Gord: It is a common mistake that people when they are planning there garden they spend a lot of time on the flower, but really there is a lot of different foliage and foliage colors, so we came to see Sheena Adams from urban greenery, hi how are you doing?
Sheena: Good.
Gord: Now you have a great little assortment of plants here, can we go for a few of them and look at these beautiful colors that you have.
Sheena: Absolutely this is sort of my collection of dark foliage plants. I love to see dark foliage being planted in the garden whether it is red or black or burgundy. It all goes under the category dark for me.
Gord: Dark, yes.
Sheena: Yes, so I bought some small growing ones and some taller growing ones so please to inspire some gardeners to put some in there yards.
Gord: Little more contrast in the garden never hurts.
Sheena: Absolutely so this one here is physocarpus diablo and it is the dark form of the nine barks it is stunning it can get 6 feet high by about 4 feet wide later in the summer it gets a beautiful white bloom that contrast so beautifully with the dark foliage
Gord: I have seen it, it just puffs it really does.
Sheena: It does, it really does it is an easy to grow plant, it does not get any diseases or pest it is highly recommended. I love that one.
Gord: Now this one is common, yet not so common.
Sheena: That is right, this is a cousin to the traditional jurcina, which gardeners purchase to put in there containers. It looks just like this, but it is green and it is quite often in winter but this is the Australian red one so it goes a little bit of a different color to the container. It is new on the market it is beautiful as well.
Gord: For those gardeners that are on the east coast do not try over watering this one.
Sheena: It is touchy but in a protective spot. I think you can usually do it, pull it under and over or hang or into the grass screen hose you can look forward of using it the following year.
Gord: I have seen them when they do actually rot on chop them of at the bottom.
Sheena: And let them come right back up. So I love that one that is the red jurcina, this here of course is a heuchera very popular this year. This is a plum putting a very dark foliage there is also heuchera this year. There are many different dark ones but this one I quite love because this is quite compact in the undersides nice it is kind of a very dark color. You can use them in sun, part sun or shade. My last of my favorite (voice overlap) it is a little clover, it is a dark clover it is trifolium dark dancer. It is a perennial it is zone 4, it is used of hanging baskets o containers or in the garden that it does come up with a white flower. It is very good for the soil it fixes the nitrogen, but it is well it has the beautiful burgundy on it. I love that one, it is cute really, cute with grasses.
Gord: That was great. Sheena again you have given us some great ideas, really thank you for letting us come over.
Gord Nickel has been a professional horticulturalist for almost 30 years. Taken from his popular TV show, Gord, who has been working in gardens since he was 15 years old, teaches easy, fun gardening skills.
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