Just look, and look again

I know my goal as a gardener is to create a garden -- a community of plants that works artistically and as a habitat. Viewing it as a whole is important, to ensure that everything is pleasing, and works with its neighbors to create the whole.

Sometimes though I just can't stop focusing on the plants. Seeing them in different ways, from various angles, under different lighting conditions.

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The textures, colors, and forms are just so incredible when scrutinized. Sometimes the tiny details are the best parts of the plant, like the purple pedicels of the otherwise all-green Tradescantia virginiana:

Or the how-did-this-ever-happen patterns on the leaves of 'Painter's Palette' Persicaria, common enough but less than a year old in my garden so still new to me:

Sometimes it's just the right lighting that accentuates details that I might otherwise miss, like the wrinkly crinkly unfolding leaves of Alocasia macrorrhizos, upright elephant ears:

Big leaves are some of my favorites, especially if they have a little color to them as does the banana-like Ensete maurelii:

The unique foliage of Pelargonium crispum 'Cy's Sunburst', so lemony to both the eyes and the nose:

I've taken a look at this before (even though I can't find the post!) but the Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' looks amazing from any distance, but reveals its maze-like skin patterns only up close:

Yes, I'm crazy about great foliage, but there are wonderful things about many blooms too. 'Lady in Red' Hydrangea always captivates me:

I should probably stop here, as I could go on and on and on -- as it sometimes feels when I'm walking around the garden "for a minute" and an hour later finally make it back inside.

Maybe I like focusing on individual plants so much because it's much harder to fit them all together into a pleasing garden?

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