By Jimmy Williams

So, what if foliage is second-best to flowers?  Half a loaf is better than none, and by this time of year half a loaf begins to look pretty good.

The skeletal remains of yarrows, daylilies, irises and other such that clutter beds and borders in late summer can be mitigated by mums, asters, ornamental grasses and, perhaps, dahlias and still-nourishing annuals right up to frost.  These can’t (or shouldn't), however, be expected to carry the whole load.  Hence the importance of good foliage.

I am reluctant, but not apologetic, to mention the ubiquitous monkey grass, Liriope species, as an ingredient with high marks in furnishing late borders.  It is so commonly seen lining driveways and walks that nobody thinks of it as a fine perennial.

The variety 'Big Blue,' of which I have a nice clump lifted from Jim and Gloria Madison's garden, is blooming now, with taller and larger heads of blue (well, almost) bloom than is evident in more common types.  These will later bear black berries that will do the birds in good stead in winter.  Foliage of 'Big Blue' is, likewise, taller and wider and holds up well almost all year

Not far away I have the common variegated variety with leaves of cream and green and bloom of a light mauve color fronting a planting of a late Korean chrysanthemum, ‘Hillside Pink.'  A terrific combination that spices up that spot at just a critical time.  I use the variegated one, also, as a single clump in rock gardens, a good partner with finer foliaged dwarf conifers

Another generally disdained plant (but becoming less so) is the old-fashioned canna.   Once gardeners learn to get them out of a circle in the center of the "yard" and begin to incorporate them with other flowers in a mixed setting the difference is striking.

What a contrast to, say, ornamental grasses.  The great canna leaves of green, bronze, purple and, today, even red, are bold exclamation points with any finer foliage.   The flowers are simply a bonus.  And, unlike hostas, the leaves hold up in freshness right into autumn, just when they can contribute the most value.

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and there's more than one way to provide good foliage all season.  All fine leaves do not have to come from herbaceous things, such as we have mentioned so far.  Woody plants (shrubs, even trees) will do their part if handled correctly.

Everybody knows the common catalpa tree.  It grows here, in the wild, upwards of 100 feet tall and provides just about the most rot-proof wood around.

Who would think of planting a catalpa tree in the middle of a newer bed?  I'll tell you who: astute and daring gardeners.  At the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, outside Boston, we saw in July what can result from such a seemingly preposterous undertaking.

Catalpa trees bear large leaves up to 18 inches across that offer fodder for catalpa worms, caterpillars that will, unless checked by sprays or fishermen, denude the tree in short order.

These leaves will prove even larger than normal when a young tree is cut to the ground every spring and allowed to make just a few shoots.  By fall these will rise to 10 feet or so.

At Tower Hill a chartreuse-leaved form of catalpa was treated just that way.  The enormous leaves of striking color were foil to surrounding foliage and flowers of contrasting shapes and colors.  During our two-hour stay there, a crowd was always gathered around ogling the sight and, I might add, with great approval.

Paulownia tomentosa, commonly, though erroneously, called chinaberry hereabouts, can be subjected to the same regimen and will provide even larger leaves, easily two feet across, though only in green as far as I know.

Elsewhere on our garden tour that week we saw the common purple leaf sand cherry, available at just about every garden outlet at reasonable price, handled similarly.

Left to its own devices the sand cherry will make into a particularly awkward, leggy and gawky shrub of little use to man or beast save for pink spring bloom.

By forgoing the bloom and pollarding the thing to the ground every spring it will grow to about five feet over a season, continually providing fresh reddish-purple leaves with healthy gloss.

These are fine ingredients with almost any color combination and we saw the sand cherry used thus in several locations.