WHAT is it with gardeners and coloured foliage? Why do purple, red or yellow leaves seem to appeal so strongly? Is it a positive aesthetic reaction to these colours or is it that garden centres push them so hard, as ‘exciting’ alternatives to the supposedly boring old green versions of shrubs, trees and perennials, that it is hard to escape buying them?
I admit that I used to be a devotee of coloured leaves, but that was
