Having a garden or a corner of your home dedicated to plants with beautiful leaves just gives you a sense of serenity. There can be so much variation because of factors like having a sleek or bold appearance and shape, subtle or vibrant colors, and smooth or velvety textures! Since foliage can grow to an abundant amount, they’re a great alternative to covering some rough or unsightly patches in your garden!
Keep in mind that you can also grow some beautiful foliage in some vast pots inside your house – just make sure that they’re close to windows or natural sources of light. Of course, you’re going to need to choose which kind of plants you’re going to grow at home so that their color and shape still fits the aesthetic that you’re going for! Though a deep green always seems to be the safest choice that you could go for.
Growing Prayer Plants
Here we start the list with a relatively simple yet still elegant house plant. Prayer plants are the collective name given to the calatheas, ctenanthe, marantas, and stromanthes – since the leaves of these plants tend to rise upwards towards the evening, hence the prayer part. In addition to this fascinating quirk, prayer plants have stunning foliage – though that’s a characteristic common as we go along the list.
Although prayer plants aren’t really of the “low-maintenance” bunch, they can still do without much of the light they can get – but that doesn’t mean that you cut them off completely. You’re still going to need to be very attentive with the water you give them, the soil you plant them in, as well as the temperature that you keep them in.
Growing Caladiums
These unique and elegant plants received the name “angel wings” since the white arrow-headed leaves resemble the wings you would see on an angel’s back. The foliage of this plant comes in a combination of green, pink, red, and white. It’s pretty safe to say that you would have come across these at least once or twice already since they make great houseplants.
It would help if you aimed to grow your caladiums in partial shade as well-drained soil. If you get this right, you’ll achieve stunning color combinations for the entire season. However, these are only hardy in USDA zone 9. They seem to thrive in colder climates, so maybe try to grow them as annuals there!
Growing Cannas
If you’re looking for more exotic colors when it comes to foliage, look no further than the tropical foliage of the canna plant! The leaves of the canna plant grow rather long and resemble shorter banana leaves but what makes the canna plant so great is their colors. You can see them as just green, just red, a striped pattern, or anything in between!
Although these plants can bloom some flowers(comes in shades of red, yellow, and orange), gardeners tend to cut the flower stalks off since they’re more focused on just growing the leaves. You’re going to need lots of water and heat if you want to grow the canna plant. Consider planting them in a water garden if you think watering them might be too tedious.
Growing Dusty Millers
The most bizarre yet elegant-looking plant we have on the list goes by the name of dusty miller. A rather peculiar name that doesn’t do the appearance any justice. This plant is relatively resilient when it comes to drought conditions despite being so soft and powdery. It is also quite forgiving of many harsher growing conditions. However, you’re still going to need to avoid root rot with well-drained soil!
The dusty miller can also bloom smaller yellow flowers. However, since those are pretty small, the focus is more centered toward the silvery-gray leaves since their neutral color tends to allow all other plants to shine!
Growing Hostas
Back to the less bizarre-looking leaves, to the ones with deeper colors of blue, green, and gold, we have hostas. Suppose you’re looking for a plant that has both beautiful flowers and foliage. In that case, your answer lies with hostas, however like the canna plant from earlier, they also tend to be cut off so that the plant can be more focused on growing its stunning leaves.
Hostas prefer partial shade instead of the full sun, where their light shades of gold and yellow can reflect the sun to let the other plants enjoy that sun treatment. Like most other plants on this list, you’re going to want to plant them in well-drained soil so that root rot can be avoided.
Takeaway
Growing some lovely deep green leaves is always a great way to add some color to your environment, but don’t be taken too far into that concept! Plenty of plants can boast as much vibrancy, brightness, and elegance that you see in flowers. Since the focus is more on the leaves, they can last longer than most flowers do throughout the year!