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If you’re looking to add
a few specimen plants to your landscape that will also add a little jazz or
pizzazz with foliage colors, I’ve got a few suggestions for you!
In the ornamental tree
category, take a look at the ‘Forest Pansy’ Redbud. Basically the same
growing habits of the regular red bud, as well as the rose purple spring
flowers, Forest Pansy adds to the landscape with these outstanding reddish
purple heart shaped leaves, which by the way is also the fall colors of the
leaves.
Or how about this one?
It’s called ‘Summer Chocolate’ Mimosa. It is a mimosa, which means
hardiness borderline here, but seems to be a pretty tough selection. And of
course, the show are these ferny compound leaves, which start out bronze
green and turn to a rich burgundy-chocolate for the summer. And yes, they
have the showy pink powder-puff summer flowers as well.
Don’t forget one of my
favorites - Tiger Eye’s Sumac. This ornamental grows 6-8 feet tall and 6-8
feet wide, and has a wonderful tropical look with the deeply cut lacy leaves
that start out chartreuse and turn to a bright yellow, which contrasts
nicely with the purplish pink stems.
And to top off the list,
one plant that I’m really impressed with, and that’s ‘Black Lace’
Elderberry. It somewhat resembles a cut leaf Japanese maple with the dark
purple finely cut foliage, and these wonderful pink flowers really add some
show in the late spring. Black Lace Elderberry can reach 5-6 feet in height
by 4-5 feet wide, can be grown as a shrub or small tree, and is extremely
hardy and easy to grow.
It does just as well in
the ground or as a container plant, and makes a great substitute for the cut
leaf Japanese maples - with a little added spring color, without the maple
leaf scorch and it is definitely much hardier! |
