Yeah, some annuals will get you more color more quickly. The new perennials often need a year or three to get their best show going. The good news is if you don't like the way things look, you can always move the plants around from year to year (and if you do it with a good clump of dirt around the roots in the mild part of the year, the plants won't even know they were moved).

Nate

I agree with Nate. My garden is always changing. I am going to try some new perennials from California this year along with a few locally acquired ones.

Make sure the roots or tubers on the "double orange" are consistent with the others, because you don't want the "ditch" lilies to invade your garden.

Good luck, and keep posting.
kay

The lady I got these from had beautiful gardens that she'd quite obviously dedicated a lot of time towards, so I'm not too worried about getting a weed, which is what I understand ditch lilies to be. Do you all have any specific suggestions for good companion plants to give some variety and interest to the garden bed?

I like daiseys, but I also have catmint and salvia by mine to give a contrast to flower form and leaf form. heuchuras for color is nice too :)

This year I'm planting some Echinacea with mine. Right now I have liatris and catmint and some blue annuals that I plant each year! I like blues with my daylilies. Heucheras also look nice because of he colorful foliage. I believe there was a long thread on this forum about companion plants. Just type companion plants into the search. Marg

I second catmint and salvia, but with the little warning that if you have cats around, they love to roll in the catmint; they tend to like the dayllily foliage too, unfortunately. I also like daisies, and since you are in a similar zone to mine, you might like to edge with some of the wax begonias. Portulaca is another good low mounding plant, and foxgloves are good background for summer.

If you haven't already, take a look at some of the archieved entries in Floota's blog and look at Julias old posts. And be sure to look at Celeste's Pictures They are beautiful, but her zone is very different, however you will still get ideas. And Cindy, who also has a blog. Her garden is a dream.

You are going to have such a good time, and remember, any garden is a work in progress.

kay

Any ideas for shrubs? Im thinking of planting Black Lace Elderberry.

I have a black lace elder but it's very windy here and it is not doing to well. I've heard that the Black lace gets better color in full sun so maybe I'll move it. Golden elder does very well in my hosta garden and so do hydrangeas. I know it's not a shrub but I did plant some soloman's seal there to add some height and different foliage.

Ive heard that too. Kind of like the wine and roses.

I believe blue veronicas and white echinaceas look very nice with daylilies, especially the creamy white ones.