Plant Combinations

I've been doing a lot of daydreaming (not to mention note-taking) about what plants i'll be piling atop a nursery pallet come Spring. One of the things i'm perhaps overly preoccupied with is the notion of "plant combinations," that is to say, two or three plants that may be lovely individually, but when planted together are just jaw-dropping gorgeous.

What plants do you folks grow in combination for peak visual effect? Trees? Bushes? Perennials?

I've attached a photograph of our former home up North (how i DO miss those gardens!), because it represents the look i'm trying to achieve in our new (and hopefully final) home. I love the combination of mexican orange blossom, a bush i can't remember the name of, rose and white lilac against a backdrop of clematis vine. I'll certainly try to replicate that combination here in some fashion.

Any thoughts?

PS: Photographs - Attach em if ya got em! :)

Estreya - lovely home & looks comfy/inviting.
Plant combinations are fascinating, but it's a bit hard to recommend without knowledge of your conditions (soil, light, moisture..)
I prefer combining shrubs - trees - perennials. This requires less maintenance, and I like having the "bones" in winter.
Also - Trees & shrubs provide a welcome backdrop for anything else planted nearby.
How much space do you have?
Was the name you forgot Choisya?
Colours that you prefer?
What are the existing plants, or, are you starting from scratch?
Have I asked enough questions, yet? :0)

Estreya - that is a beautiful house. I can imagine it was very hard to leave.

Like Katye, I think I would need a bit more information about the new garden before being able to think helpfully. But as something to peruse and muse with how about looking at the pictures of Christopher LLoyd's gardens www.greatdixter.co.uk/index.htm (use the hyper link, and then click onto gardens) CL died earlier this year, but fortunately both his influence, his gardens and his writings will long outlast him. I'm not suggesting that you lift his ideas wholesale (they are really particular to Great Dixter and hard to transport) - but what I was thinking is that perhaps it would be nice to find a style that is different from your last house - let this new one become its own character. There is one picture of a magnificent stand of Red Crocosmia - how magnificent those might look en masse in front of one of your dark dense boundary plantings.

Any how, for what it is worth, I hope you enjoy Great Dixter - it is a real wowser of a picture show.

I'm in line waiting for A) more information about your soil, sun, etc What zone are you in? Your zone isn't showing up underneath your name.
B) photos of your place! especially the areas where you want to create gardens. I LOVE plant combinations! And trying new ones!

Can't go wrong with Christopher Lloyd. He is greatly missed as one of the world's greatest plantsmen.

I agree with Katye that combining shrubs, trees and perennials can be quite satisfying, especially combining evergreen varieties with deciduous ones. Here is a photo of one of my favorite 'spring' beds combining two old red rhododendrons, pruned up and opened up at the crown to let light and air through, with a deciduous azalea that blooms at the same time. You can barely see a deep purple lilac behind the rhody. At first I thought having this lilac there was 'too much' color, but then I realized that after a dull and dreary winter I rather enjoyed the intense purple and red together. After the flowers fade from these shrubs, they provide a nice green backdrop for the summer bloomers in this bed.

Pixy, that's lovely!!!

Estreya, I have no doubt that you will make your new home as lovely as the last one.

Here's my very favorite 'vignette' photo from one of the perennial beds. I love using the bright colors of coleus and the incredible textures and shapes of rex begonias in the summer garden.

I have to admit, though, that like most other avid, or maybe 'rabid' , gardeners, some of my most successful combinations have been accidental. It's easy to plan when you are inserting things like coleus or rex begonia that are not hardy so have to be placed each year wherever you choose to place them. Getting the perennials to bloom together when you want them to is another story. Year before last I had the most glorious combination of Saponaria 'bouncing bet', Allium 'globemaster', Campanula latifolia, lily 'black beauty' and Baptisia australis. Talk about jaw dropping. I was out there staring at it in a most embarassing way. I was so disappointed this year when I got hardly any blooms! The baptisa bloomed poorly, I got one allium bloom, not at all with the baptisia, the campanula was dreary, and the lilies had disappeared altogether. The soapwort bounced along, but was all alone. In the fall I dug out the entire bed and turned in a yard and a half of compost. I'm hopeful things will go better this year.


Hiya, murmur! It's the middle of January. Can March be far behind???? and how about that sunshine??

Estreya, I do love that house in the photo you posted. It's marvelous!!


This message was edited Jan 14, 2007 10:03 PM

WOW! Thank you for all of this wonderful feedback, and the gorgeous photographs! They do so inspire me ....

To respond, in no particular order:

Yes, that home was very hard to leave. However, the separation anxiety was significantly mitigated by the fact that a developer plopped another home pretty much right on top of us (The audacity! How dare they actually develop the adjacent lots!). In addition, the neighbor to our other side clear-cut every last tree from their acre for reasons that baffle me to this day! But i digress ...

This "home and garden" is going to be an exciting project (and thank you, Murmur and Laurie1, your words about the "new garden's spirit" are both comforting and keen). My zone, i believe, is 8a. The home itself is situated towards the northeast corner of a five acre parcel (three of which were unfortunately cleared by the developers). As was explained to me in another thread, the position of the house is quite fortuitous in that it offers a very generous expanse of southern (and a little western) exposure to plant up.

My soil is not so great, i think, though i haven't yet gotten one of those handy kits to test the ph. I'm just assuming it's no so terrific based on the lawn that was layed down, which seems to require a lot of fertilizer to keep thick and green (over time, as the beds expand, i'll likely shrink the lawn area down). On the other hand, i have lots of worms, which i know is a good sign. So maybe the soil is not so bad.

Moisture is the stuff the Pacific Northwest is made of: Quite saturated in winter, with extended bursts of dry during the summer months (last summer was particularly bad).

Katye, i so agree with you about the "bones" of a winter garden. I love this time of year for just that reason, and Soferdig suggested tree combinations in another thread (Parrotia, Hamemelis, and Cornus) with garden architecture in mind. And you're right, Choisya is the name of the Mexian Orange Blossoms, but the "combination" bush i can't remember the name of had dark waxy leaves and tiny fucia flowers (those bushes never did very well, though, so i'm not eager to plant them again).

In addition to texture and various shades of green, i tend to gravitate towards whites, yellows, periwinkles and pinks (but not the bubble-gum shades), with punches of bright colors peppered throughout.

I'm pretty much starting from scratch, although as Laurie1 mentioned (what a memory!), we've planted an evergreen "privacy border", and layed out some basic bed shapes so far.

Pixydish, your gardens seems so joyous and life affirming! Did you make the trellis in the first photograph yourself? It's very effective ...

In any case, i've got some photographs posted in my garden diary (http://davesgarden.com/journal/d/m/estreya/) that i hope will be a somewhat comprehensive "before/after" kind of thing. And after ... and after ... and after .... :) ... i've got a desired plants list there as well ....

Isn't it such fun??

PS: Laurie1, that Christopher LLoyd link, my GOSH! Have you ever visited that little slice of paradise?

Estreya, your setting is divine and your house is beautiful - I have no doubt that in a very short while you will have it looking like something out of Christopher Lloyd!!!

I looked at all your photos - and the difference is already impressive (and I'm delighted that you put Jenny Joseph's "I Shall Wear Purple" there!!).

This is a photo of our house before we bought it in 2002.

This garden was created in 2004.

This is from a different angle, but shows you the change. I really couldn't describe my "groupings," I'm afraid as they are such a hodgepodge of compulsive ideas and purchases!

Again, a slightly different angle, but if you can place the lawnswing you can get an idea. This was all strictly grass when we moved in, except for the Photinia on the left, and several rhodies at the front by the street. Just wanted you to see the drastic changes in a short time!

Many times, and at many times of the year (it is about 12 miles/25mins from us). In fact, the first time I was there, I went wandering around a corner and practically knocked poor Mr. Lloyd to the ground and trod on a daschund. Fortunately my shoes held and I stopped just in time. No, I did not say anything meaningful - just grinned stupidly and
walked away. An opportunity missed by bashfulness.

It is gorgeous. And huge. Especially once they developed the wild flower meadows. Which they cut and rake off, and stack the rakings for compost. Huge huge stacks of it.

Hope it inspires.

Pix - nice to have you out from under the duvet - I was thinking about you yesterday when I was sitting in the winter sun. Wanted to post some on to you in a little brown seed envelope and send it on.

Laurie, what a delightful story about "meeting" Christopher Lloyd!!!!

"They" say a warming trend is on the way out here in the Pacific Northwest. Well, at the moment it is 21 degrees - NOT warming!!!

My gosh, Murmur. What a transformation! Clearly, all your digits are green, not just your thumb. Even the inside window is bursting with life (it looks like you've got plants growing inside a collection of white teapots or some such?) ... your gardens are so resplendent, it's hard to discern actual "combinations" or "groupings" as you said. The overall effect is quite stunning. To my totally novice eye, it seems as if height placement played heavily into your design?

Laurie1 - what a great experience. Up north, i lived a short drive from the Butchart Gardens http://www.butchartgardens.com/gardens/bScenes.php. Talk about stunning plant combinations! Being able to go there regularly was one of the great blessings of my life. I believe i still carry the season pass in my wallet, though it's long expired. :)

Estreya, yes height placement was important - I need to at least give the FEELING of height. We can't plant anything that would block the neighbor's view and the trees in back of us were clear cut except for a tiny grove of alders. Unfortunately, I put too many tall things close together (things grew much more quickly than I anticipated, plus I really didn't have a definite enough plan). Thank you, though, for your very kind words. The yard doesn't show from the street so when people walk up the driveway they are often quite surprised!

~~ nods in understanding ~~

And Pixydish achieved height also with that trellis. I'm going to have to put a lot of those on my shopping list, cause i'm really not handy enough to make them. One of the major gardening places (Smith & Hawken, maybe) sells really lovely iron ones, but i think they're cost prohibitive. Maybe i can squeeze one a year into the budget. :)

estreya - I would like to edit that thought to, not handy enough 'yet' - how about putting up some temporary structures until you get handier - and then go off and take a hammer and saw course. We all have to learn the how-to's of gardening - this is just one of them. In the interim, how about four or five poles (I use hazel thinnings, but bamboo will work) pushed into the ground in a circle, and tied TeePee style at the top gives good support for many seasonal climbers - and if you give it a mesh of string (get your macrame books out) or even a spiral around you can fill it in very nicely and inexpensively.

Ohhhhh, I feel so bossy. I'm going to work now.

~~ giggles ~~

Laurie1, you're such a wicked task master ...

Actually, i was looking into copper pipe only last night. It seems to me i've seen various shapes of garden supports made out of copper pipe fixtures somewhere. That might be a fun project, and if it's just a matter of screwing part A into part B, i may even be able to accomplish it! :) I shy away from wood due to the moisture here. Bamboo might be more resilient .... Hmmmmm .... :)

Ohhhh, estraya - I like the idea of copper piping - It could be bent in all shapes and you could get one of those plumbing bending tools which give soft shaped bends! And it all goes veridgris, especially if you pee on it! (The story goes that the men who did all the copper roofing on St. Paul's Cathedral were given beer money to increase the quantity and quality of their urine -). (And if you plant asparagus in that area too, the urine will be doing double duty! (We did a walking holiday near Lourdes in France some years ago, and one of our rooms overlooked the kitchen gardens with a gorgeous huge asparagus bed, extremely productive. I was sitting sunning myself in the windows and noticing that all of the kitchen staff kept coming out to the asparagus bed for a 'smoke'. It wasn't until a woman chef came out that I actually cottoned on to the visits! Did I eat asparagus that night. Yes, with my fingers crossed for the veggie washing person).

Don't you love how cultured we europeans are? Aren't you glad of all my nice cultural contributions here. I thought so. (shall I scuttle off back over to where I belong now?)

LOL - great story, Laurie!!!

I have a copper trellis that DH made me a number of years ago (not very tall). I'll take a photo later. At our old house I had it in a very prominent position and people stopped continually to comment on it - wanted to know if DH would make one for them!

Unfortunately, the cost of copper has skyrocketed around here so I doubly appreciate that I have mine.

So - there is no avoiding it, it is hammer and saw classes all round! In fact it is a socio-politico statement to take up hammer and saw! gardeners will not be kept down by the high cost of copper! Rise up gardeners and reclaim flowerbed height!!!!

Oh my gawd, a psychotic gardening moment. I think I should go lie down.

You got it!!! (And thanks for making me laugh!!!!)

Oh my goodness! I"ll never look at asparagus with the same eyes again!! Yes, I'm out from under the duvet, Laurie (LOL!) We've had more than a week of sunny weather. It doesn't take long for me to come out of hibernation, even if it's cold outside, when it's sunny! I'm in Idaho Falls, Idaho right now and it is -2 degrees F outside, but the sun will be shining here tomorrow!

Murmur, I continue to be sorry that I missed seeing your gardens last summer. So lovely!! Don't minimize the wonderful effects of the supposedly 'random' placement of plants in the garden: it's called instinct!! If we make it to whidbey island this summer, I'm coming by!!

" A psychotic gardening moment" ROFLOL!! Is that what they are called? I was getting happy just "listening" to Estreya start to get creative thinking about how to make her own trellises!! Actually, copper garden trellises and ornaments are wildly popular at all the craft fairs around here. And the price of copper just went down! Seriously, it's not as bad now as it was a couple of months ago. At one point I toyed with the idea of making some copper stuff. Here are some websites to get your creative juices flowing:
http://www.trelliscraft.com/
http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=17494
http://www.robsplants.com/coppertrellis.php
http://www.homeenvy.com/db/5/105.html

This should get you started!

Estreya, I saw the photos of your place and WOW! You have so much lovely room to make garden rooms! You can do almost anything with property like that! Do you have an idea of how you want to break down the space yet?

Hi, Pixydish! That's sort of been the main challenge - what to do with all the space. It's a blessing to have such considerations. I carry with me a sort of ethereal vision of how i'd like things to shape up, but i'm quite certain it will all change based on what i read and learn, nursery stock and so on. I don't mind if it takes a decade or three to have things looking "just so." :)

Those links are terrific! I've used solder before in stain glass craft, so i think i can handle that level of complexity. Thank you for appending them!

A combo from our local park.

Growin, i'm loving this trio together. What's the scale of the cluster? Are they all fairly petite?

This cluster is about 2-3' high and 3-4' wide. All are easy growers, low maintenance but I'd do the initial planting slightly farther apart as I know their eventual size. This combo would work for a semi-utility spot of to one of the sides. I have other ideas but gotta run to the botanical gardens. Have a great day! :-)

If you have a bit of stepped spot I really like how this Lonicera nitida 'Baggesen's Gold' flows over the edge of this planting alongside the stream. I find this cultivar to look its best in a 1/2 - 3/4 shade spot. They tend to burn in too much sun. You could always pop in a Berberis to contrast colour.

I found this Berberis 'Gold Ring' and I liked it especially where it can be seen within 10'.

Growin - the Berberis "Gold Ring' is a stunner! I will have to locate that one - I am looking for another Berberis whose name escapes me at the moment.
Q: what is the age & size of the L. Nitida?
Thanks for the info! K

I think one of the most stunning plants I've ever had is a select male Arctic Kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta) which, especially against a brick wall, can be breathtaking in the mid-late spring. Mix it with a few foreground plants and it's a show. Sometimes the combination isn't other plants as this Anemone shows.

The L. nitida 'Baggesen's Gold', from my experience only grows about 2-3' x 2.5' but I'm thinking I'm wrong by my pic. It's one of my favourites. I've always been fond of the native Oxalis oregana as it's such an easy grower in part-full shade and fills in an area so easily without being a pest. The cute little flowers are delightful. Plant a few striking shrubs with larger to the back and you've got a nice border. Try a medium size shrub like Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' or Elaeagnus x ebbingei 'Gilt Edge'. I found this cute Cornus this year.

How'z 'bout a more sunny spot with Artemisia, Cimicifuga simplex 'Brunette' to the back and Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' to the forground mixed with Heucheras. This Brunnera would look pretty cool with some Black Mondo Grass and the Yellow Lysimachia.

Am I babbling? Hit me back if you want more and what type of combo - ie texture, colour, shape, bloom or foliage. Acanthus mollis.

Growin, you couldn't possibly send too many photos - your photo combos, along with suggestions, are marvelous!

Pixy, I will be so happy if you can stop by this Summer!!!

Growin, i heartily agree with Murmur! These photographs are magnificent, and i'm soaking them in with glee. Superb!

Sorry, I get carried away sometimes with ideas - love design with a fresh palette like yours! One of the nicest trellis forms I've seen make me think of Annie Cougar's garden. All-natural split cedar beams in a very open trellis. It looks natural, flowing and westcoast. I've also had wonderful success making a fence (and could make a trellis) from 6' Cedar Grape Stakes split into 1x1 or 1x2 pieces nailed together with space between and then cut after installation to interesting shape. I've seen this on the San Juan and Gulf Islands and think the weathered grey cedar is calming, "westcoast" and creates a warming affect.

What I see your landscape needs is some trees and maybe some rock outcrops. One tree I find outstanding during several seasons is the Lily of the Valley Tree (Oxydendron arboreum) which is fully hardy and easy to care for. It doesn't grow fast and has great colour even as a small tree. I've also grown very fond of Golden Monterey Cypress (not sure if its hardy there but think it is) Cupressus macrocarpa 'Goldcrest' which has layered growth, bright golden foliage and smells of lemon when you brush it. I also encourage you to spred Arbutus seed whenever and wherever you can. They are hard to grow when you want them, beautiful with age and deserve better recognition.

There is a nursery not too far from you that has an amazing collection of the rare & hard-to-find stuff that you should visit or atleast download their catalogue. http://www.cistus.com/ and then there's Colvos Creek Nursery near Seattle: http://www.colvoscreeknursery.com/

Here's a pic of Choisya 'Aztec Pearl' with Iresine (annual) but that could be substituted for something else. Some other thoughts - Euphorbia characias wulfenii with side & backing of Dahlia 'Moonfire' with a background of Arundo donax variegatum or Miscanthus sinensis gigantea and a foreground of Ceratostigma willmottianum. That'd be a showstopper. On the shaded side of the house find the largest Asplenium scolopendrium you can, mix with your favourite Hosta, a few Athyrium niponicum pictatum, a Cornus kousa to the back and dable your favourite vincas to fill the gaps. A few large Chamaecyparis nootkatensis pendulas, either as a single or set of 3 can make a significant impact to the structure of your site. You probably get good sun there on the slope so give a Chitalpa a try in one of the beds. I'd totally put this on paper, either by using some computer program to "map" plans and progress. I use Visio.

I've always been fond of the scissor cedar fence which adds a rustic-rural affect that can set the "room" for your large perennial beds as mentioned earlier and doesn't need to "cut-off" or enclose anything. It'd keep your hubby from mowing your freshly planted stuff. Here's a nice large Miscanthus and fence to show what I mean.

These are marvelous, Growin - btw, I meant to comment on the beautiful Anemone . . . I like seeing it alone like that. I know you mentioned one photo was from a local park - I assume there are some from your own gardens as well?