Watch as new foliage unfurls
Shiny silver, rich plum and fresh green leaves complement bright spring flowers
As March warms up, new foliage begins to appear against the bare earth. Plants with silvered or ‘frosted’ foliage illuminate any spring border and one of the best is brunnera or Siberian bugloss. Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ has white-washed leaves finely veined and margined in mid-green, and sprays of tiny gentian-blue flowers. ‘Looking Glass’ has more silvered foliage with dark-stemmed violet-blue flowers. Another is ‘Alexander’s Great’, a giant brunnera that looks great in a pot. Some heucheras and heucherellas share the same silvery patina. Specialist nursery Heucheraholics has a new heuchera called ‘Silver Gilt’, with pink-toned pewter foliage etched charcoal black. ‘Hocus Pocus’ is a similar colour, with lobed foliage. The widely sold ‘Silver Scrolls’ is hard to beat with leaves curling up and down like waves, revealing a red underside. Give them an open, warm position, or use in pots, because many lose their foliage in cold winters. Always check for vine weevil by tugging the stems, and dig up any that flag, pronto! For woodland shade there are excellent forms of Arum italicum ‘Marmoratum’, which has arrowheadshaped green leaves splashed silvery white. Don’t plant this invader among treasures; use it in dank, damp places where others things refuse to grow. Some autumn-flowering Cyclamen hederifolium also have pewtered or marbled foliage that glows in winter light.
Plants with silvered foliage illuminate any spring border
Sun-loving celandines (Ficaria verna) bear small lacquered flowers in yellows, oranges and whites. They need careful positioning and some gardeners rue the day they ever planted one because they all self-seed and produce tiny bulbils. However, I do find room for maroonleaved ‘Brazen Hussy’ and frilly cream ‘Collarette’ with marbled foliage. Plum-coloured foliage can get lost against the bare earth at this time of year, unless the leaves have a silver patina or red back. Two tried and tested heucheras include ruffled ‘Purple Petticoats’ and shimmering burgundy ‘Plum Pudding’. Some early-shooting perennials also provide dark-toned foliage and Phlox paniculata ‘Starfire’ and hylotelephium ‘Karfunkelstein’ rise above ground early, smouldering like coals on a fire. Paeonia cambessedesii, a Majorcan species peony, is best tucked away in a south-facing, well-drained hotspot. It produces metallic, pink-sheened leaves and fleeting mid-pink flowers in spring. Most spring foliage comes in shades of green and by March everything is beginning to burgeon. The rounded, shiny pennies of Asarum europaeum, a woodlander from central Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and west Siberia, is a Tom Stuart-Smith favourite, popularised at Chelsea. It makes good edging in shade and could be used with ferns, along with crinkle-edged wood sage, Teucrium scorodonia ‘Crispum’, which has a habit of catching raindrops along its margins. And with luck and fine weather, the new heart-shaped foliage of Epimedium versicolor ‘Sulphureum’ shimmies along its wiry stems, like the chorus from Swan Lake, topped by pale yellow flowers. ✿
FICARIA VERNA ‘BRAZEN HUSSY’
Lesser celandine with heart-shaped bronze leaves and starry gold flowers (Mar-May). H10cm (4in) S80cm (32in)
HEUCHERA ‘SILVER SCROLLS’
Semi-evergreen veined burgundy leaves topped with silver; sun or part shade. H30cm (12in) S40cm (16in)
ASARUM EUROPAEUM
Ground-covering wild ginger has attractive glossy foliage; full or part shade. H15cm (6in) S30cm (12in)
EPIMEDIUM VERSICOLOR ‘SULPHUREUM’
Evergreen perennial with yellow flower sprays (Apr-May) on wiry stems; full or part shade. H45cm (18in) S75cm (30in)