Calendula copes well with frost and the big doubles with the mixed petal colours ('frosted', orange and yellow)are cheerful and go well with daffodils.

The 'penny pansies' with the small flowers can look charming with crocus and don't usually swamp them. They make nice border plants, too.

I think you call them 'English' daisies - Bellis - with the double flowers may enhance later crocuses also - particularly if you have chosen white, purple or stripes for your crocus display.

You may be able to buy Anemones that have been prestarted and they would go well in pots/smaller tubs . Either St Brigid or De Caen.

Forget-me-nots - they can look lovely as a foil for bulbs and are quite easy to keep from bursting out everywhere. (Myosotis)

Polyanthus are also a possible - either as a tapestry of mixed colours together - or a careful choice of colours for edging or patch planting. And common primrose - cream or white - usually has flowers from quite early in the season in zone 9.

Parsley makes a nice border in its first year. Nepeta is a possible but it is usually subdued over winter.

Wallflowers that are well-started (bigger than seedlings) can give some green over winter although they may not be in full flower until mid spring - enough to distract from the leaves of the daffs after flowering.

Another 'season cross-over' plant could be Aquilegia - perhaps in pink for after the daff display and to pick up on the Loropetalum flowers/new foliage.

Unless the bed gets to be fearsomely hot - a Clematis on a tripod could shift the eye up from the grassy spread of daff leaves after flowering. Lots of choices available.

Wow, Vetivert,

Thank you for all the great ideas. I've had the worst luck with clematis, but you've got a lot of great suggestions. I'm going to see what I can find off your list and get started tomorrow.

I don't remember now if my crocus bulbs are white or mixed (I ordered early in the summer...but I'll call and ask the supplier what it is that they sent me). I planted them three deep all along the front edge of the bed, with minnow daffs behind, and I think I could do the penny pansies and forget-me-nots kind of over the top/around them and be ok.

Great ideas! Thanks again!

Do you live in New Zealand?

I have serious doubts about the bellis and polyanthus growing near Houston. Otherwise, you got some good ideas there. Other suggestions would be to sow a packet of larkspur (consolida) or Shirley poppies.

You should be able to find a plentiful supply of snapdragons and pansies at your garden center too. Pansies and Snaps, plus dianthus, seem to be staples all across the southeast, and for good reason. If you plant your pansies in November (wait until your daytime highs are below 80 degrees), you should be able to enjoy them until April, depending on when your hot weather moves in. That's six months. Not a bad return on your investment. If you go with pansies, plant them six inches apart and for the most amazing look, put two plants in each hole (still six inches apart). Planted this way, they will completely cover the ground and mound up. Truly spectacular. Also, when you are buying your plants, buy the smallest most compact looking ones available in the six packs. Don't worry if they are blooming or not. The small ones will take off and give you the best, longest lived color all winter long.

So, you could plant a circle of snapdragons around your shrub (even a double circle if the shrub is small this year), and then plant an edge of two to four rows deep of pansies around the outer part of the bed. The bulbs will come right up through the annuals.

I would recommend that you consider a small EVERGREEN shrub for the center of your bed. That will become "bones" for the bed and will make a nice backdrop for whatever bedding and bulbs you want to do the rest of the year, even in the winter. A good one would be Indian Hawthorne, "Snow". It gets about four feet wide, but only about two feet high. It's neat, easy to grow, and is very nice when it blooms in the spring too.

Hi Donna,

I can't believe I didn't think of Pansies, I envy them in commercial landscapes every winter. Thank you for the interesting planting tip.

The shrub will definitely be an evergreen, and the Indian Hawthorne sounds great - before the storm, we had a pittosporum hedge that had gotten way too tall, despite quarterly trimming, and we were already talking about replacing those with something else. I like the 2' tall aspect and I wanted something that blooms.

Thanks so much!