put it. It got unhappy for a couple of days. But maybe it was just transplant shock. We'll see.

Of the two varieties I have, 'Frostbite' is by far my favorite. The leaves are larger and whiter than 'Jack Frost,' although 'Jack Frost' seems to be a very popular cultivar. 'Jack Frost' also gets to looking sad about this time of year. The 'Jack Frost' may eventually find a different home. It's not turning out to be a favorite of mine.

Here is 'Frostbite' today. (Yeah, something likes to nibble the edges of the leaves. Or maybe it's just the stress of the dry year. I don't really have a slug or snail problem here.)

And here is one of the 'Jack Frost.' I moved the other one to make room for the 'Variegata,' and it is not currently very happy. 'Jack Frost' is supposed to look kind of shimmery. I don't see it. What you can't tell, because I have made the plant fill the entire picture, is that 'Jack Frost' is about half the size of 'Frostbite.'

Ones I might be interested in are 'Looking Glass' with very white leaves, and 'Diane's Gold' with bright yellow-green leaves. I'm sure I'd need to order those.

Today was nuts. For starters, I realized that I've been making a critical planning error. I am leaving at the end of this week for the Wild Blueberry Festival in Paradise, MI. Then from there I go directly west to the Trail Fest in North Dakota (with Marie and Diane). This is a two-week trip with the two different purposes. I thought I needed to leave Friday. Nope. I leave Thursday!

Well, now we have my attention! Today was nothing like my laid back regular schedule of projects. It's been a very comfortable couple of weeks just working on these familiar tasks. Today I spent all morning on volunteer stuff, mostly for the NCT. Then I got things ready and did library, bank, post office, and way too much shopping. That took all afternoon.

I have a list and the clock is ticking. I'll be ready to go, but no more just drifting contentedly from continuing project to continuing project!

See Yeilding to Temptation