What plant combinations are you planning this year?

Part of the joy of cottage gardening for me is how the colors and textures of plants combine to create a scene and set a mood. Some of my grand ideas work out, some are a real flop, and so often Mother Nature steps in and naturalizes and self sows doing a much better job than I, LOL.

In this time of planning and plotting, anxiously awaiting the time to get our hands dirty, I'd love to hear what plant and color combinations you all have planned for this year.

This is Rose 'Ballerina', Salvia 'Blue Hill', and catmint:

Oh, and forgot to say, pics for winter sore eyes are welcomed!

I've decided Verbena bonariensis looks good with everything! This seems to scream for some feverfew to be added in the mix, or perhaps some yellow ...?

This message was edited Mar 1, 2008 10:08 AM

Suzy, you've mentioned that you like the hot colors in the cottage garden; I gotta have 'em too. While I love the cooler, more traditional cottage garden colors out front, I gotta have some gaudy out back!

In my "grand plan", my "Sky Garden" of blues, white, and yellows bleeds into an area I'm using yellow, orange, and white, with some blue or purple here and there. And that leads to the area where lots of reds come into view and then the chaotic mix of the butterfly garden. Gotta tell ya, it looks gorgeous in my head, LOL!

Okay, you got me looking for some "eye candy". A couple of last year's pix ~ come on spring!

Sanna

There's a butterfly in there....

and wonderful nicotiana....

I like bold contrasting colors..
I am planting purple amaranth with tithonia and "old mexico" zinnia along one stretch of the drive..they all seem to like the same conditions, and I think the orange with purple with be striking in an "old west" sort of way.
(and if I am wrong..being annuals I can completely redo next year)

OK Gem--you're a show-off, ya know that?!! And I love it.

One of these days I'm going to get down there and you'll find an ol' lady poking around in your petunias! And I hope you bring me out some iced tea (laced with some of that famous bourbon, of course!)

All I have to show off is my hibiscus that I've moved to the front and center (around some white camassias and siberian iris for this next year.) I like this H. 'plum crazy' -- it kind of matches our house paint -- .

It's springlike today, so I'm loving these pics!

As usual I'm reworking parts of different beds - never satisfied, always tweaking things! The main project I'm working on is part of a front yard bed - a long slender rectangle, the middle has always been extremely dull. Foliage all the same color, not enough "snap" year-round.

That is the main difficulty in living in almost frost-free coastal Northern CA. The beds must look good year round, in and out of flower, especially in front.

In bloom, the bed was great. But this was only for a few months out of the year.

Out of bloom, especially when I looked at it as I came out the front door, it was uninteresting:

So I yanked out the middle plants, closest to the sidewalk, and started working. First I divided up one of the agapanthus to put a division closer to the front of the bed. Then I added a variegated dwarf agapanthus. Liked it so much, I later pulled out the rest of the lambs ear and added another variegated aga. This puts bright yellow-striped leaves in the front, giving nice contrast.

In the center, I put two new plants. One is a lavender, can't remember if it's Spanish or French. The other is an Artemisia 'Powis Castle', a plant I love but have had only middling luck with. They seem to get rangy with long bare stems in my garden, but I love the color and texture of them. I also need its height in the middle of this bed, to "lift it up" a little, visually speaking.

In front of the artemisia I put these dark red kangaroo paws. Love the color and texture of them! They'll be in bloom in months when the agapanthus isn't flowering, and vice versa (I hope). I also planted bearded iris in between these kangaroo paw plants and the variegated yellow-striped agapanthus at the very edge. The iris have beautiful blue-green, sword-like leaves that should contrast nicely with the lacy artemisia and the strap-like agapanthus foliage.

This message was edited Mar 1, 2008 7:07 PM

In the other two front yard beds, I added a plant I had a few years ago and have been searching for ever since. Finally found two of them so I snapped them up and plopped them in the ground. It's a blue-flowering echium - not long-lived, but the color is incredible and it's a nice little mini-shrub, just the perfect size for my beds. This is a picture of my original plant, where it contrasted beautifully with the nasturtiums that reseed themselves around.

I treasure blue flowering plants; I don't have very many!

Loving the pics!

sanna, great summer invoking images, and lovely color and texture combinations.

tabasco, you must come down and poke around the petunias (or in this case, the lilies)! We'll have to go to my favorite greenhouse in Paris, about 20 minutes from here too! That is an extra lovely Hibiscus, love the way it darkens toward the throat.

jkom, I love seeing the exotic selection your climate allows you to grow outdoors, and how you so beautifully combine them! Are there winter blooming bulbs that will grow in your area? I've been reading about the winter growing species gladiolus; many beautiful species, but not an option for my area without a cool greenhouse. There are other South African bulbs that are colorful in winter too. dmj1218 and wallaby1 (both frequent the Bulb forum) are very into them and could point you to some that might perk up the winter blahs.

Another area I'm working on is where I'm using what I call "sunset colors", peaches, pinks, salmon, melon, coral, etc. with blues, purples, and white here and there. I'm getting really excited about this area, with tons of lilies on the way to go there. Now that I've quenched this years lily craving, I'm looking to roses- this area has got to be full of them! I "need" every one of these:

http://www.palatineroses.com/roselistsearch.jsp?name=&color=&type=Fairy+Tale&fragrance=&breeder=Kordes&Available=&advanced=true&submit.x=33&submit.y=16

...and several of these:

http://www.palatineroses.com/roselistsearch.jsp?name=&color=&type=Shrub&fragrance=&breeder=Kordes&Available=&advanced=true&submit.x=42&submit.y=15

...and the flower circus series!

http://www.palatineroses.com/roselistsearch.jsp?name=&color=&type=Floribunda&fragrance=&breeder=Kordes&Available=&advanced=true&submit.x=44&submit.y=6

In case you can't tell, I think roses look good with everything!

doggone, neal. when you do a search at Palatine and copy the addy, all you get is the search box :( what roses are you looking at? I need to know ;0) I ordered Pom Pom Circus. I'm add some lilies to my rose garden a little at a time as I can afford it. I love that look. But I need a lot more perennials there, too.

jkom, I love the 'Powis Castle', too. I put one in the rose garden last year and makes a beautiful backdrop. I have it planted with J&P 'Mother's Rose'. then I added some Geranium 'New Hampshire Purple'. but it's not purple like I thought it would be. can't see it in the pic.

Ohh, that "powis Castle" looks VERY nice with your rose..

The sunset hues sound stunning. Your description reminded me of these Chantilly snapdragons from Renee's Seeds. This photo isn't so attractive, but I saw another pic on a blog somewhere and the colors sunset colors looked exquisite.

http://www.reneesgarden.com/seeds/seeds-hm/flowersR.htm

What a fun project. And I love the Palatine rose site...aren't the photos so enticing?

Just took a walk outside on this bright March day and saw all kinds of bulbs popping out of the ground and a few daylilies trying to wake-up. A few of my 'combinations' seem to be getting off to a start! So promising! (-:

gemini_sage (ooh, I'm a Gemini too - May 29th!), New Zealand plants do very well here since we are both Mediterranean zones. There are only seven worldwide, so we also see a lot of South African plants coming these days. My biggest problem is micro-climate - I'm still at the edge of the coastal fog bank, so some plants, like Melianthus major, struggle with mildewand look awful.

I don't have a lot of bulbs in my garden. Freesias and glads are the most prominent - freesias because I love the scent, glads because my DH likes them. I have mostly standard glads, but a few hardy dwarf glads have kept sprouting. Ixia grows here, too, but it's too wispy with little impact in my crowded beds. Crocosmia grows wild here, and in fact most people consider it a nuisance!

Here's a photo for those of you who like spirea - I grew it for a couple of years, and it looked very pretty against Artemisia 'Powis Castle.'

gram, each link above is results for different searches. I just checked and they're working, but the first is all the Fairytale series, the second is all their Kordes shrub roses, of which the Vigorosas have caught my eye, and the third is their Kordes floribundas, of which the Flower Circus series has got me drooling.

t, those fruity snapdragon colors are exactly what I have in mind! I have some snapdragon seed (tall varieties for cutting) that should be arriving any day from Pinetree Seed. The mixture may well need to go over in that area. They better be getting here, I'd like to already have them started!

It is lovely to see everyone's gardens. Sure wish nasturiums reseeded themselves here. I'm now convinced to use them in my beds and not just containers. I'm going to try adding some of my favorites. Helen

this is my pastel garden

It is lovely to see everyone's gardens. Sure wish nasturiums reseeded themselves here. I'm now convinced to use them in my beds and not just containers. I'm going to try adding some of my favorites. Helen

Here's another of my 'birds and bloom' garden. I like hot colors and this has red, yellow, and orange. Helen

Here a long view of the back yard. I plant many for the birds and butterflies. I like nearly any plant! Helen

Well I must have done something wrong since one picture posted twice. This was my first time. Helen

Helen, it happens sometimes! All by itself!

Your yard looks wonderful! It's very clean, neat and very inviting. That last pic makes me want to continue on and see what's around the corner. I can't seem to get a nice neat edge between my beds and what I laughingly call grass..... yours is lovely.

Sanna

Thanks Sanna - you are very kind. I wouldn't refer to our lawn as grass. As long as it's green and we can mow it we really don't care. I have aluminum edging around those beds and hit the weeds with round up before they can get in the bed. We have a very invasive weed called 'red sorrell' we can't seem to get rid of. Helen

Helen,

what is the low growing purple plant in the front on the left hand side. I just love it.

Thanks
Carolyn

Thanks Carolyn but I think that's just the way the sun is hitting the mulch. Sorry :-( Helen

hlssunny, your gardens are stunning!

Carolyn, are you seeing a purple coneflower bloom there next to the clump of shasta daisies?

Helen,
Fabulous pictures! I love the way the conifers set off your lovely gardens!
Bev

Yesterday I direct sowed one of my favorite combinations ever- larkspurs and Shirley poppies. Keeping my fingers crossed....I've failed more often than I've succeeded with poppies, but this spot is perfect; great soil, perfect drainage, excellent sun exposure, and ideal planting time..by golly, I think I've got my bases covered, LOL. The weather was beautiful; our first real spring-like day! And the rain came last night, perfect timing! I think Mother Nature wants me to have poppies this year :-)

Apparently it is the mulch LOL! I had hoped you were going to turn me onto something really neat low growing that I could use as a filler.

I am just loving the combinations!

Carolyn

I love seeing other people's combos. It's really inspiring.

Helen, your gardens are lovely. I really like the colorful birdhouses with your 'hot' colors. and I like your attitude about the grass, too. I think anything green you can mow is lawn.

gemini_sage - what is the name of that pink lily in post #4608403? Is it really that color? That's awesome.

Kathy

Kathy, that is an Asiatic lily called 'Rhodos'. Its not really pink, actually red, but the petals are shiny and in the pic they're sort of reflecting the purple of the verbena giving them a pink cast.

Rhodos. It sure looks pink - and a very pretty pink. I'm going to have to take a look at it. It adds such a splendid spark to a cottage garden. And I have so precious little hot-day sun that I need to choose my cottage plants carefully. Thanks, GS. Your photo is really beautiful.

There are a couple of pics of it on this site:

http://www.thebloomingauction.com/detail.asp?id=36006

Lilies will tolerate a considerable amount of shade. I've had some do well with 2-3 hours of direct sun a day. The taller ones can get too leggy and weak stemmed in shade, but most Asiatics do well.

Do you have an online lily source that you'd recommend? I haven't found rhodos yet . . . Glad to hear they can take shade. I have lots of light, but no direct light all day - just while it's overhead. The minute it shifts, there are tall trees to all sides that shade it. Good for people - limits your plants. LOL

Well, there are several good lily vendors out there, and they can vary in pricing considerably. A couple of excellent, what I call "high end" sources, are The Lily Garden and B&D Lilies. Both have excellent bulbs and lots of modern hybrids that you can't find other places. You may pay more, but you can find truly special varieties from them. Buggycrazy.com is an awesome source with huge bulbs and some really good prices. She carries some nice species lilies, some of which require shade. She's very nice and knows her lilies; you can email her with questions and I'm sure be glad to make suggestions for you.