looking for some ideas of perennials for after spring bulbs

ok, i have a raised bed at my parents house. it is a 8" diameter circle. when i built this i wanted a tulip bed. the problem i realized is tulips and daffodils only bloom in the spring. what can i plant there that will come later. there are alot of daffodils on the yard so i would like a mixture of spring bulbs but i would like that to be followed by something else. periennal perhaps? i have a bunch of blackeyed susan seeds that i think would look nice there. is this a good idea? is there another flower that will compliment the blackeyed susans in terms of size that i can plant in the same area? i built the bed around a 7" tall weeping cherry tree. and would like a nice multiseasonal bed that will come back year after year.

you could put some stella d'oro daylilies on the edges in front of the daffodils so the daylily foliage will block the daffs after they are done blooming. Stella's bloom all summer. Other nice perennials to add are purple and white coneflowers and some low growing wooly thyme to dot around the very edge.

thanks, i actually just got some purple coneflower seeds today. i heard that they work well with the black eyed susans i have. since i have been redoing my parents yard i am gonna take some daylillies from places around the house and i plan to put them in the front bed. do you think that the different flowers (blackeyed and conflowers) will occupie the same space? i also have some forget me nots and foxgloves today. cant wait for the spring and warm weather

That is a really sweet bed. I love it. I just planted a weeping plum. I think that combo sounds really nice well rounded and good color all the way through the season. It may be invasive in your area but your could also plant 'brazilian verbena'. its tall and would fill in between everything else with bright purple blooms. I think is call verbena bonaresis or something I'll try to find it in plantfiles.

IDK here it is. Might not be a good idea, you could look and see if its on the list for invasive plants in you state.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/141/

i love you wonderearth. i built the bed early 09'. i have never tried anything like that and i found out that making a complete circle is a little trickier. i ended up with a bump at the back of it. oh well. i get to cover it with lotsa colors soon.

Purple coneflower (echinacea) blooms in the summer and grows tall. We do not cut them down as the birds feed on the seeds well into the winter weather. They also make interesting cut flowers.

In addition I would add aquilegia (columbine). It tends to reseed each year, and it blooms in the spring after daffodils. If you are really enthusiastic, you could put lilies in below the daffodils. Another nice bulb that is quite productive is allium, and they come in all sizes and shapes. Every year I put in tulips in the fall, and they make their presence for about month mid April to May. They would probably bloom earlier for you.

Let's see some before and after pictures.

Plant lilies. As they are true bulbs you can easily fit them in and if you get different types they will really extend the bloom season. For instance asiatics bloom before orientals. Then there are all sorts of hybrids, some of which are even later flowering.

You cold even add some gladiolas for more summer color. I mysellf like the smaller half height (2 ft instead of 4 feet) Glamini glads that I get from VB Wholsale.

I use all kinds of daylilies and red monarda (bee balm) around my daffies . Unfortunately, here in Massachusetts we have the red lily beetle, which shreds leaves and blossoms of anything in the lilium family, so those are out. I have peonies and iris masking some bulb foliage; tiarella is great for small bulbs. And of course there are always annuals!