Julie,

I have a good spacing between my new daylilies, and I plan to use some sweet allyssum, some pente (annuals here, and I love them and love the colors you can get). Since vinca does really well and is non invasive here (and is another usually annual), I will probably use some of it. These will generally provide later bloom, but I will have nice sweeps of tulips and hyacinths with some snapdragons and pansies for earlier bloom...pansies essentially are through here by the time dayliles bloom. And the butterflies and I love gomprena will it's bright fushia balls.

I also will have some roses, some lilies, and clematis. The bed of iris will be blooming earlier too. And while they aren't flowering as such, the Japanese maples are always gorgeous in spring. I added a couple of fringe trees this year that will have to grow a bit before they bloom, but they are beautiful. Dogwoods and Bradford pears and Crape Myrtles are also good flowering additions, while not bedding plants.

I have several butterfly bushes, reds, and purples, and bicolors. Also azaleas.

I'll take pictures and adjust in later years. And no, unlike Rita, mine is not yet beautiful, it is very much a work in progress, but it will get there eventually, maybe.

Oh yes, how cold I forget? I have several thriving gardenias and some hostas.

For me, it will be an experiment to see how it works out, and what I will repeat or change the next time. And since I love them so, I will also be planting foxgloves and some lupines...these will not necessarily be planted with in the bed with the daylilies, but planning for the entire effect. If I lived in an area they thrived in, I would plant lupines...but I don't. Phlox and even zinnias and marigolds add warmer weather color. Have fun girl!

I have existing beds with Cannas, cone flowers, and asters also the never-give-up, easily established purple heart. Here it grows like mad, needs little water, and can be multiplied by simply breaking off a stem, sticking it in the ground, and water a couple times daily for a few days to establish. Neat border plant, if a little large. Don't forget Sedum, another easy grower, little water required and blooming now.

kay

This is my 1st year into perennials outside of iris so take it for what it is worth. I started out with a Japanese style garden so I have a lot of color in the conifers alone, lots of blues & yellows that are dwarfs or ground cover types that look awesome all year round. When I started adding perennials I researched the longest blooming ones to make sure they were worth the garden space (yes, daylilies was on the list). For the 1st year in the ground these have been blooming nonstop:

Gallardia: Comes in all different heights. Bought them in bloom & they are still going very strong.

Veronica: Also comes in varying heights. I have Royal Candles that has been nonstop blooming since I bought it. A few have been known to have foliage disease but the newer cultivars are known to be resistant.

Clematis intregrifolia: The nonclinging ground cover types. They bloom all summer starting in June & grow anywhere from 2' to 6' long. I placed them behind the several plants in my yard to let them grow up & flop on top of the dl & various shrubs which then turn into ground covers right in front of them. The 1 I bought locally is called Arabella & she has been in bloom from the time I bought her & is still going nonstop. If you are interested I can give you names of a few others that are reported to be more prolific than her, if you can imagine that. Just bought them mailorder, so no experience as of yet just going off of other people's words.

My creeping phlox is going through a 2nd bloom spurt that started a week ago.

Not as short as you are looking for, but I agree with organic kitten on the echinacea. Same thing - nonstop bloom & still going.

Heliopsis Lorraine Sunshine is another - nonstop still going & has really cool variegated foliage too.

As with organic kitten, I can say my Japanese Maples have been a huge asset as well. I have a lot of reticulated ones that change colors every single week. Some of them don't even look like the same tree. They are also really nice because they cast very light shade/filtered light so you can still get a respectable amount of sun under them.

I am soooo jealous of your crepe myrtles!!! There is one that has been found hardy to my zone that grows just a foot or so tall that I will most likely be getting next year. Couple nurseries just started offering it this year.
I absolutely am in love with the fringe tree (Chionanthus). Do you have the japanese or american version? Male or female? I hear the male flowers are prettier, but a hard toss up for the blue berries on the female.

I like color contrast so have chosen blue perennials to go with my daylilies. Salvia May Night starts before the DLs and finishes after. ItÂs a rich deep purplish blue. I have other salvias but May Night outblooms them all. On 3 sides of this I have yellow and raspberry DLs. I have some great orange and red DLs, IÂm thinking about getting another May Night next year to put in with them, because the deep purple color will contrast especially well with those colors.

For a lighter blue I have Catmint "WalkerÂs Low". Again, it starts well before the daylilies and is still going strong even now. ThatÂs over 4 months of bloom. ItÂs a soft light blue so around this I have my pink and peach DLs. Those are early bloomers so I have bulb lilies in the same color scheme to continue when the DLs stop.

Julie, For a middle filler I have had good luck with Profusion Zinnia, Balloon Flowers, Ice Star Shasta Daisy and Society Garlic. I like begonias, too. I think next year I'm going to try the bronze leaf begonias with the white flowers and plant them in one of my daylily beds.
Kathy

lalalandwi,

I have the American version of the fringe tree, (male of course). They really are beautiful! I don't how the Royal Candles will do here, but I'll give them a try.

kay

Like Kathy, balloon flowers and Shasta daisies make good daylily companions here. I also grow coreopsis and Russian sage in some of my daylily beds. In one bed I have sedum growing, and it puts on a nice show in September and October after the daylilies have finished.

Debra

Julie,
I'm originally from PNW. How I DO NOT miss the slugs! People in many other parts of the country have no reference for what PNW slug infestation looks like. I remember as a kid my brother would skew those suckers on a stick and fling them at me. Folks, some of these things are over a foot long! Ewwwh!

I had not discovered daylilies yet while there but here are some of my favorites for mixed borders.

One of my favorite companion plants that I could grow up there was crocosmia. It sends up beautiful spikes of orange, red or yellow tones in late summer and the slugs didn't bother it much. Just this summer I bought the variety "Lucifer" which is the only one hardy enough for our CO winters.

Also bergenia made a great, low, front of the border plant. The big round leaves make a nice contrast foliage.

For the back of the border you have the wonderful option of rhododendrons & azaleas (I keep trying some of the hardier ones here but no real luck yet).

Also consider some of the hardy hibiscus that are now available. They can bring in a lot of color at times of the year when other tall masses of color are lacking.

If you can keep them sheltered from the rain camelias do beautifully there but they need something over them to keep the rain off during bloom. Their glossy dark leaves make a gorgeous backdrop.

And of course don't forget roses. Select blackspot & powdery mildew resistant varieties that take less maintenance. I used to get away with spraying with systemic fungicide only 2 or 3 times a season. They come in enough different sizes that you can find something for any part of the border.

I often used herbs as middle of the border plants. Garden sages come in a variety of colors now and make a handsome planting. Here, as someone mentioned above, 'May Night' salvia blooms forever! Mine has been blooming since late May and is still going strong. I have not tried it in your wet climate.

Lavenders did wonderfully for me there so long as they had good drainage. Yarrows fit this criteria too and there are so many nice colors available now.

Artemesias were also a nice filler for foliage vaiation.

Leapard's Bane was a nice low growing ground cover as are the lamiums.

Spring bulbs can give you early color before the daylilies really start growing and then the dl leaves will hide the fading foliage of the bulbs.

Don't forget to use your native plants too. Trilliums for early spring color. Ferns for middle of the border year round foliage interest. Red flowering currant & red elderberry for back of the border color, foliage, & fall color.

Oh, and I really miss being able to grow the wonderful primroses you can get there. They give lovely early color for the front of the border.

I have truly enjoyed this post, as I was trying to figure out exactly how I was going to re-do one of my beds. I took most of the plantings out Friday, so I had more room for daylilies coming in, and thankfully, what I have ordered for perennials matches most of what I have read!! Of course, I had to shudder at the picture in my mind of foot-long slugs!! I am not queasy about a lot of things as I grew up on a farm/ranch, but that made me almost weak in the knees to think of having to deal with that in the gardens! Thanks to all of your suggestions, and thanks, Julie, for starting this post! It ties perennials and daylilies together and gives a little bit of what works best in all parts of the country for anyone and everyone interested!! Jan G.

I agree, great ideas! But nobody mentioned my favorite for interplanting with daylilies ~ violas!
They bloom here from early Spring to July & then start up again in late August & bloom until the deep freezes.
And they come with the most beautiful complex blue eyes... ;-) marea

Yes, I love viola & pansies too. Just always had to fight the slugs over them. Fortunately they reseed enough that with so many to choose from the slugs left a few alone.

I forgot to add one of my favorite companions for daylilies here and I grew them in PNW too...asiatic lilies.

Julie,
I grow a few perennials with my daylilies. Asiatic lilies, columbine, and black eyed susans. I've been even thinking about planting a few garden mums with them for some fall color. As far as annuals go, you can't go wrong with marigolds. They come in such a variety of sizes, both flower size, and plant size. And I know I'm an odd ball but I love the smell of them. You can also save seeds from them and replant them the next year. I have marigolds somewhere in my yard every year. Hope this has been some help.
Dianna

I have dianthus and saponaria ocymoides planted with the taller ones and the mini's have creeping baby's breath weaving through. For the background shasta daisies, blue peach-leaved bellflowers and a taller white veronica. At least, in the one bed.

Karen

Thank you everyone for your wonderful ideas! Some I already use--my backdrops are full of roses and rhodies, but the middles and the fronts have been my challenge.

Berrytea4me... I am glad that someone feels my pain with the slugs! Even as close as the other side of our mountains, people just don't understand. There are so many wonderful plants mentioned that I just can't count on even making a small showing as the slugs devestate them!
Marigolds,pansies, etc are just a no go.

I have several asiatic lilies throughout the garden, but never thought of mixing with the DL's... what a great idea, especially with the color choices that are around now. And I am excited to hear that quite a few people use sage/salvia as fillers. I have started experimenting with them over the last couple of years, and have found that WOW... slugs don't like them! I have also had a good amount of luck with cuphea in that respect.

Thank you all again so much for the ideas... lots to think about and it will be fun to keep this list and play around with new ideas next year!

Julie

Julie,

I had no idea slugs could be that large. Bless your heart!!!I'm sure it would be terrible to deal with that!

The primroses are so pretty. No need to even think about them here though. Lantana is an invasive nightmare here, almost as bad as passion vine. Isn't it odd to think of what different challenges we face, but we all love the daylilies?

kay

I think some of these have been mentioned..

Balloon Flower, any creeping thyme, alyssum, May Night Salvia, Artemesia (the low growing - Silver Mound kind), Mist flower, pin cushion, Gerbera daisies, creeping speedwell, snap dragons, dianthus, bulbs (daffs, paperwhites etc..), creeping phlox, columbine

Good luck!!

I have a miniature rose mixed in. I don't know it's name but it is a multi-color that has shades close to the day lilies around it. I also have a Rio Samba full size rose with similar coloring. I also have Joseph's Coat climbing roses along the back wall behind the day lilies. I have blue agapanthus (lily of the nile) along the inner border. The day lilies have been selected to complement and blend with the roses.

I had annual vinca volunteers amidst my daylilies this year. They were a nice contrast in foliage, and had lovely blooms, though they did get as tall as the daylily foliage. My foliage was nothing to brag about and the camo was a good thing.

I also had volunteer moss rose, which really was the nicer companion plant. It stayed nice and short, and had it's own lovely little blooms.

It was a happy accident, but the three looked very well together.

I forgot to mention poppies. I have several types of poppies that look really lovely in the border with dl. Oriental, California, and Shirley poppies to name a few.

I also have an Ajuga called "Chocolate Chip" that is a lovely dark burgundy-brown with small leaf for texture. It is a nice low groundcover for front of the border.

And another I forgot was my asiatic lilies. Some bloom before the daylilies and others are later. I also saw a nice display this summer using orienpets with daylilies.

I've been wondering about using Aubrieta, Arabis, Creeping Baby's Breath, and Saponaria ocymoides as earlier blooming groundcovers around the bases of my daylilies.

Do you think the Saponaria ocymoides could choke my daylilies out at all? It's a pretty vigorous spreader.

Sharon

Some of my favorite daylily companions have been other lilies (oriental and asiatic), peonies, and irises. Heliopsis 'Loraine Sunshine' is gorgeous, and shasta daisies also worked very well for me. (I don't know how they'd handle slugs in the PNW, though). Nasturtiums were also a great filler among warm-colored daylilies, along with alyssum. Cosmos was nice at the back of the border; the shorter varieties would work in the middle. Chives in bloom looked nice with the pinks/whites of daylilies, and so did some of the lower hardy geraniums (cranesbills). I planted tulips and daffodils in clumps among my daylilies for early spring color, too. Finally, I loved having the rose of sharon 'Blue Bird' as a tall shrub behind my daylilies - gorgeous! (That's on my "must buy" list for the new garden; I just found it yesterday at a local nursery - hooray!)

Good luck!
Laurel

Outside of Daylilies, my favorite plant in the sun garden is my balloon flower. I also have asiatics, heucheras and a few delphiniums. I too love the blue that other perennials bring. Here is a picture of my favorite blue.
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I also love my shade garden in the middle of my yard my husband made me after my daughter's boyfriend (who works at a wonderful hosta garden) gave me Sum and Substance for last Mother's Day. I am so lucky!
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Petalpatsy,
I am so glad you mentioned moss roses! They would look nice in front of the daylilies and grow so easily, I don't know why I neve4r thought of them. Thank YOU!
kay

I have Russian Sage in the middle of my bed and everyone comments on it. It's such a beautiful color (light purplish bluish).
I also have Echinacea (Purple Cone Flowers) which are more dark pink than purple to me.
I have sedum and mums around the bed for continous color and some annual.
I think Bee Balm would look nice in a bed too. I have one, but not in my daylily bed.

I'm coming late to the daylily party and am actually stuffing them into mixed borders that are already established.

Geranium 'Rozanne' is really long blooming and the purple color is great but it does seem to be smothering some smaller growing daylilies among other things this year, it's second from a gallon can.

I can second the vote of Clematis integrifolia types. I have about a dozen different one and they are wonderful long blooming and easy to mix in with a border. Juuli is my longest bloomer, it out performs Arabella for me by a mile.

Our native banana slugs do grow huge but they don't actually cause most of the damage in our gardens it is the introduced European versions that do all the harm. The native woodland slugs mostly eat decaying vegetation. They do indeed grow really big and my brother threw them at me too.

amen to the moss rose! I have some now in 105 degree weather blooming away in front of my bed.
I've been really happy with my purple heart plants,amaranthus, and coleus for foilage color.
agree with the balloon flower definitely, also I've seen Nicotena in some daylily beds, not mine.
my goal for next summer is find things that will bloom after the daylilies are done....so far VInca has been my best option here. and the more you water the more blooms. serious