Garden on the dark side: Cool plants with dark foliage! - New Day NW

The rain followed by the sunshine means our yards are starting to grow! We have a lot of gardening questions this time of year, so we're glad to have Ciscoe Morris on speed dial! He joined the show to talk about dark foliage.

Dark colored foliage is highly attractive in its own right, but it also contrasts beautifully with hot colored flowers, and can be used to create spectacular combinations with colorful flowers. It's especially important to have plants with colorful foliage in shrub and perennial gardens because the flowers on many kinds of shrubs are ephemeral and don't last long, so the dark colored plants provide color through the season once the flowers have faded.

Some of my favorite shrubs with colored foliage:

Berberis thunbergii 'Orange Rocket' - orange Rocket Barberry: New spring foliage starts out a vibrant coral and ages to a ruby red that lasts into fall. Useful as a vertical element in borders, landscapes, or containers. If it gets too big, cut it to about 2 inches from the ground in spring. Watch out for the prickers, they're nasty.

Berberis thunbergii 'Concorde' - Cooncord Japanese Barberry: A petite barberry with deep maroon-purple foliage that becomes even more intense in the fall. Small yellow flowers may be followed by a few bright red berries. Stunningly beautiful new introduction.

Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic' - Red Majestic contorted filbert: This spectacular little trees features wildly contorted branches, purple red contorted leaves that turn reddish-green then burgundy red in fall. Only problem is that it suckers, but worth the work of removing them once a year by cutting them to below the graft.

Heuchera obsidian - Obsidian coral bell: There are gazillions of coral bells with red foliage to choose from. This one grows to about a foot tall with dark purple almost black foliage. The little coral bell flowers are attractive to hummingbirds.

Persicaria microcephala ''Red Dragon'' - Red dragon persicaria: The stunning burgundy-red foliage has silvery markings giving a lovely two-tone effect and adds beautiful contrast in flower bouquets. Small white flowers appear in summer. Cut it down when it gets ratty looking in mid summer and it will grow right back to add spectacular color to your summer garden.

Acer palmatum 'Red Dragon' - Red dragon Japanese maple: The slowest growing of all weeping lace leaf Japanese maples, thrives in full-sun and stays beautifully red all season, turning flaming crimson in fall.
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