Hey, there might be something to all this talk about the morning light. I caught it just right the other day as I was going out to pick up the paper. The sword-like foliage in back is Sisyrinchium striatum, surrounded by heathers. A hinoki cypress is the dark shape in the middle (it actually is frosted with golden edges when not in shadow). In the foreground is an unnamed grass from a neighbor, with a bit of Stachys ‘Helen Von Stein’ peeking into the left corner.

The same cast of characters backing up a native Madrone.

Carex buchanii adds color between Birds’ Nest Spruce and Iris foliage.

Stepping back, the spruce is crowding into a mislabeled Viburnum, but they do look pretty together.

The bright new growth on the weeping Norway spruce is always dramatic, but even more so catching the light like this.

All of the above photos were taken from the back side of Delusional Drive to take advantage of the light. Moving around to the front, Artemisia ‘Valerie Finnis’ is backed up by Sedum ‘Cape Blanco’. Valerie came from Linda (Whatsitgarden) in all its silvery goodness. Let’s hear it for Pam (Digging) for dreaming up Foliage Follow-Up and hosting it every month.

I’m wishing I had planted more Cotoneaster horizontals variegata, as it is turning into a nice spreading ground cover.

The two-tone leaves give it a silvery look, and you can even spot the occasional red berry in there.

Ozthamnus ‘Sussex Silver’ adds another shimmery element. It presents a pruning challenge, getting scruffy after blooming. So far, I’m finding it worth the trouble and R enjoys wielding his loppers in its direction.

One of several successful bargains from Means, this Deodora cedar (sorry, that’s all I know) brings a golden glow to Delusional Drive.

Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, is filling in nicely for another ground cover. The red berries are tasty, too.

Only a few leaves remain on the mislabeled Viburnum, but they glow to make up for it.

Ditto for Hydrangea quercifolia.

Pam over at Digging has more foliar fun in store, as she does every month for Foliage Follow Up.

I always have to have at least one pot of coleus to brighten the porch area. A couple of 4″ pots from the super market soon fill a good sized pot with color to rival any blossom.

Each year there’s a new batch of varieties from which to choose. The name of the big, dramatic one in back escapes me, but the one in front is ‘Aurora Black Cherry’, with a pot of basil in the foreground.

Out in the garden proper, leaves are turning and the dogwoods are producing their charming fruits.

Beauty berries are plumping up and taking on that metallic sheen.

Some of the best leaf color comes from the tree peonies and will only get better until the end.

Where once were pretty little white flowers, now dangle plump, shiny purple fruits on the Lecesteria formosa.

Here’s Hypericum inodorum  ‘Asbury Purple’, sporting shiny black berries to top off the foliage that gives it its name. Other foliage fanatics will join Pam for Foliage Follow-Up just as we do every month the day after Bloom Day. Don’t be left out.

And now there is another foliage meme here, by Christina, on the habit-forming blog, Creating my own garden of the Hesperides. Check it out and expand your horizons with even more fabulous foliage.

The beautiful bronze foliage is all I ask of Rogersia ‘Bronze Peacock’. It produced a single pink flower last year and I left it in anticipation of the promised seed head. It underwhelmed, so this year it will be “off with their heads”.

The weeping birch, Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula Purpurea’ will turn a deeper shade of purple as time goes by.

The emerging leaves are more coppery and dangle in a zigzag path.

After the petals fall, these reddish drupes remain on the Berberis replicata.

Here’s a shot from the back side of Delusional Drive. It depends almost exclusively on foliage.

Most of the conifers are frosted with light green growing tips.

Japanese forest grass spills over the rock border edging.

Euphorbia ‘Excaliber’ is at its very best right now, so you will possibly forgive me for always including it in May’s Foliage Follow Up, hosted, as always, by fellow foliage worshiper Pam. Later in the month, Foliage Follow Up goes by another name, and can be found here, where Christina’s blog, ‘Creating my own Garden of the Hesperides’ has been influencing many of my plant choices lately.

My focus on foliage this month is all about newly emerging leaves. The branches of the Berberis thunbergii purpurea have acquired a hoary coating of lichen. I’m not sure how healthy it is for the plant, but I do like the way it sets off the tiny, colorful leaves.

I spent many years mistaking these small buds on the magnolia for flower buds (false hope springs eternal). Now that it has finally graced us with blooms the past two years, I can recognize them for what they are. The flower buds have a fuzzy surface, while these are smooth.

Peony foliage is super satisfying from beginning to end. Here a tree peony, ‘Chinese Dragon’, begins to unfurl.

Herbaceous peonies come up from the ground bright red, there on the right, while Alchemilla mollis captures water droplets in its pleated leaves on the left.

The new leaves of Oxalis ‘Klamath Ruby’ are folded up, showing the purple that will be harder to see once they open fully.

Tender little poufs of leaves decorate the tips of Hydrangeas’ otherwise bare branches. This variegated lacecap is ‘Wave Hill’.

Another Hydrangea, this time noid mophead that blooms in a heavenly shade of blue.

You can see why these are called trout lilies when you look at the markings on the leaves. I have several Erythroniums but this is the best of the lot. When it blooms, the pagoda blossom will be creamy ivory in color. I wish I knew its full name so that I could order more.

Sedums are some of the first things to poke their little noses above ground.

Euphorbia ‘Excaliber’ pleases me most right now, when it looks almost like a ground cover with beautifully patterned leaves.

Hard to believe that Acanthus spinosa will soon dominate this berm. I have to dig up several of the outliers each spring just to keep it from swallowing everything else. Plenty to share, and it is one of my favorite plants in the garden. Now I’ll send you to Digging, where Pam can connect you with other foliage fans, as she does each month on the 16th (I’m obviously late, but Pam is forgiving (she is a gardener after all).

I’m liking the textural effect of this composition. The planting along Delusional Drive is coming along. Some editing will soon be in order due to my impatient nature. I think Grace referred to it as “cramscaping”.

The heathers almost look like they are in bloom, but it’s just because I didn’t do any cutting back. What I really like about it is the coloring of the new growth.

This is a very common Juniper, Juniperus procumbens ‘Green Mound’, but I love the way it mounds and creeps (8″ tall by 6′ wide, so look out, neigboring plants!). There I go again.

I love the way this noid yucca catches the light. I think I need a couple more of these in this border so that it doesn’t look like an afterthought.

Cryptomeria japonica spiralis ‘Granny’s Ringlets’ is slow growing so far, but will eventually reach ten plus feet…oh dear.

The drive winds from the road to our house, so it is impossible to get a wide shot of the whole thing. This is what one section looked like in 2014.

Here it is, taken from the same spot, today. Softened by fog, but not much I can do about that.

Looking back from the other direction.

And stepping back further you can see the extension that is sparser. I add some each year, to eventually line the entire drive with a border that is almost exclusively evergreen and foliage dependent. A few of the shrubs, most noticeably Ceanothus and Arcostaphylos, do flower, but that is almost incidental to my intent. That is why I decided to focus on Delusional Drive for this winter installment of Pam’s Foliage Follow Up.