Pacific Northwest Gardening: New "Hot Bed"....looking for advice., 1 by

wrote:
Here's that bed in august the year before. you can see the level of crocosmia I have. And several kinds of hot colored dahlias, along with deep salmon colored 'geraniums'. I also have hot colored lilies in this bed. One of my favorites is called 'giraffe' and it's very tall with yellow and orange blooms. sounds tacky, but, in fact, it's a great lily. It's a complete riot of color in the late summer and fall. You'll love having a 'hot bed' to play in. Love christopher Lloyd's book Color for the Adventurous Gardner. He was the best.
You could probably do well with red castor beans, or the New Zealand Purple ones (which would look awesome with orange oriental lilies). Your location would support castor beans better than mine.

I had some blue in this bed but found it to be too much. I cool it down a bit with that tall white phlox you see (David) and with foliage plants, some of which have a bluish cast to them, like the Euphorbia you can barely see in the foreground.

I'm with you on the yellows. some yellows are just brash rather than bold.