As the flower seeds are starting to show signs of germination inside the milk jugs, I am thinking which plants would make a pretty combination. I switched two pieces of furniture around the other day, and am in the process of "weeding out" excess paper clutter. I just came across some notes of combinations that I wrote down from one of these gardening websites. Unfortunately these notes are lacking names, forum idenitification, usernames so I could always look back on this person's posted message.
Have you considered where you will plant your newly established wintersown plants when the time comes? I'm trying to come up with a nice combination for the area where the Comtesse de Bouchard clematis is located. The area is probably only 15-18 inch deep and about 4 ft. in length. Right now the above clematis is planted there, and I started a cutting of a bronze mum last Fall, and I really want something to fill in that space and will come back. The background would be the brick wall of the garage.Any suggestions?
Here are some examples of favorite combinations that I had written down; obviously from some garden website members:
Blue columbine with pink bleeding heart..would need partial shade
Red poppies with vibrant blue delphinium
Jacob Cline monarda with coreopsis (I guess this person meant the red/yellow comination)
Jackmani clematis with orange "Ditch lilies"
Yellow McCana Giant columbines with Walker's low catmint
Your Favorite flower combinations
Pippi -- I never plan... i'm terrible at that. and now with how full the beds are, the new stiff just gets fitted into small openings .... I sometimes get lucky with a nice color combination.
one nice surprise was White Yarrow and Blue Flax.
Excited to have great blue lobelia mixed with red snapdragons.
purple baptisia mixed with yellow iris forrestii
Got a few ideas for ya. Ever tried veronica, come in pink white or blue, spicata is 18" tall and blooms spring til frost. Salvia there are several varieties from 12"- 24" that come in the same colors as above, again blooms spring to frost. Both are prolithic bloomers if dead-headed, and make great cut flowers. I personally would not add yellow to such a small border unless would be a pale yellow, it would pick up the gold of the anthers but might be harsh in such a small space. You don't say what height your intrested in. Also could seed in an annual alyssum maritima in white or purple, mine reseed every year and my patch is getting bigger (various parts of my border) and the smell is wonderful. Others....... Catanche (cupids dart) in blue or white, spring to frost. Lavendula, white, pink, blue. Campanula glomerata 18" blue or white, off and on all summer. Daisies, all sorts of sizes, bloom spring til frost. Geraniums (referencing the perennials) Rozanne and Johnsons blue bloom all summer. Dianthus, many many varieties and heights, some spring bloomers others can go all summer, from 6-18", pink, and white ( my fav. is hybrid Loveliness at 16-18" all summer and oh so very fragrant.) Delphinium grandiflorum, blooms spring -fall, blue,white or pink, 12-18". Gypsophila repens, (babies breath) 8-12" blooms spring early summer, light light pink. There is a light pink coreopsis available also same family as moonbeam. Penstemon 2 varieties bloom whole season. hope that gives you a few ideas. My border is 45ftX100ft so I have a bit more room to play with.lol. Good luck, Kathy.
Today my husband had a follow up appt. with eye surgeon and afterwards, we had lunch then I took him to this great garden center/nursery that was close by. I had been the guest of a local garden club last month and we had our meeting there with a horticulturist giving a talk on orchids. He was so knowledgable about not only orchids but a lot of other flowers. He had expected Fafard potting mix to come in back in Feb. and they still didn't have their shipment of it yet. This is a great garden center/nursery and you could spend many hours there. My husband was very impressed. I saw these beautiful purple tone gladiola bulbs and we hadn't raised glads since our first house, in about 30 yrs. A light bulb came on and I thought they might look good in that spot by the Comtesse de Bouchard clematis and he agreed. I think I'll find something in the pink or rose tones to add in that spot along with the glads. Glads will have to be dugged up before the ground freezes, so maybe it would be best to plant an annual that will be dying down once frost hits it. Those are all great suggestions; keep 'em coming. I'm open to any suggestions. Many thanks!
if you like glads might want to plant them elsewhere, cuz they'll only give you about 2 weeks of blooms, lovely flower but they don't last that long. Need to talk hubby into giving you more garden space. lol. Besides it will be less for him to mow. Also if ya didn't know there is a perennial glad also, something like gladiola bizantene (sp?), shorter than the glads you were looking at but don't have to be dug and will bloom for years. Good luck.....kathy
Kathy, we live in a gated, Sr. Citizens Community where the mowing is done for us and are only allowed foundation flowerbeds. I was thinking about planting some else in front of the Glads but the glad stalks would still be there after they finished blooming and you're right, they only last a short time. Maybe I'll shift those to the back yard flower beds/by the sunroom, There would be a spot by the newly acquired garden phlox that I planted back in Oct. Thanks for your useful information. I read last night that glads were in the Iris family. Never realized that before.
I've been searching for this image... and finally found it.
I got totally lucky with this combination.
the colors really POP.
I have Sweet William seed laid out to plant today or tomorrow. Have some Penstemon seeds that I got from a recent seed swap so I just pulled them out with the SW . Just wished I knew what color the Penstemon will be. Label just has Large grandiflora..so I'll just wait for the surprize color. The SW will really give nice color and it's a Perennial so that's another plus. Thanks for sharing all your ideas. I currently have only 2 milk jugs left so those will be used up and get them off the kitchen counter today and hubby will be happy about that!
Therese - I love that combo! I like speedwell in with almost anything though :) What is the white?
The white blooms are Penstemon Husker Red. I just love those. Mine have burgundy foliage that really stands out.
I have a few plants where the foliage is more green... but many with the burgundy.
Huskers are easily grown by seed and second yr bloomers. Dead head when you have enough volunteers. ;-)
No wonder I thought it looked familiar - I have two in my yard! LOL They bloomed for the first time last summer, not many blooms but enough to make me realize how happy I was to have planted it.
I did mine in 07, and have gotten many volunteers. I probably have 15 or so mature plants. May give some away on Free Cycle this spring.
I'm anxious to learn what color the Penstemon that I sowed last night are going to be. Rec'd them at a recent seed swap and all the label says is Penstemon grandiflorus and I can't read the username on the label. Hope they are a nice color. I have one other pack from Dem in Pa. to sow and I've seen some pictures of his and they are a beautiful blue/purple. Have to wait for another milk jug to plant those.
When i googled it, most of the images were Lavender.
as for who you got them from -- was it in a swap, or individual trade?
I use the trade tracker to track all my trades so i can look back to see who i got what from.
another thing... you can take a photo of the label, and maybe someone will recognize the user name.
Betty, sorry I have not emailed you lately ,Im still alive !!!
Im a willy nilly planter !!! I dont plan anything till Im planting !!! last year I loved this combo,it was all Leftover annuals it was the best ..
Huggergirl..I like that combination too! What are the purple flowers with the marigolds, and petunias(Calibrachoa) I'm thinking nemesia? Can you send that same picture to me in an email so I can print it off to copy it?
I love red knockout roses with walkers low catmint.
I love lady's mantle with johnson's blue geraniums.
Columbine with allium.
Lupines with foxglove.
I recently planted geum "totally tangerine" around some of my purple lupine and love the Combo.
I like the way the silver mound artemisia that is in front of my scabiosa looks like the scabiosa flowers are coming right out of the blue fluffy foliage.
Any yellow and blue combo.
As for your clematis, have you considered planting a rose? The knockout varieties are extremely easy to care for and bloom all summer. I keep some of mine small by pruning them almost to the ground in early spring. The others that I don't prune get to be around 4' around. But i love my roses with clematis, and let the vines wrap around my roses.
I'm sure I'll think of about 100 more combos that I love. Let us know what you decide!
Oh, and I just wanted to let you know that although they aren't supposed to survive the winter in our zone, the Gladiolas that I was too lazy to pull up 3 years ago have come back up every year since, and have continued to bloom beautifully. So you might consider leaving some in the ground - you never know!
dug up some pics: here's lady's mantle and johnson's blue geraniums
here's lupine and foxglove (and poppies and johnson's blue geraniums)
and here's lupine with geum "totally tangerine"
I went outside to try to capture what I was talking about with the silver mound hiding the scraggly foliage of the scabiosa, but since we just had tons of rain, the silver mound has opened up quite a bit. But I think you can still get the idea.
Here's a pic of allium and columbine. The other thing I like about this particular combo is the allium with the johnson's blue geraniums. I like the way the geranium foliage hides most of the ugly foliage from the allium.
And, here's one of my clematis, that I've just let roam through the ivy and an azalea (which has already pretty much just finished blooming). I have clematis roaming through roses as I suggested for you, but none of those clematis are blooming yet, so I don't have a pic. I like the cottagy randomness of this look.
Another combo that I love both in the garden and in a vase are poppies, verbascum and peonies - I just brought these in today :)
allium and columbine also look great together in a vase - brought these in yesterday.
great images pgt!! wonderful on a cool gloomy day.
Pam, what is the name of that beautiful orange poppy? Such a soft color of peach/orange/apricot. (Whatever!) My red Oriental poppies should be blooming real soon as they are loaded with buds if it will quit raining and sunshine for a few days straight;some of the poppy plants have as many as 5 buds on them, ready to pop open.
pippi, it's princess victoria louise - and it's a really pretty pale pink. The photo makes it look a bit more orange than it actually is.
Oh, I think I have a Princess Victoria Louise because I saw it where you posted your pictures. Now I'll have to go outside and look where it is planted. I think I can go right to it.
That Totally tangerine..grows as tall as 30 in. and information states it blooms for about 4 weeks. I wonder if the plant goes dormant then, or do you cut it back to the ground to keep things tidy? Maybe somebody else has grown it and can answer that question.
Here's another Princess Victoria Louise that I took a pic of today outside. The colors are pretty true. Finally a sunny day!!!!
I have geum, mrs. bradshaw and has bloomed all summer for me. Tried to keep deadheaded but that didn't happen, but guess what stilled bloomed til frost
I thought Geum(Mrs. Bradshaw)was a Red/orange color. I WS that this winter and right now it is still in HOS..but growing. Am anxious to see how well it does. What are the purple flowers? I don't recognize them.
Yesterday I went to visit my friend Orchidfancy and had a most delightful time. The weather was so perfect mid morning, and I was in awe what she has done to her cottage garden in the front yard since she revamped it due to street/sidewalk construction recently. I liked a combination she has used. Stella d'ora across the front yard planted next to sidewalk edge, coreopsis(zagreb or Moonbeam) and she had planted larkspurs near by. Since I'm the one doing all the maintence and planting of all the flowerbeds now, I thought that combination she used would give me color in the bed that runs along the back of sunroom. The larkspurs would reseed themselves giving me more the following year. You know what else would look pretty and colorful with those Stella d'oras and coreopsis would be Malva Zebrina. The Becky daisies are not working there. Too tall and floppy, I will be replacing them with a shorter daisy. Already purchased "Alaska" Saw "Broadway lights" daisies in a catalog and that is a lemon yellow . Would go nice with purple flowers.
Does anybody have any deep red daylilies that are rebloomers? Like a ruby red stella?
oH Betty ,I envy those who plan their garden...LOL..something I just dont doo,I must like fliing by the seat of my pants...LOL..Im almost done planting now...wheww...
Tam,
I'll be working out in the flowerbeds tomorrow. Did my volunteer job at church today. Today was delightful, stayed in the 80's. I was thinking about cutting back the bee balm as you know who is complaining that they look like tall weeds..I noticed the buds on them, so will not cut them back. Coneflowers are about ready to bloom too. Will be cutting the poppy foliage back soon. Looks like Bambi might have eaten some of the pods off. Need to sheer the creeping phlox back. Lot of other things to do. Will get out early tomorrow and start doing some of it before I water the flowerbeds. What's blooming at your place now?
Betty ,the flurry of spring color is ending here ,Iris are finishing up,Ajuga finishing blooming,I had a real pretty Climatis just bloom ,dont know what it is tho.Foxglove is pretty now,this is the time I have not much color other than green,I need more early summer or late late spring bloomers.Im going to work outside today,I have 5 flats to get planted,Im done...till I drag home MORE...Going to the uppermidwest RU next weekend,so I will be dragging stuff home from there..LOL..so I need to get all planted here today...I just received a trade box yesterday...LOL
I think you need to teach Ralph how to plant flowers or would that be a disaster? Rather do it yourself? I worked in the two beds in the front of house. Debating whether to cut the "Becky" shasta daisies back today or not. There were no seed pods on some of the poppy plants, unless they have already reseeded themselves or Bambi got hungry. See signs of Bambi and friends nipping off the buds of some of the coneflowers. Guess it's Liquid fence time again. Never been to gardening round-up.. Is that the same thing as we call our plant or seed swaps here? I used to have Ajuga at our former house and they were so pretty when they bloomed and was usually the first thing that bloomed in the Spring. Never had crocus, never cared for them, so we went from ajuga to daffs and tulips. I don't recall whether we had any hyacinths or not. Funny how time passes and you forget some things until something triggers the memory. Did you plant the toilet this year?(outside one) Oh, saw a bloom on my larkspurs this morning.One stem looks like I need to stake it as it is laying on the ground. Any feedback on that?
Betty,Maybe youd better stake up the larkspure ,maybe it got pushed over by bambi ???Ive never had to stake mine , ??? Ralph plants tomatoe`s an peppers That is it..LOL,he still asks is this a weed or a flower,,ARGGG,seems like he would learn a LITTLE from osmosis yuo know just being around all my flowers for soo many years...
You asked what was blooming here now ,I drew a blank yesterday ..LOL.. Here is whats blooming now. Columbine ,ajuga just done,Dead nettle white /purple,i have several different Dianthus blooming ,sweet william,rose just opened,poppy orange (want to plant some by the garage),jupiters beard,astilbes getting ready.
The Potty Planter is blooming with petunias,i will go take a photo of the bed it sets in ,need to repaint the seat all mildewy from being closed all winter.
Round up is the same as a swap,cant wait for that
