Agastache foeniculum 'Golden Jubilee' is one of the perennials i grow for foliage, and thus far it is my only golden foliaged perennial plant in the garden. It has good foliage fragrance and flowers, and I am happy with it.

Tanacetum 'Isla Gold'--I cut the flowers off.

Stachys byzantina 'Helen von Stein' ('Big Ears')

Salvia argentea, though it's just barely a perennial here; I have to replace it every few years. Most of my foliage perennials are in shade - asarum & ligularia are my favorites.

Almost forgot! I also have two beds with large volunteer asparagus growing in them; the foliage is really something, fine & feathery, a light, bright green, and about 5' tall. They set off heavier perennials and shrubs really nicely.

Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine

I'm a nut on the purplish heucheras. My are grown in areas that receive early morning sun until around 2pm. They all do great. I let them flower because I like those too, but the foliage is what I really love.

Kat

I have a 'rule of thumb' which I loosely follow. For every 3 perennial varities I plant, one must be mostly for the foliage characteristics. Foliage is hot- tons of new introductions of plants primarily for foliage. I'm also a freak about golden foliage.

Centaurea 'Gold Bullion' in the spring the foliage is electric gold then it gets electric blue flowers with neon purple centers. A stunner. We'll see if it comes back well for me this year.

Tanacetum 'Isla Gold'
Veronica 'Aztec Gold'

I'm seriously eyeballing some of the new golden campanula varieties as well. There are several Phlox varieties with extreme varigation as well (might be too jaring to me with the flowers though). I know there are others but that's a start.

For burgundy foliage:

Penstemon 'Husker Red'- not the best but it works. Perhaps the new 'Dark Towers' variety will be better.

Salvia lyrata 'Purple Volcano'
Gaura 'Passionate Rainbow' (color variable)
Sedum 'Purple Emperor' or 'Purple Cloud'
Armeria (can't remember the variety but it is tiny and burgundy foliage)

For blueish foliage:

Dianthus
Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
Grasses, of course
and I want to try Crambe maritima

General varigated:

Heliopsis 'Lorraine Sunshine'

For gray foliage:

Artemesia 'Seafoam'
Perovskia
Salvia pachyphylla
Nepeta
Lychnis 'Gardener's World'

I have more on my list but that's a start

Oh- and I love the myriad of Heucheras but those are more of a shade plant with our withering summers.

In part shade, nothing compares to a beautiful full clump of Hakenochloa (sp)

And I forgot- Iris 'variegata' as well as a number of Geraniums ranging from the chartruese 'Margaret Wilson' to the dark foliaged 'Midnight Reiter'

Bindersbee, I am in a similar climate to yours, and I love the Heucheras too. There are a couple that have held up for me in our intense sun here, 'Creme Brulee' and 'Marmalade'. I think it's just trial and error on those surviving.

One thing I didn't see mentioned was Euphorbia. Some are variegated, and others have red tinted foliage.

One more thing- I'm glad you posted this because I've been meaning to get a post going with a more comprehesive list of excellent foliage perennials. I'm always interested in finding new plants to love.

A few more:
Verbascum (not all but the yellow flowered natives have felted gray foliage)
Salvia sclarea- gray green large leaves. Drought tolerant.
Agastache- the western agastaches have gray/green foliage
Coreopsis- I had the 'Tequila Sunrise' type but it didn't last for me. The new Terra Nova introduction 'Lightning Flash' is one I'll be watching to see how it performs. Tall with vivid yellow foliage
Eucomis 'Oakhurst'- is facinating. Waxy, spiky burgundy leaves with a tropical look but only hardy down to zone 7.
Penstemon palmerii- has blue-green waxy leaves and very large pink blooms.

Powis Castle Artemisia
Stipa Tenuissima
Spirea thunbergii "Ogon"
Perilla (you MUST cut the blooms off all except one plant each year, or you'll be sorry.)
Canna Phaison and an old purple leaved one that I can't i.d.
Hydrangea Macrophylla Mariesii
Iris Aichi-no-Kagayaki
Weigela florida Variegata
Rudbeckia, Herbstonne
Nandina domestica
Bishop of Llandaff dahlia
Cranesbill, Rozanne
Acorus Gramineus

I bet I'm not the only one who wishes that Seed and Plant catalogs would give a picture of more than the bloom of a plant. I want to see the foliage and the overall form too! More than once I have composted a plant that had lovely blooms, but absolutely nothing else to recommend it.

This is a very interesting thread for me, because I've always thought of foliage plants as plants for shade. I've never really thought of them as sun plants.... hmmm.

I guess one plant that I have just for foliage in the sun is cornus alba Ivory Halo.

I have many plants of which I love the foliage, but I don't think I ever consciously grew them just for the foliage, except for the dogwood.

Dee

Gee!! Thanks everyone for the suggestions. This is the BEST response I have ever gotten from any of my posts.

I'm back- I thought of a few more.

Here's a couple of 'odd' choices but Variegated Comfrey is stunning. Not only do you get colorful foliage- the foliage is also HUGE. Variegated Horseradish is also nice.

Any of the culinary sages- there are purple, green and yellow and tri-color versions of culinary sage

There are variegated wallflowers or variegated arabis that make nice front-of-the-border additions.

Melianthus (Honeybush) has bluish-green foliage but the more interesting part of it is the big saw-tooth leaves. Lots of texture with this one but only hardy down to zone 8.

Oh, how could I forget? 'Prince' or 'Lady in Black' Asters have with tiny white insignificant flowers but a powerhouse of dark foliage. I can't remember which of the two mine is but it's a rather small plant. I need to get a few more buddies for it so it creates a little more mass in the border.

Shrubs are a whole new category and, in my opinion, should be included in every perennial garden- particularly the smaller ones and miniature evergreens.

However, I will list 'Bright Edge' Yucca, Agaves (if hardy for you, some are hardy down to z5) and Phormium as must have spikes that come in many different hues. The texture they provide in addition to color is wonderful.

I think most perennials have some cultivar or version that offers foliage contrast.

In my opinion, the right blend of colorful foliage and standard greens makes a fabulous garden- even if not one thing is in flower. The absense of it is the most common garden design error made by home gardeners. How MUCH contrast and texture is an individual and personal taste thing but the lack of it makes a garden rather boring. If you've been wanting to perk up your perennials- foliage is probably the easiest way to do it.

Thanks for mentioning Melianthus major. It's been on my list of plants to try for a couple of years, since I saw it in one of the plantings downtown. It's not hardy here, but the foliage really is stunning so it's worth growing as an annual. I see there's also one, M. villosus, that is smaller but has the same great leaves, but I haven't seen it in person.

In the same vein, I guess I grow Angelica archangelica for the foliage and structure more than for the flowers. The flowers are not as nice as A. gigas, although just before they open, the structure of the unfurling buds is very striking. It's another huge plant, of the kind that can take over a large section of your garden if you grow too fond of it and let it reseed at will. I started growing it in my vegetable garden after seeing it in the castle gardens of Sweden. The curators at several of those gardens explained that the Swedes grew it not only to draw bees to their potagers but because the scent of the leaves is an antidepressant (that's pretty important to Swedes).

Hard to look out at all the snow and slush and general winter rattiness and remember that there are indeed foliage plants lurking under there.

I spent the first ten years of my gardening life growing things exclusively in deep, urban shade, so I still think a lot about foliage when I plant. For my sunny spots, for foliage mostly or exclusively, I've got:

Salvia argentea. It's been highly perennial for me so far, for five or six years. My soil is pretty sandy. I've been loosely alternating the plants with little blue festucas. They look nice together.

Lysimachia 'Alexander.' Not at all thuggish in my garden, but not super-exciting to me either.

Variegated winter cress. This just keeps seeding itself around. Very cute.

Geranium renardii. Felty greyish-green leaves with good substance. Doesn't always even bloom for me, but it's pretty when it does.

Montauk daisy. I like it as foliage even when not in bloom.

Arabis. A nice greyish edger plant out of bloom, and one of the first things to bloom for me every spring--and it blooms long and generously.

Lysimachia nummelaria aurea--golden creeping jenny. OK,so it's aggressive, but it's really pretty in the spring beneath the purple weeping beech, and it transitions beautifully to a hot patch of dianthus.

Macleaya cordata--plume poppy. I sure don't grow it for its flowers or its polite habit, and every year I ponder ripping it out once and for all, but its leaves are just so great, and it does offer a little privacy screen in the summer. Not that I'd recommend it to anyone.

Chocolate Joe Pye--also seeds itself around. I'm not nuts for the flowers, though I welcome them all the same.

Lychnis coronari/rose campion. I like the grey rosettes even without the fantastic hot pink or white flowers.

A couple of cerastiums (love that silver) and dark-leaved sedums.

I have one bed that I'm always on the lookout for great silver plants. And I second diggingthedirt's high opinion of asparagus. I think I'd like a hedge of it.

Rosa glauca. Flowers are single, small, pink and scentless, but the foliage is great. Tough as nails, very hardy. It also has been seeding around a bit for me, which is nice.

Interesting list, dirtdiver. I finally dug out my plume poppy, and was very surprised that it gave up without a fight. Do miss the foliage, nice effect there; I especially liked the unusual foliage color and the way water droplets would stand on the leaves.

I had to google winter cress; I've got bitter cress popping up everywhere and couldn't imagine a relative that would be desirable. Bittercress has apparently invaded all the nursery potting mix, everywhere, and my own collection is out there under a foot of snow as I write, flowering and setting seed for the next generation. It's been popping up all winter, and I've been pulling it as fast as I can, with no hope of keeping up. Winter cress does look cute, but I'd be afraid to try it, to be honest.

I do second rosa glauca; that's another wonderful color of foliage. I understand that it takes shade quite well, although the ones I planted - in my mother's garden,in fairly deep shade - have sulked.

Dirtdiver, you've reminded me of two plants which I DO grow for foliage in sun - lysimachia Alexander and golden creeping jenny. I love Alexander in the early spring. But I have to admit to keeping Jenny in a pot. I'm a little nervous about letting her out!

:)
Dee

Diggingthedirt--I used to grow rosa glauca in the shade--it was spindlier and the foliage wasn't as nicely colored, but it did okay. Even in the sun, I think it would like me to feed it better.

The variegated winter cress (Barbarea vulgaris variegata, I guess) was something that I first grew accidentally, I think as part of a Chiltern's lotto mix. It's been in my garden for about four years, and I would term it a polite reseeder. Then again, it managed to somehow migrate from the back of the house to the front, and it seems to like the front better, so I may change my mind on that. Because of its bold variegation, it would be pretty easy to notice and pluck out early, I'd think.

I just thought of another--salvia juriscii, which has nice, finely divided silver foliage. I seem to have lost it last winter, but it was beginning to be a very pretty plant.

And I'm still kicking myself for not buying an end-of-season wingthorn rose ( Rosa sericea pteracantha) a couple of years ago. It's the young thorns that are beautiful, especially when hit by light. I think it's only borderline hardy here.

I am excited and gratified to see this thread! The vast majority of the plants I grow are determined by their foliage or other, non-flowering contributions they make to the garden. Flowers are so transitory that I think it is a real mistake to focus only on the impact they can provide and this is a concept I encourage all my design clients and students to consider seriously as well.

Granted, flowers do add a powerful impact and they should be a participant, but the plants I grow only for floral effect are few and are well interspersed among those that have longer, even year round appeal. Often these seem to sacrifice a decent form or good foliage display for the floral WOW factor :-))

A good number of the plants listed previously are ones that I favor as well - heucheras, hostas (I tend to remove the flowers from both), tanacetum, stachys, many of the hardy geraniums, evergreen grasses, bergenia (HATE their flowers!) and euphorbias all play a big role in my gardens, as do a number of variegated or non-green colored plants. Also all number of evergreen (or other colored) groundcovers, hebes and parahebes, heaths and heathers, haloragis, New Zealand flax, coprosma, libertia, hellebores and just about any perennial that holds its foliage throughout the year. And of course all manner of conifers (mostly dwarf) and broadleaved evergreen shrubs, many of which produce no discernable flowers.

I even shear off all the flower buds from my 'Magic Carpet' spiraea several times a season as I much prefer the foliage display of this shrub to its insipid pink flowers :-))

Gardengal, "Amen" on the spiraea! At my last home, there were some already there when we bought the home, and I loved them, until they bloomed, LOL! To me, the flowers don't clashed with the foliage.

Bonnie

Sorry, that should read "the flowers clashed with the foliage".

I just remembered another one--variegated horseradish. I have it on the edge of a vegetable garden, and mine seems to only color up when the weather is good and hot, but when it does, it's pretty flashy!