Green

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Green is a neglected color in my garden.  I walked the garden yesterday morning, and thought about green.  There's just a tiny bit of lawn...
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...which only appears lushly extravagantly green when it hasn't been mowed for several weeks.  Emerald isn't natural to California.  Our grassy hills are tawny most of the year.  Shrub and trees tend to be a deep somber green, because the climate is so sunny--foliage must stand up to constant bright heat and do so on little water.  Leaves must be tough.
Native Toyon
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Native Oak
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When we were kids, we drew trees with a green crayon, and colored all the grass green--but so many trees and shrubs are not solid, uniform green.  Magnolia grandiflora shows considerable bronze via the backs of its leaves.
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I discovered surprising beauty in the neighbor's Raphiolepsis, which is awkwardly pruned into cubes--but look at the beautiful variety of foliage colors:
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I have a great weakness for foliage that isn't green.  Silver, for example:
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Or silver-bronze:
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Chartreuse:
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Blue:
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Burgundy:
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 Anything but pure green.
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I'm missing out.  The pure simplicity of pure green...
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...is soothing and enchanting.  It's so alive.
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 There are endless kinds of green.  Silvery or pure.
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 Dotted and glossy...
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Green like a green apple...
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A green that is nearly blue.
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Bronze-tipped...
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Purple-backed.
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Grey-green.
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A mix of mid and light.
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Green that varies on the same plant.
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 Accented by colored stems.
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Sun-bleached tips.
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Plain green is straightforward and honest. 
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I overdo it with the wild variegation.
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Plain green isn't really so plain.
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It can create mysterious black shadows.
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It can sparkle.
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Be velvety.
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 Ribbony.
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 Satiny.
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Alright, I'm convinced.  Green is good.  
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After my garden walk,  I went back into the house, to discover that in my long absence, the puppies had been having their own meditation about green.  Again!
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Comments

  1. A beautiful talk about the greens! I love the fresh green, but the grey and blue greens belong more to your climate I think, together with the goldens, bronze and purples it looks perfect. Your puppies are fun, but my border collie of 11 sometimes does the same thing with his toys, when there is only a tiny hole in it and he sees the stuff in the toy, yes...... then he has a start to destroy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes the fresh green is not really normal here. If you look only at the native plants an emerald gree becomes very odd looking.

      Oh dear, still destroying at age eleven? Clever boy, keeping you busy! ;0)

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  2. So many greens in all of its beautiful shades, lots of beautiful foliage in its various colours dear Hoover.
    xoxoxo ♡

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  3. So is all of this green in your neighbor's garden? Seems like you would have plenty of green with all of the roses...

    Love the lime (?) photo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, that's my garden. The roses are green, yes, but I guess I never look at the foliage!

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  4. Green is beautiful in all its incarnations as your photos demonstrate so well, although I admit that there is something special about that bright emerald green version. Sadly, most of my grass lawn couldn't be remotely described as "green" right now...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The guy came and mowed, so the grass here doesn't look so green anymore. I so enjoy seeing east coast blogs and UK blogs because everything is so emerald. It's a novelty. We're so used to greys and silvers and olives and tawny here.

      Delete

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