Fall color and grassy plumes for December Foliage Follow-Up

December 16, 2017


Despite our one-day snow last week, it still looks pretty autumnal in my garden this Foliage Follow-Up. The Japanese maple stubbornly refuses to acknowledge fall until December, when the Christmas lights go up on the house and red balls go up on the agave by the door. Then, out of solidarity or perhaps a sense of tardiness, it blushes red too. Well, this year it’s more of a rusty red than the brilliant red of more congenial years for fall color in Austin.

Even the native river ferns, sheltered from frost by a live oak canopy overhead, are green and unwithered. Beyond, native dwarf palmettos and golden sedge along the foundation and a potted agave, sotol, and hesperaloe add shades of evergreen. Yellow-variegated ‘Alphonse Karr’ bamboo adds its own bright foliage and stems in the back corner of the gravel garden.


The ‘Scott’s Turf’ sedge “lawn” has gone a bit tawny in response to the chilly weather, but the white-and-green variegated flax lily is unchanged by a hard freeze as yet — and I am crossing my fingers that this year it doesn’t get knocked back by one.


No such worries with tough native grasses like pine muhly, which is putting on a fine autumnal show with an airy scrim of tan wand-like inflorescences.


I love how it looks with similar fireworks-like explosions of ‘Color Guard’ yucca and Texas sotol.


The frosted, wine-colored and toothy leaves of ‘Burgundy Ice’ dyckia look good no matter the season (so long as we don’t get a prolonged deep freeze) and contrast nicely with the tiny leaves of white skullcap and chartreuse billows of bamboo muhly.

This is my December post for Foliage Follow-Up. Fellow bloggers, what leafy loveliness is happening in your garden this month? Please join me in giving foliage its due on the day after Bloom Day. Leave a link to your post in a comment below. I’d appreciate it if you’ll also link to my post in your own — sharing link love! I look forward to seeing your foliage faves.

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6 responses to “Fall color and grassy plumes for December Foliage Follow-Up”

  1. Pretty grasses! And I love the Christmas lights
    It looks to be a colder than normal Winter this year in north Mississippi. If not for Pine and Cedar trees we would be all grey and brown. But I found new green sprouts on my Hellebores, (such hopeful plants!), so that is my Foliage Follow-Up for this month.
    https://leasmenagerie.blogspot.com/2017/12/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-december-2017.html
    Have a wonderful week-end!
    and
    Merry Christmas!

  2. Gail says:

    Your garden looks beautiful this winter! My leafy loveliness is Hypericum frondosum. It has the best late fall color.

  3. Anna K says:

    Love the red balls on the Agave – so sweet! Your garden survived your snowfall just beautifully, it seems, and that grass is beyond wonderful. A few shots from my garden here: https://flutterandhum.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/foliage-followup-day-december-2017/

    Thanks for hosting, and Merry Christmas, Pam!

  4. Wow Pam! I always love visiting your garden and am especially enjoying that you are sharing the front of your property. As a big fan of foliage, I appreciate the striking combinations you have created with the grasses,ferns, agave and sedge. Thank you for hosting and best wishes for a wonderful holiday season. Here is my Foliage Follow-Up: http://landscapedesignbylee.blogspot.com/2017/12/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-foliage.html#.WjVt8VWnGUk

  5. Kris P says:

    Your front garden looks wonderful, Pam. Your Japanese maple is beautifully pruned and the leaves, if rusty, look much better than those on my ‘Sango Kaku’, which the wind and low humidity shriveled and turned a bleached brown almost overnight. I’ve just a few miscellaneous foliage shots to share this month: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2017/12/foliage-follow-up.html

  6. Your sedges and grasses are fabulous, Pam! That would be so nice to have autumn Japanese Maple foliage last into December. I love the yucca, sotol, and muhly combination. Thanks for hosting! https://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-flower-future-flowers-and-fun-foliage.html