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your favorite native combinations?

21 years ago

i love looking at others' gardens, just to see how interesting some people combine their plants. it's also my favorite part of reading about natives.

so what are your favorite native combinations that you are growing in the garden now?? and why? maybe for the color combination? succession of blooms? contrast of foliage?

my garden is new this year so a lot of my combos haven't yet come into their own. but i like the matteuccia behind the collinsonia with the contrast of delicate and broad foliage. i'm thinking of adding some lobelia siphilatica to add some vertical interest.

post yours!

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Comments (4)

jasonkay
21 years ago
One I've just discovered by accident that works great in part shade in late summer/fall is zigzag goldenrod with great blue lobelia.
kwoods
21 years ago
Best thing I did this year was blazing star, echinacea purpurea, rattlesnake master, just kept going all summer in full sun (well, liatris was around 3 weeks). Eryngium yuccifolium was a superstar in my border this year.

Maybe not "orthodox" prairie gardening but I put that combo w/ white blzing star and purple coneflower on one end of my border and purple liatris and white swan purple coneflower on the other end. When it actually worked the way I intended it to I was very suprised and happy. Most of my best combinations are happy accidents.
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proudgrma, love your opening combo. Very soothing. wonberherwits, the lavender and catmint combo is gorgeous. proudgrma, the garden with the annuals and perennials is my "anything goes" garden' I never put the annuals in the same place, I always try a new plant or two (I just planted cuphea this evening for the first time) and if there's an inch of room, I shove in something else! My other gardens are a bit more orderly. sinai, the monarda/echinacea combo was a very happy accident. When I bought Raspberry wine, no local nurserys were carrying it, so I bought it on the internet solely based on the photo. It's turned out to be a fantastic plant and I love the color. This year I'm planting Gaura "Siskiyou pink" and Dianthus "artic fire" in front of the coneflower. I'm hoping all four plants together make a great combo.
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I have enjoyed reading about plants from other parts of the country in this thread. I've never seen most of the plants you wrote about. I hope I get to travel to them some day. My favorite native has to be Zenobia pulverulenta or dusty zenobia. When in bloom it looks like it's made of moonlight and aquamarine, gilded with opal and set with rubies and pearls. It is simply the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on. My next favorite is a toss-up between Calycanthus florida for the scent and Sarracinas for the plain weirdness of the leaf and the beauty of it's bloom.
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nywoodsman
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I accidentally threw down some blue vervain and meadow rue seeds together:I had the seeds and limited space;and two years later a wonderful display of eight foot high cream colored flowers clouds interspersed with six foot tall plants covered with small blue spikes was the result.It was an impressive display,but short lived.The deer loved it.A great color combo though.
junkhead
20 years ago
Wow nywoodsman, that is a unique combonation. Nice blend of colors there. I might try designing a display like that one day.

Here is a link that might be useful: Birth-Flower.com

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