Florabundance sale features unusual foliage

7:01 p.m., Aug. 24, 2005--“Flowers come and go, but the leaves of variegated plants provide constant interest in the landscape,” Kate Murray, sale coordinator for the Fall Florabundance Plant Sale sponsored by University of Delaware Botanic Gardens Friends, said. “Colorful foliage punches up the typical green of a garden with plants in a range of colors from cream, yellow and gold to pale green, purple and pink.”

A wide variety of foliage plants will be on sale at this year’s annual fall sale from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 10, behind Townsend Hall. The more than 180 plant varieties will include unusual selections not readily available in the local garden marketplace.

For the shade garden, the plant topping the list is Helleborus argutifolius ‘Janet Starns’, a unique form of hellebore. Each leaflet is speckled white, and a light-pink background appears on new growth. In late winter, the clumps are topped with 20-inch spikes of light green flowers. There’s also a stunning lungwort called Pulmonaria ‘Majeste’, which produces shiny silver leaves surrounded by slight-green veining.

“For the shade gardener, we have a miniature green dragon known as Pinellia cordata, which displays cyclamen-type leaves and a dwarf version of Jack in the Pulpit’s flower,” Murray said, as well as a Chinese ginger, Asarum splendens, which sports dark-green leaves heavily adorned with silver blotches.”

A Japanese forest grass with the tongue-twister name of Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ will also be for sale. This grass produces brilliant yellow leaves striped with green on arching stems. Hosta ‘On Stage’, which displays large yellow leaves with two-toned irregular green margins that streak the midrib, also will be available.

“For gardeners in need of sun-loving plants, we will have Coreopsis ‘Tequila Sunrise’ with its narrow green leaves edged in gold and nonstop yellow flowers,” Murray said, “as well as Ajuga reptans ‘Golden Glow’, which has green and creamy-yellow leaves topped with a bluish-purple late-spring flower.”

For vertical interest in the sun garden, Murray recommends a variegated feather reed grass called Calamagrostis acutiflora (x) ‘Avalanche’. Four feet tall, this spectacular grass features a wide, white band down the center of the blade. Also in the sale is Symphytum grandiflorum ‘Goldsmith’, a compact variegated comfrey topped with pale pink tubular flowers and Hieracium maculatum ‘Leopard’ or spotted hawkweed, which forms a low mound of blue green leaves flecked with rich maroon-purple, daisy-like flowers on tall stems.

For the indoor garden, there is Tolmiea menziesii ‘Taft’s Gold,’ commonly called piggyback plant. It has light green leaves with creamy gold blotches and forms new small plants at the top of mature leaves.

A complete plant sale list is available on the UDBG Web site at [http://ag.udel.edu/organizations/udbgfriends/plantsale/info.htm]. Quantities are limited and prices vary, so come early for the best selection.

Photos by Danielle Quigley

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