What are your methods for following color with color?

There's a question that I think is most appropriate for cottage gardening (which I think of as crowded and colorful), but there has been so little activity in this forum that I published it in the Perennials forum instead. No luck there. No responses.

So I'll try here. What are your favorite combinations of plants so that when one is finished blooming the other starts in almost the same place. Here's an example. The back of my garden is lined with delphiniums. Between the delphiniums I plant cardinal flowers. They don't even attain much height until the first delphinium bloom is over. They do get nice and tall and bloom a long time in August. If I'm lucky some delphinium come back to join them, but they're too short to carry the responsibility of the back of the garden.

Another example is that I plant baby blue eyes annuals in patches along the front of the garden. When they get impossibly leggy, I replace them with yellow portulaca that I started from seed in May. Portulaca won't germinate in earlier for me anyway. (I don't use artificial lights).

What have others of you done to solve this ongoing problem?

My garden can be seen here: http://davesgarden.com/showcase/album/view/68617

TIA
LAS

You are using colors like me, lots of blues, yellows and red. I have a 30 x 40 feet garden and always looking to change around in the summer. I got some larkspur seeds from a DG member and they are the first to bloom in my front of house Island. Then I got some salvia that replace the larkspur and more orange zinnias. By the time the zinnias are leggy, I have some penta in pots to spruce up the Summer garden. The globe amarantha is good for the whole Summer. Your pictures are beutiful, I guess your Summers are not so harsh like in Ga. Etelka

Lovely. What are the two blue flowers in the fourth picture. I ought to know the one in the back. Senior moment. But the one in the front is new to me.

In the back is the Black and Blue salvia, here they are perennials, in front in a pot is Blue Daze, very reliable annual, blooms till frost. I live under a 100 year old oak tree, so in the shade I mix in some annuals, coleus and Hosta. Etelka

I don't do much "planning" sorry to say. I grow mostly native perennials with a few reliable annuals, some volunteer and if not, I start from seed because I can't live without.

worked a little to remember the progression in my garden this year. I'm sure this list is not exhaustive.

May
Gaillardia
Rudbeckia hirta
Salvia 'Mesa Rose'
Salvia 'black and blue'
Verbena homestead
Coreopsis 'Nana'
Geranium 'samboor'
Ajuga
Pink oxalis
Muscari

June
Butterfly weed (A. tuberosa)
Echinacea
Cimifuga racemosa
Common milkweed
Verbena bonariensis
Rudbeckia triloba
Agastache foeniculum
Solidago ptarmicoides
Spiderwort
Mountain mint
Asiatic lily
Veronica/speedwell
Liatris spicata
Scabiosa
California poppy
Oakleaf hydrangea
Rose campion


July
Leucanthemum 'Becky'
Monarda
Ironweed
Lantana 'Ms. Huff'
Passionflower
Salvia 'Coral nymph'
Salvia coccinea
French marigold


August
Texas red star hibiscus
Solidago rugosum 'fireworks'
Common evening primrose
Eupatorium 'Chocolate'
Jerusalem artichoke
Aster 'Honeysong pink'
Iris 'Immortality'
Chrysanthemums





This message was edited Aug 24, 2013 6:09 AM

AmandaEsq, thanks for the list. Can you give me any details about plants you have close together, maybe a short in front of a tall or something, where the later one "takes the place" of the earlier one?

Kiseta, good idea about pots. I love the Blue Daze, perfect medium blue. It doesn't look, in plant files, like it could be grown as an annual. Sigh.

Hi...Just wanted to let you know head back over to Perennials , 'Help with August Blooms' started by Sherrygirl. There I posted a list of plants that bloom this time of year. Might be able to get a few ideas.. I would relist but is very long. All those on my list I do grow so if you find some that you might like info on just post here and I'll check back in..

All season bloomers:
Pix 1: Catanche carulea, 18-24"
Pix 2: Scabiosa columbaria 30-36"
Pix 3: Salvia nemerosa, available in blue pink or white, 24"

Yes, I've been following that. It's interesting, but I'm particularly interested in what plants can be put together/next to each other/one in front of the other. Where one doesn't get too big until the other is finished, but one doesn't kill the other.

I'm interested in this too, but for me it's a little premature. I'm just now getting the big stuff organized after years of clearing, propagating and dividing what I have to get volume and diversity. Finally I have enough plant material to make cohesive effects, after years of one-of-this and one-of -that.

Right now, I'm working on a long stretch of iris, daylilies and peonies to bloom in succession with some sense of color design, above and behind a long perennial border. Although I have a few vignettes that work, constant bloom is still elusive in many areas.

I'm adding various combinations of blue, purple and white TBI's to bloom with the Siberians and the Caradonna Salvia. As they fade, the peonies take over, soon the foxgloves kick in. Eventually the front bed gets going, Phlox, Saponaria, Echinacea etc. The red Monarda is in front of the Siberian Iris, behind the peonies in the upper bed. Once that goes, there's very little back there besides a couple of Liatris and a Daylily or two. I'm adding several late DL's there now.

Pic 4 is the long view. The section in the other pics is the far end of the left border, from the big round box shrub to the end. You can see why I need to pay attention to the big picture, lol, and that this section needed help.

But I work on the subtleties too. I have a bunch of compatible purples, many of which bloomed together and/or in succession, so I'm planning to get those worked into shape next. Hopefully I'll have something to show next year! :-)

Let's see. I haven't done much planning. Hahaha. I've said that already, I know. But I get what you're after. Right now I'm noticing how nice the black and blue salvia looks together with the rudbeckia. I have some balloon flowers fading now while a Nippon daisy, behind them, begins to bud out.

In my back 40, the pink monarda fades.and.the ironweed behind it begins to bloom, with the even larger still Jerusalem artichoke behind that beginning to bloom while the even taller still solidago buds up. In the foreground the purple coneflowers.are.fading too but the chocolate eupatorium's foliage is a nice contrast as.it buds up too.

There's a very pretty honeysong pink aster blooming now next to the mistflower which is fading.I'll look around some more.

souds nice Amanda, pix???

Pam am curious whats the pink in pix 4, to the right of the lilies, just behind the single daylily bloom? Looks good but then all of it does..

Me... I gave up in the border for this year I'm thinking, lol. I look at it and think what a mess!! Most has not been cut back to continue bloom. Instead have been concentrating on the backyard. Planted 15 or 16 Hemerocais flava, ooooh that corner will smell good next summer! Got 3 trees and 14 shrubs in.... now am waiting for the Roundup to finish off the grasses so I can get more planted. Almost out of Roundup and need to get another gallon so I can get some other trees and shrubs in... then will begin planting all my babies from winter,.yikes, I think I'm a bit behind... And I need to spray for skeeters.... It's hard to get much done when you spend half the time swatting at them,I believe it's time to spray for them also, lol. I wonder if they realize how annoying they are?

The pink is Sedum Rosy Glow, in a terra cotta pot. It's going down a level with the PG and Little Lime Hydrangeas, which have now turned that lovely pink blush color. There's a soft pink mum down there already, and some tall sedums at the other end of that border, near the tall grasses and daylilies. That should work well with the Joe Pye, and make for a nice fall show. Next year I'll use warmer tones under the PG, much less white.

It's so hard to keep up with everything! This year I've been so focused on the lower border the main one got much less attention than usual, and other areas got none. The old herb garden, which became much too shady, has gone wild. One good thing is lots of Rudbeckia showed up, but there's a terrible mess along with it. I'll get to it one of these days...

Pfg, your gardens are BEAUTIFUL!!

I can't wait to begin in on my new gardens after the closing on our house.

Kath: It's generally just a giant mess but the birds and bees and bunnies and the rest like it a lot. And that pleases me.

Have a great day all!

A.

AmandaEsq, who is Kath? :-)

Thanks...

Amanda, it's lovely and welcoming, and I loooove the chair! We don't have enough places to sit and enjoy. Hmmmmm...

LAS, Kath=warriorswisdomkathy. :)

Pfg, the chair was something left on the curb by a neighbor. Still quite "sit-able." And takes a nice picture.

Aha! On my screen WarriorWisdomKathy wraps, so I was just absorbing WarriorWisdomKa. :-)

I just came across a tag... The sedum above is Ruby Glow, from Bluestone this spring, not Rosy Glow. Sorry...