Interesting posts!

I threw out cosmos seeds in my beds and then forgot and "weeded" the bed only to be standing there a few days later and realize what I did. I think I am not meant to be a seed sower.

I love the nepeta too and I have been dividing mine all over the place. I did find out the hard way last year when one of my beds flooded and the water sat for a while because the ground was so saturated. I lost all the nepeta in that bed. It was the only thing that didn't bounce back.

That lamium is sooo pretty. My mom has some (a small plant) and she doesn't want to share it with me. Nice, right?

I put some pics in the Gallery with some of my favs, including Rudbeckia and Purple Heart, about as common as can be found. Annual Rudbeckia lasts only a few weeks and will be followed by Madagascar periwinkle (vinca rosea), another common annual.

Nell

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics Here

Mollydog I realized I've put catmint everywhere - even more than any of the salvias. I love Walker's Low - have you tried Felix? It isn't as spectacular as WL, but it does bloom lightly but steadily all summer and it's easy from seed.

Have also found feverfew, balloon flower, missouri evening primrose, four-o'clocks to be reliable spreaders in my zone and the rabbits leave them alone.

I agree on Walkers Low Catmint. The darn plant starts blooming in the spring and then never stops until frost. Darn special for a prennial as they don't usually do that.

I do have hummingbird mints that do that, bloom from spring till frost, but they are alot more picky about were you plant them. Walker Low is just about the perfect plant, it only needs extra watering when newly planted but if does get watered heavily, thats no problem either.

Diane, this is a very nice thread! What a great idea. Mine are daisies.

Since I am pretty new to gardening I had to give this some thought. I realized though that I have planted a lot of mint in the shadier areas as filler. It grows assertively here and spreads in a quick hurry. I know that if I don't have something planted the weeds will plant themselves. And I would much rather "weed" something that smells as great as mint and is usefull to boot. I actually look forward to "weeding."

For the sunny spots I think it would be california poppies and sweet alysumm. They give me masses of bloom right away and the poppies will go forever if deadheaded. They reseed freely if you let them but you can just as easily not. These plants buy me time for maturing a plant that I do want but won't fill in for some time and, they are easy to get rid of when I want.

For a volume plant it would be ferns. Evergreen, tough, goes good with everything. Plus the big bonus is that they are abundant here. I will use a native plant more often than not. Usually if you give them some garden bed care they really perform.

Hardy geranium or anenome, can never pass up a new variety or color.

I love hostas and ferns for filling in blank spaces in the garden. My garden is mostly shady, we have many huge trees, so the hostas and ferns are very happy. The ferns spread out to fill empty spaces, but they don't crowd out the taller plants that bloom, so they're great around the hydrangeas and give the whole bed a lush tropical look. I use hostas in the deeper shady areas like under the larger oak leaf hydrangeas and they really thrive there. The great thing about the ferns is that if there is dappled sunlight I can plant a sun-loving bloomer, like clematis, that will poke up above the ferns and will still bloom while enjoying the cool moist soil on it's roots. Cheryl

My favorites that I use over and over again include: catmint (both 'Six Hills Giant' and 'Walker's Low'), ladies mantle, salvia, geraniums, peonies, heuchera, daisies, Stella daylilies, lambs ear and heliopsis. They are all very low maintenance plants and give so much in return!

Petunias..colourful fillers.

Sierra

Lambs Ears.The silver gray foliage with the white fuzz is a perfect foil for any flowering neighbors. Hides knees, fills in between, borders, and can be cut back if you need it a bit shorter. I grew some from seed this spring and I plan to add more next year.

This was a good idea for a thread! I tend to use trailing lantana and pentas wherever I need something to "fill". Pentas tend to be marketed for sunny areas, but they do just as well in shade.

Impatiens and wave petunias. These are easy and colorful even though they aren't perennial. Also iris and daylilies, I just wish they would bloom more than once a year.
Vicki

Well, I see everyone loves nepeta (catmint)..and stachys (lambs'ear).. as do I, but no one has mentioned lysimachia 'aurea' (creeping jenny). What a wonderful little groundcover and such a bright spot in the shade garden. Those are my three that I have everywhere in the gardens.

Is catmint a spreader? I'd like to use it but fear it would spread.

For the sunny areas: I use sages such as russian sages and the sage blue midnight. Lots of alliums, purple sensation and globemaster and chives. Lots of lavenders. Agastache blue hyssops. Echinaceas.

For the shady areas: I use hostas, astilbes, coral bells and heucheras.

We have three extremely common plants that grow wild here, that is after I first planted them about 10 years ago! Moonflowers, Morning Glory and Four o'clocks. I keep them out of the main flowerbed but they come up all around the acre.

When we first moved to this old farm 30+ years ago, I found monarda growing at the side of a road through the woods. I didn't know what it was, but I looked it up. I figured if it grew wild it would grow well in my garden, so I ordered some seeds. Those first monarda were lavender. My next effort was Cambridge Scarlet, and then some mixed varieties. A couple of years ago I put in some Raspberry Wine, and yesterday planted Marshall's delight. I love the flowers, and I love watching the bees and sphinx moths that also love the flowers.

Lupines, phlox, roses, iris, and rudbeckia are other flowers I'm especially fond of. They are pretty much all over the place.

And sunflowers, which are sort of in a class by themselves.

Nepeta lovers: it looks gorgeous, but I don't want to encourage the neighborhood stray cats. (They spray my garden frequently in their ongoing turf wars.) Do you find the nepetas attract outdoor cats?

nepeta (in the garden) -- no cat problem, although if a stray wants to take up some garden space to hunt bunnies, I'll put out the welcome sign... a bowl of food.

petunias (in containers) -- purple petunias just work with everything and they're inexpensive fillers.

Cameron

Thanks, Cameron. So far Holstein the Cat (I call him that because he's too big for a Jellicle) has failed to eradicate our Vicious (Vegetable) Killer Bunny. The nepeta in everyone's photos is so gorgeous.

It is great to see how many people are enjoying this thread!

The mentions of stachys reminded me that I use that pretty often as well to get a little of that silver blue in the mix. At my house, my 3 year old has renamed it from Lamb's Ear to Bunny's Ear.

Ianna - Do you propogate the russian sage by cuttings? I was just thinking about trying it last weekend and was wondering how successful I would be if I put some cuttings directly into the ground.

scabiosa - without a doubt the hardiest, prettiest gap filler in my garden. I have the common variety in lilac, pink and white, and I also have a wonderful clump of scabiosa midnight - a glorious deep dark maroon colour.

I also like catmint and lambs ear. I use fleabane (erigeron: santa barbara daisy). It does well in our hot summers. I like purple robe and silver thyme for dry spots too.
good thread-i got some good ideas-thanks!

RE: RUSSIAN SAGE

You can't kill it. It's one of those plants, at least for me, that if you don't get every bit of root out of the ground, it comes back in the spot you moved in from!! But it's great, I have it all over my gardens also. Another favorite, especially the ones that don't have that sprawling tendency.

On the contrary, Marcy...it appears that I DID kill one of two I transplanted to a new bed last year. Leave it to me!

I guess my filler would be rose campion. It wasn't exactly my idea but it reseeds like mad and comes up in the most unexpected places. I've decided to relax and see what Mother Nature has planned rather than fight it. This year she has a bright pink one and an Angel Blush growing among my gladiolas! So far they are not only enchanting but seem to be acting as natural plant stakes. I hope the glads bloom before the rose campion is over because I think the dark burgundy gladiolas would look amazing with the magenta and soft pink.

What I've planted most of are daylilies - just love the variety and they tend to be easy care and hardy.

When I read this I didn't think I had one single plant I used everywhere, but then I looked out the window and saw it. Chives! Everywhere in my yard are those pretty purple flowers. I just keep dividing and dividing them. I have given them to all of the neighbors. They will grow anywhere in my yard. From the sunny, dry areas near the road to the low, clay wetlands in the backyard - nothing will stop them. Even the DEER leave them alone. Gotta love chives. They don't get any more common than that.

Great thread and I see many of my filler plants being used.

for shade - hostas, caladiums and impatients

for sun/part shade - lambs ear, dianthus/pinks, creeping jenny

and my all-time favorite filler - reseeding violas and johnny jump-ups .....

Lynne

Cranesbill. Great texture, long bloomtime.

Diana,

I've never tried propagating russian sages by cuttings but it's a reseeder and so maybe you can look around and spot seedlings. On the other hand since it does have a woody stem, it may be alright to propagate by cutting.

Ianna

I thought I didn't have an answer, and then I realized I do, at least for this year. Cosmos! I have a ton of seedlings, and I just moved a bunch of them to fill in some open spaces. Come late summer, I will have a ton all over!

It's Cosmos for me this year too! I sprinkled seeds everywhere I had an empty spot in my front and back beds. Easy and pretty!
Robin

Robin or anyone else in the deep south, how long do cosmos bloom? I thought they were spring bloomers only.

natal-Deadheading the cosmos will keep them blooming all summer. I sprinkle some of the seeds and they come back each year then.

This is a great thread - many mentioned above are my 'default, no fail' plants ..... stella d'oro, mondo grass and I've just added cosmos. I do need to search out a few of the others already mentioned.

Another of my favorites is spider wort - so pretty and so impossible to hurt (except for heavy rains when I've failed to support it, my bad). My original plant now numbers five monsters, not to mention the ones I've passed along.

And have to add the much maligned vinca minor to the list - so lush, evergreen, pest resistant, early spring periwinkle blue flowers and while it does travel, it's easy to push back when it gets out of hand. I have a 'garden snob' friend who continually chides me to "get rid of that weed!" - nope, not a chance! Right now I have a lush carpet of vinca along the shady side of my house - maybe someday I'll do something more sophisticated, but for now, that lush carpet is just fine and is a great placeholder!

I use many of the plants listed above, but no one has mentioned centranthus (Jupiter's Beard). I have both the rose-colored and white variety. It grows like a monster next to my cement porch with smaller patches throughout the garden.

Thanks Robin. I think I'll grab a pack of seeds next nursery stop.

This is a great thread!

I am nuts for little white flowers. My number one is fleabane (Santa Barbara Daisy) since it is a perennial here. Where that won't do, I use paludosum daisies, which reseed, and I have just discovered Diamond Dust Euphorbia. Since I have no taste when it comes to color, the white flowers help tone down by bad choices.

Renee

I Love my jupiter's beard!!

I use pinks...sweet william is never a problem and it smells great. and cosmos

Russian Sage (Perovskia) can be layered very easily, too. I got 6 new plants this year after I mulched last fall and the stems rooted beneath the mulch. One of my favorite plants!
Pam

In my zone 9 garden, a plant that I use as a filler, is Cat Whiskers, Orthosiphon aristatus. It is very well behaved, doesn't set seed, doesn't put out runners, but is very easy to start from cuttings or by layering, and will bloom in shade, nearly as good as in full sun. It doesn't take frost very well, but comes back in the spring. Since I started building my garden, in 2005, the lowest temps. we have had was 28 deg., so I don't know how it would do farther north.
Jim

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I just to say thank you to everyone who has posted here! I'm a newbie to gardening, so having all these suggestions for "filler" plants and easy-to-grow stand-bys is great!

I use a lot of the same ones - nepeta, rose campion, johnny-jump-ups, cosmos.

I also use:
- verbena bonariensis
- moonbeam coreopsis
- daylilies

My new one is blue flax (linum) - blooms forever and self seeds and always look nice and airy.

This year my fav is a very lush border of self seeded white forget-me-nots next to the patio. There are a few blue ones in various places also but many more white. They are very pretty and I really should deliberately seed them like that if they don't come back.

However, I think some of my usual common filler plants are the same as my tame badly behaved ones - lamb's ears, shastas, feverfew, Jacob's Ladder come immediately to mind. In fact I have Jacob's ladder coming up in the center of a big clump of shastas. Beats a dandelion doing the same.

I like my heliopsis as they are good in the back of a border, take up a lot of space, flower well (altho yellow!), and multiply slowly even in a cold climate. Started with one free plant about 10 years ago and now have many in various beds. We also transplant annual sunflowers to any spare space when the birds sow them in the wrong places. Found one growing in the compost this am and moved it to the back of a bed.

I'm now moving bits of bugleweed around as it's a nice ground cover filler for the front of beds.

I'm planning to use blue flax more as the border DH planted last year is now blooming and looking great. It will make a very good filler in many places as previously mentioned.

Blue flax is also my New Best Friend. I have four plants now and *love* their true-blue flowers. I'm going to keep a sharp eye out for volunteers to transplant other places.

Watch out for the blue flax - I love it, but in my old garden, it definitely got to be too much of a good thing. You can't really deadhead it because it blooms in sequence along each stalk, so I got volunteers everywhere. I also didn't find that they transplanted very well - not sure if it was my technique or what, but it was easier to just collect some seed if I wanted some in a different spot than to move some. It also didn't help that most days, the petals had dropped before I got home from work, so I only got to see it blooming on the weekends. But, at least you don't have to deadhead it!

That said, it would probably look better as a filler. I had it as one of the main plantings, and it just got to be too much.

Thanks, Irene. I usually do my gardening in the a.m. when it's cooler so I don't mind them being "nekkid" in the p.m.s
but I'm noting your warning. :-)

Russian sage,zinnias,baloon flowers,and of course lobelias in every color.Also cobbity daisys,and freeway daisies.Those freeway daisys are next to impossible to kill.
Kathi

I use hostas for fillers too and it's so funny being a new gardener, to know that this is a normal thing to do! Lol* I am finding myself buying a lot of daylillies as colorful fillers while my cottage garden is growing. Also love coral bells and have a tendency to plop rudbeckia wherever there's a bare spot, but mostly because it spreads like wildfire.

Many of those mentioned above, plus Chrysanthemums. They spread fast, require very little care, blooms twice a year, and lately helped me to cover large naked area where the Bermuda grass was covered.
It will probably be replaced with other plants eventually, though for now they do the job.

Hi, I'm new here, and have been reading past posts *waving* You are all so much fun!

I love sedum, have several varieties inc. the ol' stand-by Autumn Joy. I have a new one (to me) this year, Garnet Brocade, planted next to my switchgrass and blackberry lilies. Ornamental grasses are a close second, I have or have tried, a long list of grasses.