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Nikau Hill Nursery www.nikauhill.co.nz
R D 1 Marton info@nikauhill.co.nz
Phone 063274131
Fax 06 3274133
Cell 0272407326
28/10/08
Welcome to our late October to November newsletter. I hope
you are having fun this weekend and are not too wet. What
a funny month it has been. Just when you think you are going
to scurry about in all those forgotten little corners in the
garden, the gumboots come on again and it’s back to the
shed. November is one of my favourite months as everything
is so sparkly. The hostas are lush, the trees and shrubs are
bright with unspoilt leaves and it is when the vegetables
start producing fresh salad greens. Life is good when the
ground warms up.
This article is about plants that have red, black or burgundy
foliage either all year or when in leaf. I like to use them
in the garden. I find the deep red rests my eyes and adds
some variation to all the green. It gives the garden a more
exotic look and provides different texture. If I am planning
a native garden the brown flax that are smaller growing make
a real feature. My favourite is Black Rage as it is not too
big. Dark Delight is another with more purple tones to the
dark foliage. For a very low growing plant you could use the
low growing Thumbelina or Surfer Boy, meulhenbeckia astonii
and the low growing corokias such as Black Prince. Coprosmas
with dark foliage are also useful. For shelter plantings there
are the leptospernums or ornamental manukas, pseudopanax,
and the big bronze tenax flax for wet areas along with the
really dark bronze cookianum flax for drier places. The hoheria
‘Purple Wave’ is ideal for foliage contrast in shelter
belts.
Flat and low growing groundcovers that are perennials make
a difference. We have a black clover called Trifolium or Black
Shamrock. It is great in a pot. Others I love are the black
parsley Anthriscus ‘Ravens Wing’ and the Heucheras
Amethyst, Quicksilver and Velvet Knight. Black mondo grass
is always popular. For native gardens there is a lovely rosette
plant called Geranium ‘Purple Passion’. I like a
Leptinella called Platts black as a groundcover in semi shade.
In the vegetable garden the fancy red lettuce leaves and purple
sage are perfect. The reddest grass we grow is the Japanese
blood grass, Imperata cylindrical ‘Red Baron’. There
are many red toned grasses.
For the bog or moist garden there are two ajugas with vivid
flowers in spring and Lysimachia c. purpurea with yellow flowers,
heucheras such as Amethyst and all the various hybrids. Succulents
come in red and burgundy. Aeonium Schwarzkopf is an old, tried
and true performer in cool or hot areas. The black rosettes
on 70cm stems are so easy to grow. Sedums and semperviviens
also come in red and black. Echeveria ‘Hot Chocolate’
not only has brown foliage but vivid red flowers in later
summer.
Continued >>>>>
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