Have A Colorful Garden All Year Long (NAPSA)—Gardeners workall year long to foster a bounty of bold colors, but it can be a challenge. Even if you havea lot of flowers, they probably don’t bloom all year round. One suggestion is to look for interesting colored foliage. Leaf color can range from bright yellow to burgundy, close to black and even blue. This is a great way to add color when nothingis in bloom. Yellow foliage really stands out and contrasts well against green plants. The experts at Monrovia, a leading grower of premium plants, suggest such stunning options as the Gold Coast Improved Juniper, with its dramatic golden-yellow foliage; the Sunsation Barberry, which maintains its golden color with an orange cast most of the season; and the Limemound Spiraea, which has bright lemon-yellow leaves that turn orange-red in the fall. Increasingly popular are plants that offer dark foliage in reds, purples and maroon. The Diablo Ninebark has intense reddishpurple leaves, while the Heart of Darkness Foamy Bells has fascinating heart-shaped leaves that are cool mint-green with a slight dark burgundy center. Sizzling Pink Fringeflower is an excellent choice for burgundy foliage. This easy-to-grow plant has rich pink flowers that appear throughout the year against wine-colored leaves. The new Caruba Black Good Luck Plant has strappy leaves that are nearly black. Blue foliage—yes, blue—can look very striking in the garden. Lots of easy-to-grow and waterwise conifers have a blue tinge, like the Dwarf Alberta Blue Spruce, Icee Blue Juniper and French Blue Scotch Pine. The Eola Sapphire Hosta has large, Photo credit: Peter A. Bold andbrilliant foliage, like this CannaTropicanna, is one way to have color in your garden throughoutthe year. thick-puckered leaves that get bluer andbluer as the plant ages. Another hot trend is variegated plants. Variegation meansthereis more than one color on theleaf. Some stunners are the Canna Tropicana, which has huge burgundy leaves striped with yellow, orange and red. Thefoliage of the new Strawberry Lemonade Mandevilla has three distinct colors— mint green, cream and white flushed with pink. The Banana Split Yucca has long soft leaves with a wide yellow center with gray-green edges. It looks very striking in containers. In addition to bringing yearround color into the garden, distinctive foliage colors and shapes can provide the architectural design look that many top designers favor. For moreterrific sugges- tions for colorful foliage, visit www.Monrovia.com.
