September Foliage Follow Up: Hot Fall Hues

It's not just the blooms who are sporting a hot color palette this fall. Foliage is following suit, starting with this interesting new "Thai" Chinese evergreen that I couldn't resist at my local garden center:

He's currently hanging out on the front porch with a few exotic friends, like a fat-leaf hoya and feathery dracaena:

Now that he's in place, I just love looking down at the progression of fun foliage on this side of the steps:

Speaking of that side of the front yard, the Japanese maple endlessly intrigues me.  For most of the day, it looks deep and cool and mysterious (as above)... but when the sun goes down, it sets the maple ablaze:

Here's a close up view of the leaves, with their tips tinged red:

Sunlight does the same thing for the carex buchannii. Except that when it's not backlit and glowing, it appears more neutral than cool-toned. This may have something to do with its planting companions, however:

Other times, cool-toned planting companions only serve to highlight the foliage heat... as shown by this dusty miller foliage against the molten backlit leaves of 'Purple Dragon' coleus:

And that pretty much covers all of the hot September foliage highlights here in my garden.  For more leaf love, check out Pam's September Foliage Follow-Up Post over at Digging.

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A Hot Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - September 2012

I wasn't quite sure where the summer went... and I'm not sure where fall is going, either!  At this rate, I might be caught up on everything by the end of the year.  (Might.)  

But these hot-colored late summer blooms aren't going to wait for me to finish anything, so I'd better enjoy them while I can! And maybe stop to appreciate this crazy pitcher plant, too:

From the top:  'New Look Red' celosia, with red pennisetum in the background.  "No Tag" lantana above a cascade of 'Silver Falls' dichondra.  The nepenthes that I planted in a self-watering hanging basket this spring--one of the best things I did in the garden this year!

Also blooming in my garden:  'Black & Blue' salvia guaranitica, multiple Japanese anemones, two types of caryopteris, 'Hameln' pennisetum, 'Red Rocks' penstemon, 'Acapulco Orange' agastache, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, tomatillos, 'Strawberry Margarita' portulaca, 'African Blue' basil, burgundy annual salvia, 'Rotstrahlbusch' panicum, 'Sioux Blue' sorghastrum nutens, perennial plumbago, 'Victoria Blue' salvia, 'Dragonwing' begonia, Mexican heather, lonicera sempervirens, and 'Blue Daze' convolvulus.

To see more of what's in bloom around the world this week, visit the May Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post at May Dreams Gardens.