Plant Lilies with.....?

ivy--the tall frothy plant is a tall aster with tiny blooms. The foliage is what makes it interesting. I don't know the name& have to replant it each year due to winterkill.

Yes--Batchelor Buttons have been a staple in my gardens for over 50 years. They were sure successes that my Mom & Dad always let me plant in the family vegetable garden as a child. I like the blue the best since it it contrasts well with my other plants. I cut the plants down to 10 inches each month to keep the blooms coming into fall. Batchelor Buttons are some of the first self-seedlings to pop up in the spring. I transplant them EVERYWHERE.

I have alliums in all my beds, but it doesn't look like I have a good pic of them scanned. I'm usually zeroing in on the iris & daffodils. I plant tulips, daffodils, alliums & other spring bulbs between daylilies & other perennials. They bloom & their old foliage is covered by the plants around them.

Thank you all for your interest. I am constantly tweaking my gardens for best effect. I like a variation of foliage as well as blooms all season. It's a little tricky, but worth the effort.

Here's another small garden in various months.
May 2005

Same garden in July.

Same garden in August.

Same garden in September.

Last year I planted Bachelors Buttons, but they grew so leggy they fell down on the ground. Now I know I can cut them back. Thanks Wanda! Your pics are so beautiful!

I put in Apricot Beauty and Negrita Tulips in the front section. Hope they don't get eaten!

I think I will plant Alliums in the front yard. They are so striking I hate to put them where only I can see them! I have a newly planted crabapple tree that needs some companions. I can't believe I am talking about bulbs and it's already halfway through November. Our weather has been so messed up this year.

I just ordered a few reblooming Iris for the lily area- Swingtown, Pink Attraction, and Rosalie Figge. Also a collection of Japanese Iris in shades of plum through white. That will cover spring blooms. I will probably use Cosmos, Cleome and Yarrow, plus other annuals for fall. I hope I have enough room. I am a notorious overplanter!

If there are still ideas out there don't be shy. I will take any suggestions at all!

How about Hollyhocks?

Gemini sage- Sorry- I missed your post at first! I love the little mixed ones and the big Gladiator ones. I tried blue ones one year but I did not like them as much as I thought I would. Maybe I will use the little ones as ground cover in the circle garden. I hope I don't crowd too much in there. Maybe I could use ranunculus to fill in after the tiny alliums die back?

I have a Sedum "Brilliant" in another area in my yard. I could take some and use that as well in the front shorter area for fall color. Again- Wanda's inspiration!

I'm growing some tall red leafed sedum in the back borders. I broke more stems off this fall and popped them into the ground to root (3 stems in a clump). Presto, chango! 2 new clumps of red sedum in my garden.

How long have you been gardening, Wanda? Have you ever been in the business? What is it about Iowa that has so many wonderful gardeners?

Ivy, have you grown ranunculus in CT before? I've tried them, but they don't like it when the temps go up (about the time they're ready to start blooming!) and just shrivel. If I ever have a cool greenhouse I'll sure try them again; I love those many petaled blooms.

Wanda, don't you just love that about sedums! That's how I can rationalize paying too much for some of the newer ones-I know I can have plenty of babies soon.

Ivy, I like annual sages to carry the whole garden into fall up to frost. Right now, Salvia coccinea 'alba', though slightly frost-bitten, is still blooming and looks just right over a bed of earlier transplanted Japanese iris - not a long term thing in this situation - but this one grows in partial shade of monster silver maple without flopping like Salvia farrinacea, not too tall like the Salvia guarniticas, more cooperative with partial shade than Salvia splendens and self-sows obligingly.

If you have lots of sun, overplanting/edging low lilies with Salvia chamaedrys (spelling? from Sandy Mush) is wonderful - it's low, very silvery haze effect, blue flowers all season (less expensive would be sowing seed of the blue, hazy nierembergia which winters over here). For taller lilies, caryoptis, Nepeta siberica 'Souvenir de Andre Chaudron' (spelling?), lemon southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum - not as invasive as other artemisias) have made wonderful overplantings for lilies for me. All of these have rooted easily for me from cuttings struck in the ground under glass jars.

But I think Salvia guarniticas of any persuasion were made in heaven as companions for all lilies given enough room. A mob of lisanthus next door to the sage would probably stop a lot of traffic. Hummingbirds can never get enough of S. guarnitica in any form.

Wanda - do you cut back your sedum very often? With the garden subsiding back into the ground until spring, your garden pictures are most welcome. Thank you.

woodspirit--No, I'm not in the gardening business, but I have designed gardens & installed for charities, churches & schools as well as friends & family. My goal is gardens with varied colors & texture that bloom from April to November.

My Mama says the neighbor lady gave me my first watering can at 3 & seeds to plant nastursums. There are photos of me filling my little watering can from a rain barrel.
At 5 years old, I had my own row of flowers in the family garden--zinnias & Batchelor buttons. From 7 years old until 18, there was an retired gardener next door who taught me vegetables & flowers. From 20-26 years old I was blessed with another elderly gardener across the street from my house. Iowa has strong seasons but soil that let's even a little one learn easily.

I cut back the sedum when it is a foot high, but they still like to spread & lay down with the weight of the blooms. I use a low ring cage on the bigger clumps. Sedul is one of the few plants that has interest in all seasons. I do not cut it in the fall, but leave the seed heads for winter interest & bird food.

Bluespiral- Great ideas! I would love to plant Salvia Black and Blue- it's stunning!

I planted Salvia Indigo Spires in pots and window boxes this year, and although it was too tall for my boxes, I really wanted to use it again, because it has never stopped blooming all summer long. In fact it is STILL blooming despite temps ranging from the sixties down to 37! I will have to pull it out today or tomorrow, but I feel really bad about it! I also put in a shorter Salvia called Brenthurst that is just gorgeous, but blooms sporadically. They fit my color scheme perfectly.

Wanda and Gemini-No, I have never tried Ranunculus before.

When my sedums get floppy, I divide them and plop half back in the hole, and the other half someplace else. They don't seem to care, and they don't flop for a year or two. Granted, cutting them back is a lot easier, but I tend to move things around a lot, anyway.
I agree, they are really pretty in winter.

Thank you Ivy and Wanda - next year the sedum will know who's boss around here.

Wanda, you reminded me of Mrs. Waterman - an elderly lady next door when I was in my 20s. I was busy digging a bed for tomatoes in total shade, when she came over, introduced herself and advised me that tomatoes liked sun. I'll never forget the cloudy afternoon when she invited me into her garden and proudly shared her moonflower - blooming away like a table on a hoop crisscrossed with wires for support. I felt like Alice with the white rabbit at a tea party. Never met anyone like her again.

Gemini and Ivy, those ranunculus sound like the perfect thing to go dormant just when sage 'Indigo Spires' is looking for space. Do you get much in the way of flowers from the ranunculus earlier?

bluespiral, I like your description of Mrs. Waterman; it reminds me of childhood experiences with elderly gardeners in my neighborhood growing up-magical it seemed!

The one time I got blooms from ranunculus I started them in a cold frame early and put them in my planter boxes in April. By the end of April-1st of May they had lots of buds. Then the temps went up and that was it. Have you ever seen the tuberous roots of ranunculus? They look like some shriveled animals claw; reminded me of the story 'The Monkey's Paw' from high school lit class LOL.
Neal.

Aaaaaaaaaaggghhh! The Monkey's paw! I hated that story.

Ugly? Ever have your pre-schooler take a pheasant claw to school with the tendon still attached so she can make it "wave"? She had such a good time that she did it every hunting season until middle school! And my other daughter liked to answer the door with a RAT on her shoulder just to frighten visitors. Maybe I was a bit too tolerant as they grew up....

OOooo...we used to fight over who got to play next with the pheasant's foot. LOL

My hubby has a wierd sense of humor and so do I. Our daughters had their own bows and competed against the guys at 3-D hunts. They both know how to shoot too. As near-adults, they love big dogs but don't hunt. And they're very understanding about my garden obsessions and their Daddy's trap shooting/hunting obsessions.

I just realized that one of the plants I was thinking of putting in this garden when I started it was Apricot Beauty Foxglove. It might look really pretty in that area as the lilies are coming up.The only problem is the foxglove looks just horrible after it blooms, so I would have to hide the ripening stems of a few plants to get the seeds.

I just love tall plants! Anything that blooms along the stem. Delphiniums, Hollyhocks, Lilies, Mallows, Lupines, Foxgloves, Agastaches, Larkspurs, Campanulas, Salvias, Snapdragons. I can't resist them.