Foliage Plant Growing Methods and Care Tips
Foliage plants are endlessly varied and quietly understated, and they are an important part of the plant world. Foliage plants can beautify the living environment, improve air quality, reduce environmental pollution, and also benefit people's physical and mental health and enhance their quality of life.
Foliage plants generally refer to plants with beautiful leaf shapes and colors, native to hot, humid tropical rainforests, requiring less light, such as Calathea species and ferns. Most woody plants belong to shrubs or shrub-like plants, such as Terminalia mantaly, Schefflera arboricola, Polyscias fruticosa, and so on. They are further divided into herbaceous plants and woody plants; herbaceous plants are mostly perennial herbaceous plants such as Peperomia species.
Morphological Characteristics of Foliage Plants
The leaves of different plant species vary in size, shape, color, and texture, and even the same plant can show differences. They display high diversity and ornamental value.
Leaf Size
The leaves of plants grown in parks vary greatly in size. Conifers such as Chinese juniper, Japanese cedar, and yew have small or narrow, elongated leaves that are dense and hard, mostly growing in temperate and subtropical regions, and are very suitable for hedges. They can be planted as specimens, in pairs, or in rows. Species in the palm family, cycad family, banana family, and many Araliaceae trees often bear huge pinnate or palmate leaves, but the total number of leaves on the whole tree is not large; they have a graceful and elegant character, are mostly native to tropical regions, and are suitable for specimen planting or mass planting. Most plants have medium-sized leaves in round, ovate, elliptical, and other shapes, giving a full and rounded impression, and are suitable for various planting forms.
Leaf Shape
The leaf shapes of garden plants are endlessly varied, each with its own characteristics. The leaves of trident maple are pentagonal, those of Chinese tallow are diamond-shaped, those of Beijing lilac are heart-shaped, and those of Chinese redbud are nearly round. The leaves of Hankow willow are lanceolate, while the leaves of conifers such as Chinese pine and deodar cedar are needle-shaped. Some plants have even more distinctive leaf shapes, such as ginkgo with fan-shaped leaves, Bauhinia with ox-hoof-shaped leaves, and Schefflera octophylla with palmate leaves.
Some species even show differences among leaves on the same plant; for example, mulberry, silkworm thorn, and paper mulberry have highly variable leaf shapes. A single tree can simultaneously have entire leaves and deeply and shallowly lobed leaves, and the flowering lilac plant also has two leaf types, elliptical leaves and lobed leaves.
Leaf Color
The leaf colors of garden plants are very rich. Although most are green, there are distinctions among dark green, light green, yellow-green, and blue-green, and they change with the seasons. In early spring, as leaf buds first open, the color of new green shifts from pale to deep. Many plants also show red, yellow, and other colors on their new leaves; for example, the new leaves of golden ninebark and golden elderberry are golden yellow, while those of tree of heaven and red tip photinia are red.
In summer, the leaf color of purple-leaf bird cherry turns from green to purple-red, unlike other plants. In autumn, as temperatures drop, the pigments in the leaves change, and the colors of trees become even more varied, with red and yellow forming autumn's brilliant hues. Some plants also show multiple colors on their leaves; for example, the upper surface of Elaeagnus leaves is grayish green and the lower surface is silvery white. In addition, plants such as Japanese barberry and purple-leaf sand cherry have purple leaves year-round.
The arrangement of colored-leaf plants should follow the principles of color matching; they can be mass planted, planted in broad beds, planted in clumps, or planted as specimens, with mass planting winning through overall effect. The larger the area, the better the effect and the longer the ornamental period. Specimen planting mainly highlights the effect of the individual plant and often requires plants with a long foliage display period and vivid colors, such as Japanese maple and ginkgo. Most foliage plants need good light conditions, appropriate temperature differences, and humidity; when these conditions are met, the leaf color can become more vivid. Colored-leaf plants are best set against a background of evergreen trees, which makes the color contrast sharper and the landscape more beautiful.
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