Flowers On Leaves

 Sandra Flowers presented a program entitled "The Leaf Alone" to the regular monthly meeting of the Capitol Hill Garden Club.

Pot with calathea

She explained in her introduction:  “This presentation is about making plant choices based on the contribution of texture, color, size or shape of the plant’s leaf alone.  If the plant has a lovely flower also, that is just icing on the cake!

“All plant leaves have a job to do – making carbohydrate for the use of the plant to grow and thrive. Within that very utilitarian job description, nature has given us an amazing variety of leaves that often rival the beauty of their flowers and since the leaves last longer than the flowers, they have an important impact on garden structure and interest.

“It is all too easy to become enamored of the beauty of flowers and neglect to think that flowers are usually at their peak for 1-3 weeks.  What does that plant contribute to the garden for the rest of the

Hakonechloa with Frances William hosta.

year?  A case in point is a rose, which has lovely flowers and even lovely foliage if you live in England or New England or the Pacific Northwest…which we don’t.  We live in hot, humid Washington DC – which results in Black Spot fungus, eventual defoliation and bare stems for much of the summer.”

Gold Heart Dicentra spectabilis

This was her list of "Some foliage that warrants inclusion in our DC gardens and garden pots":

Gold Heart Dicentra spectabilis

Begonia grandis

Hakonechloa grass

Carex ‘Evergold’

Autumn fern (dryopteris erythrosora)

Japanese Holly Fern (cyrtomium falcatum)

Japanese Painted fern (athyrium niponicum)

Caladiums - White Christmas & Fannie Munson

Arisaema ringens- Cobra lily

Soloman’s Seal (polygonatum multiflorum)

Helleborus orientalis (Lenten Rose)

Helleborus niger( Christmas rose)

Hostas - Sieboldiana elegans, Lemon lime, Frances Williams (& many others)

Rohdea japonica – Japanese Sacred lily

Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’

Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’

Asarum splendens -Japanese ginger

Saxifraga stolonifera  Strawberry begonia

Schizophrama hydrangeoides ‘Moonlight’

Caryopteris divaricata ‘Snow Fairy’

Heuchera ‘Silver Scrolls’

Heuchera ‘Caramel’ 

Alternanthera dentata - ‘Brazilian Red Hot’ & ‘Party time’

Coleus - Saturn

Angel Wing Begonias

Fuschia gartenmeister

Calathea lancifolia