Garden Plans: Foliage

These leafy plants look great from planting time until frost. The best part? No deadheading needed.

Ideal for an empty corner, this triangular plot, 8x8 feet on the short sides, requires moist but well-drained soil. Plants will thrive in full sun but perform adequately with less.

Flower Garden Plan

Garden Plant List

1. ‘Tropicanna canna’ (annual or perennial): Stout, upright stems bear broad, purple to purple-green leaves veined with pink to orange, plus large orange flowers. It grows to 6 feet tall. It is a perennial in Zone 8 and south and an annual elsewhere. One plant.
2. ‘Purple fountain grass’ (annual or perennial): Dense clumps of slender, arching, deep-red leaves with long, arching, brushlike flower spikes that start purplish and turn pinkish-tan. It is about 4 feet tall in bloom and grows in Zones 9 to 11. Two plants.
3. ‘Limelight’ four-o’clocks (annual): Bushy clumps of lime-green leaves with late-afternoon pink flowers. It is usually 2 to 3 feet tall at maturity. Six plants.
4. ‘Sedona’ coleus (annual): Once strictly a shade plant, coleus has newer cultivars that are exceptionally sun-tolerant. ‘Sedona’ bears broad leaves that range in color from deep orange to brick-red to pink-red. It grows to be 1 to 2 feet tall. Six plants.
5. ‘Purple Knight’ alternanthera (annual): Broad, branching clumps of smooth, deep-purple to near-black leaves in full sun; burgundy-bronze leaves in partial shade. It is 1 to 2 feet tall. Three plants.
6. ‘Sweet Caroline Light Green’ sweet potato vine (annual): Sweet Caroline’s restrained (not rampant) vines reach about 6 inches tall and about 3 feet across at maturity. Expect yellow-lobe leaves, not light-green. One plant.
7. ‘Sweet Caroline Bronze’ sweet potato vine (annual): Expect coppery-brown–lobe leaves. One plant.
8. ‘Sweet Caroline Purple’ sweet potato vine (annual): This Sweet Caroline cultivar offers deep-purple–lobe leaves that shelter small, pink flowers. One plant.