advice on perennials for new bed area

I am in Central Ohio, zone 5... I have had perennial beds for about 30 years. I now have health issues that have caused me to eliminate 90% of the plants, and most of my beds. I have given plants away for the last several years, until I was down to my very favorite plants. Next step was to consolidate them into one bed and hope I can keep care of it, with some help now and then. So this spring, we enlarged the daylily bed that is by my front walk, as it is easy to access - close to the hose etc. I hired a guy to prepare the bed, and a friend transplanted the remaining 90 plants from various old beds around the house into the new area. The sunny part of the bed has phlox, peonies, monarda, agastache, salvias, different coreopsis, bearded iris, siberian iris, spuria iris, several shrub roses, coneflowers, heucheras, veronicas, hardy geraniums, butterfly bush, Ninebark Diablo, varigated small hydrangea and a few daylilies - and I am sure I am forgetting some things. One side of the bed is three rows of daylilies (I think there are 80 daylilies in the three rows. The end of the bed is shady from a Crabapple Prairie Fire. I've had that tree 25 years and never put anything under it... but this spring, we moved about a dozen hosta under there, hellebore, spiderwort, epimedium, wood poppy, heuchera.

I have daffodil, crocus, hyacinth bulbs to transplant this fall into the new area. Then the old beds can be smoothed out and put back to grass.

There is still room for more plants in the bed, both the sunny part and the shade part. I find that once what is blooming now is done - I won't have hardly anything in there in bloom for the rest of the year. So, trying to focus on thinking of things that bloom from mid-July to frost.

Now, need some advice - my favorite nursery may be going out of business end of this year. They have the best perennials. The other day when I was there, I got the following plants to put in the new flower bed area I made this spring.... but got to thinking that if they go out of business, the options for good perennials will be few around here. So thought I would go back and get a few more plants.
Bought the other day:
chelone - turtlehead "Hot Lips" (after buying heard it reseeds! I use pre-emergent "Snapshot," hopeful that will help)
Heliopsis - Summer Sun
Japanese Anenome - Bressingham Glow
threadleaf coreopsis - Moonray
Aster - Wood's Purple

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I thought I would go back and get two more Heliopsis "Summer Sun" and use the three of them to put where the big Jacob Cline (Kline?) monarda is that looks terrible right now. It has been planted there for several years, it's huge, but it always looks awful after it starts to bloom. Looses all it's leaves from mildew etc. It's in the center of the bed now, and not a very good focal point. Am hoping Summer Sun will come into bloom after the daylilies go out, and have color till frost.

If there are other plants you recommend, let me know - they start out the year with a huge selection - but many are sold out by now. If you think of something - tell me about it and I will check it out.

I don't think I want anything that will get over about 4-5 feet tall.
I went through their catalog and looked up some plants. Anyone have any comments on these?

Here is my list.... (hope I spell them right!)
Agastache Red Fortune - I have Blue Fortune and love it...
Cimifuga Chocoholic for the shade with the hostas - does this spread fast?
Globe Thistle because the one we moved into the bed died. Figures, the only thing that died was a thistle. LOL
Ligularia Osiris Cafe Noir - I have Britt Marie Crawford. It is huge, and I love it. OCN is supposed to be much smaller
Lysimachia A. Beaujolais
Veronica Giles Van Hees - I have Eveline and love it
Aconitum Arendsii
Spigelia - marilandica

This is a pic of part of the new bed.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2010 2:37 PM

another view of the sunny part of the bed

and, one more. This shot shows that the full sun area, which is the furthest away in this pic is reasonably full - remember we were moving in plants that were more mature, not small new plants. But, the end closest to me when I took the pic is full sun most of the morning, but by afternoon it is shade, until early evening when it is a bit sunny again. It needs a few plants in it. You can also see the big red monarda I want to replace.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2010 2:39 PM

and, finally, this is the area under the crabapple. Some of these hosta have been here for years - we just moved them under the tree this spring, and others were new to give a little more variety. I'd like to add a few more plants so that it is not all hosta right under the tree.

I wish my beds looked like yours. You have reason to be very proud of what you have achieved. Please keep us updated on the additions.

Elsa

I have some foam flower, astilbe, ferns and coral bells with my hosta. There is also a small white anemone, sylvestris that does well in my garden. I'm not sure if it grows quickly or not. My hubby thought it was a weed and took out all but 2 plants last year! I've had it for several years and moved it from WV when I moved to Indiana. It didn't seem to take over by any means for me.

Nice job on the new bed by the way!

This message was edited Jul 6, 2010 2:10 PM

I forgot that I also have a couple astilbe in hosta area so far. I never thought of ferns - I have a couple that could be divided - I've never divided a fern - can you do that? These are two types of painted fern.

I am not familiar with Anenome Sylvestris. They do have it on the sales list. I will look it up in plant files. Thanks!!!!

Have never grown Foam Flower - they have listed : Happy Trails (white), Oakleaf (white), Pink Skyrocket, Running Tapestry (white), Spring Symphony (pale pink) and Sugar and Spice (light pink)

I think the Spigelia marilandica would do well with the Hostas, just make sure you have them in a part that gets some morning sun. I have a couple in a spot that only gets sun until about 10 or 11 am, they do well. They are very slow growers for me, I know they are supposed to like a good soil and I don't have very good soil. So that's why I keep them in afternoon shade.

I have the Sugar and Spice that I got in coop here a few years ago. Can't recall the name of the nursery....again it's on the tip of my tongue! I bought 3, 2 lived but not sure what one lived and what one didn't! I think Spring Symphony....Terra Nova is where they came from and they were plugs. They have stayed small. I did have one foam flower but don't remember which cultivar but it got a lot bigger. The anemone sylvestris is small and I think it is cute. I bought a small pot of it from Rick's Custom Nursery and I think it was less that $10 plus shipping. Had to replace what my hubby pulled up! :)

You've picked some great plants; many are among my favorites, so my opinion is just a bit biased, lol.

I have several chelone (lyonii-the pink one) throughout the garden, and have not seen them self-seed at all. Their clump does gradually expand over time, but for me it's not all aggressive; just gorgeous striking foliage and bright color in late summer when little else is blooming. It does want moist soil, so I always plant it with a few water crystals mixed into its soil.

Have lots of tiarella/foam flower here; it's definitely one of my favorites for shade/part shade. There are two native species: T. wherryi, that doesn't run but builds a slowly expanding clump over time, and T. cordifolia, which is supposed to run. Mine has yet to run, though I wish it would. In my experience here, the newer cultivars don't run at all; love them for the gorgeous foliage and fabulous winter color in some forms, but they stay in place for me.

Cimicifuga has been very slow-growing here; like it but wish it would do more. I love ligularia, but unfortunately so do the slugs; I stay well-stocked on Sluggo.

Spigelia marilandica is a beautiful little native, and an absolute magnet for hummingbirds. I can be working a few feet away from the plants, and the hummers continue to visit and feed. I dearly wish this would spread, but I have to buy more to put it in new places, darn it.

Your garden looks just lovely, and good luck with your new additions-
Ruth

thanks so much!!!

I was going to head over to the nursery yesterday, but it was in the mid 90's and it was just too hot.

Glad to know that the Spigelia marilandica is a good plant. I was not familiar with it when I was going through their catalog. Looked it up and was intrigued! I bet the hummers do like it!

Oh, forget shopping and planting in the mid-90's; that's too much like torture, lol. I have quite a few plants the hummers like, but spigelia is one of the few for them in part shade; and they love it, love it! Happy shopping when it cools off a bit-
Ruth

Went to the nursery. They were out of most of the things on my list.

Got a lovely chinensis Candy Lily - used to grow them years ago... don't know what happened to the ones I had. Got two more heliopsis Summer Sun, even though I saw my neighbor at the end of my driveway when I was leaving home to go to the nursery. She has huge, wonderful perennial beds. Like a park. She used to work at this nursery. She cautioned me that the Summer Sun would reseed everywhere and even preemergent would not stop them. But, she said they were easy to pull out, so she didn't consider them invasive.
She suggested Zauschneria - so bought one of those. Bought 3 agastache - Purple Pigmy, Red Fortune, and another Blue Fortune. I love the B.F. I have - flower is a bit pale, but foliage is great, and bees and hummers love them.
Bought another heuchera - can't remember now if it was Peach Flambe, or Peach Melba.... Veronica Giles Van Hees.
I think that's it.

Thank for the advice on what to add!

This message was edited Jul 9, 2010 8:42 AM

Sounds good, daylily; agastache is really reliable in sun, and Purple Pygmy is one of my faves. Maybe some of your other shade choices will be there next spring. One thing for sure in gardening, there's always another season-
Ruth