In late May, gardens are dominated by the color green, the vibrant green of young leaves on the trees or the fresh green of grass as it accelerates its growth. ~Robin Lane Fox
In spring, the monochromatic white of winter is replaced by beautiful shades of green. During my meditation practice, I have learned about the chakras or energy centers of the body. One of the important chakras or centers of your body is the heart chakra. It is said that the heart chakra acts as the balance for all the other chakras. It guides our relationships and our interactions with people. And if our heart chakra is balanced then we are more accepting of ourselves and others and better equipped to follow our unique path.
The heart chakra is symbolized by green and signifies harmony, love, compassion, charity, creativity, health, abundance and nature. Green offers us energy for revitalization, and exemplifies all that is gardening especially the green foliage.
By June, the foliage throughout most of the garden has sprung up and leafed out. But it can be overshadowed by the proliferation of blooms in late spring. Green is the backdrop for the garden and it can just fade into the background if we let it. But I like to see what interesting foliage we might miss if we weren’t paying attention.
To celebrate all the new lush green foliage of late spring, I am linking in with Pam@Digging for her Foliage Follow Up on the 16th, and Christina@Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for her Garden Bloggers Foliage Day on the 22nd.
Hostas are my favorite foliage plant as summer knocks at the seasonal door.
I love the many different greens and textures of their leaves.
Even the stems can have different colors while the leaves can be more sword like. The variety is endless with hostas.
Of course some of the wildflowers of May show off their foliage all season. Mayapple is a favorite of mine for just this reason.
Peony foliage is one of the best kept secrets. It is a multi-colored delight in early season and again in fall if you leave the foliage up after the flowers bloom.
These are the bright new shiny leaves of my young American Linden tree or Basswood. I love the shiny bright green color that is covering the new young tree trunk.
I love when the evergreens put on new growth in spring. This miniature evergreen is buried all winter, but come spring it shows off in all its glorious greens until the snow envelops it once again.
I hope you enjoyed this small snippet of the greens growing in my garden right now. Once I get rid of the weeds that have been piling up, I’ll have more to show you.
I am a great appreciator of flowers-and all things green and growing. ~Mary Engelbreit
As the summer solstice approaches, join in with Seasonal Celebrations and tell us how you celebrate your summer or summer memories? Of course in the Southern hemisphere, we want to hear about your winter celebrations. Details are below.
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Come Join Us:
Seasonal Celebrations is a time for marking the change of seasons and what is happening in your part of the world during this time. I hope you will join in by creating a post telling us how you celebrate this time of year whether summer or winter or something else. Share your traditions, holidays and celebrations in pictures and words.
And it seems so appropriate to collaborate with Beth and her Lessons Learned meme. What lessons have you learned this past season of summer here in the North and winter in the South. Then tell us about your wishes, desires and dreams for this new season.
The rules are simple. Just create a post that talks about lessons learned and/or seasonal celebrations. If you are joining in for both memes please leave a comment on both our blog posts. Or if you are choosing to join only one meme, leave a comment on that blog post. Make sure to include a link with your comment.
Beth and I will do a summary post of our respective memes on the solstice (around the 21st of June). And we will keep those posts linked on a page on our blog. Your post should be linked in the weekend before the solstice to give us enough time to include your post in our summary. And if you link in a bit late, never fear we will include it on the special blog page (which I still have to create). The badges here can be used in your post. So won’t you join in the celebration!!
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Next up on the blog: On Friday, I will reveal all the Seasonal Celebrations of folks who have linked in for summer. And then Monday will be another Native plant profile. This time a favorite fern.
I am linking in with Michelle@Rambling Woods for her Nature Notes meme. It is a great way to see what is happening in nature around the world every Tuesday.
I hope you will join me for my posts once a month at Beautiful Wildlife Garden.
I can also be found blogging once a month at Vision and Verb.
As always, I’ll be joining Tootsie Time’s Fertilizer Friday.
I am also joining in I Heart Macro with Laura@Shine The Divine that happens every Saturday.
All original content is copyrighted and the sole property of Donna Donabella @ Gardens Eye View, 2010-2014. Any reprints or use of content or photos is by permission only.
It’s amazing how nature transforms from white to green. Interesting feature on foliage as we often focus on flowers and colors. But all the green is revitalizing. Great pictures, Donna 🙂
Thank you Loredana. I enjoy seeing great foliage which is hard with all the flowers right now. Glad you enjoyed the greening garden.
I found your thoughts on the information on the heart chakras very interesting. I, like you Donna, love the variations of the colors and textures in the hostas.
And I love the smell of the lindens when they are blooming, and you will be very popular with the bees when that tree comes into bloom for you! Great post!
I can’t wait for my linden to bloom Sue. Summer is a great time to really enjoy foliage…glad you enjoyed the post!
Your greens are delicious! I love foliage above all, and it is usually the first thing I consider when purchasing a plant. Our heat can be difficult on summer flowers, but all the variations of green can give a garden beauty and refreshment, even when those blooms are wilting.
Thanks Deb…indeed your garden is an oasis of luscious foliage that I enjoy seeing any season.
There are so many different shades of green – captured beautifully Donna!
Thanks Cathy…I love green so much I have several rooms painted in different shades.
Oh, I so agree with you on the new growth of the evergreens! Often overlooked, but it’s so beautiful. Foliage is fascinating in general. Great shots, Donna!
Beth, glad that you enjoyed all the wonderful foliage showing off in my garden now!!
Lovely to see all the different foliage in your garden, all the different colours and textures contrast each other well. The evergreens are the backbone in my garden and like you, I enjoy seeing the new shoots in bright green colours. Thanks for sharing with us.
I need to add more evergreens to the garden once I redesign some parts….that green texture all seasons is just so wonderful! Glad you liked the foliage flaunt for June Helene!
Hi Donna, Your hostas are beautiful – we love them too! Hope you are feeling better. Hugs, Beth
I am doing much better Beth…thank you… but still on light duty so no weeding yet! 🙂
anyone with a shade garden appreciates Hostas and learns to love the shades of green best of all! A soothing colour to feature just as summer blooms are hotting up. Your hostas are pristine – how do you keep the slugs and snails away?
p.s thanks for all your best wishes – seems we are both returning to health
So happy to hear from you Laura and that you are getting about….I will continue my healing thoughts for you!!
I spray my hostas with a garlic and citrus spray that keeps the deer away…it also seems to keep the slugs from eating the leaves too. A nice added bonus.
Wonderful Donna! Love those May Apples! I love the new shoots of the Blue Spruce – so soft and unlike the prickly needles from last season. And I love my Heucheras right now! I am also in love with a variegated Jacob’s Ladder at the nursery … Thank you for drawing our attention to summer’s foliage.
I have that variegated Jacob’s Ladder but I need to move it where I can enjoy it more…it gets swallowed up by others as the season goes on. Most of my heucheras are not visible due to the horsetail and my not being able to weed. But I love the foliage of heucheras as much as hosta. Hopefully I will save a few from complete anonymity in July. So happy you liked the foliage Kathy!
Lots of lovely green! I admire the foliage as much as the blooms.
So glad you are enjoying the foliage as well Karen!
wonderful foliage, so much variety, and so much more subtle than petals. Donna, nothing strikingly scented in the garden, so there may not be a post linked to yours after all. But I’m still using my nose …
No problem…I do appreciate you looking at your garden. So glad you enjoyed the foliage here.
How do you take such lovely photos? If I try to take photos of green, they all appear same. My eyes see the difference, but not my camera.
Oh you are too kind. I don’t know if I can explain it, but I look and see what catches my eye and is interesting or beautiful, and I try to see it through the lens, moving around with the light until I see what I like and then I snap many pictures hoping to have captured it.
Lovely foliage and photos.. I love the hostas, I wish I had some growing around my yard.. Enjoy the rest of your week!
They are one of the best foliage plants for sure Eileen…so glad you enjoyed the hostas growing here.
Love all your greens, Donna, especially the vibrant Linden tree! More and more I choose plants for their foliage rather than their transient flowers. Thank you for your kind comment on my blog today. I left a reply there, and wish Blogger enabled me to notify you of it. I am thinking of changing to WordPress. Do you recommend I do that? Enjoy the rapidly approaching summer and continue to heal. P. x
I do really like WordPress Pam but unsure what you would lose in transition. I will pop over to read your comment. I am doing a bit in the garden but not nearly as much as I would like but I know I cannot rush it as I feel the strain if I do.
My poor linden was chomped on by deer and all the lower leaves eaten. I had to spray it with my Deer Off.
The longer I garden, the more interested I become in foliage, too. It was fun adding different textures and color variations to my garden this spring. It gives the plantings much more depth.
I agree and plan to really pay attention as I make changes to certain areas.
We have hostas along the deck that we planted and I do enjoy them… Wonderful texture and color… Michelle
They are a great go to foliage plant for shade in summer…they take such adverse conditions and still keep on going.
some lovely restful greens Donna and plenty of textures too, Frances
Thanks Frances….now to continue that throughout the garden.
Lovely images this month Donna, your Hostas are beautiful.
Thanks Christina. The cool spring kept the slugs away as well as the and the drier weather.
I love your hostas too Donna and the Mayapples–how wonderful. Susie
Thanks Susie….It seems the shade garden is the one where few weeds have taken over as it is so tightly planted. So I was able to capture wonderful foliage there.