Today is Foliage Follow-Up, a celebration of great foliage plants on the day after Bloom Day, and I’m celebrating the return to nurseries all over Austin of one of my favorite foliage plants for dry shade or morning sun: ‘Sparkler’ sedge (Carex phyllocephala ‘Sparkler’).

For the past 2 or 3 years, it has been AWOL from local nurseries after our regional grower got flooded out. I mourned its absence and treasured even more the ‘Sparkler’ sedges already planted in my garden. This spring, it has returned to nurseries in a big way, and I’ve bought nearly a dozen plants. Dry shade? I have lots of that.

What else am I loving right now? Coral reef sedum (Sedum tetractinum ‘Coral Reef’) planted in a lady’s-head pot. I’ve tried any number of plants for her hair over the years, including foxtail fern and other succulents. This one looked perfect from day one — like ringlets — and held up all winter with no special protection through our unusually cold 17F degree low.

Now it’s blooming and looks even better.

Leaving my own garden, here are some very cool foliage plants spotted at The Natural Gardener nursery last week. Exhibit A: awesome agaves!

Another beautiful agave, which looks like ‘Green Goblet’ to me, even though the tag says American agave hybrid. I think that’s a variegated yucca in the background.

Variegated flax lily, in the purple pot, is one of my favorite shade plants, although it is prone to winter damage. It looks great in a pot. But I admit what I really want to show you here is the sinuous cedar bench. Someone has turned a curving cedar (juniper, actually) branch or trunk into a one-of-a-kind bench, and I absolutely love it.

I also love this, which has nothing to do with foliage, but we’re here so I’m going to show it to you: a clever fence made of little red wagons! The Natural Gardener has really gotten creative with their fencing and signage lately, and this is just one of the wonderful new features you’ll find there (near the old soil yard-turned-parking area).

This is my April 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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