In my area, the blooms of Rozanne Geranium turn to pink in the summer heat. On the other hand, it is very long blooming, virtually all summer. It does sprawl, but I give it a snip here and a snip there (not all at once) as the summer goes by and that helps keep it neat. Kalimeris, Blue Star is a wonderful front of the border plant. I would call its blooms pale lavender, but it works well in my yellow and blue border. It has nice foliage, stays low and neat, and blooms nearly all summer. For salvias, I recommend Salvia farinacea, Victoria. Of all the "blues" that I grow, this one is at the top of the heap. It is unfailingly neat, even the spent blooms. It blooms continually from spring to frost. It is deer resistant! And, I love the spires that it provides in a sea of mounds. It is not reliably perennial, but is very easy to start from cuttings or seed. I grow Peachies Pick and I love it. The foliage is absolutely neat, is evergreen, and does not sprawl. They are very similar to the look you would get with a pulmonaria, which, of course, needs shade. The flowers are a true sky blue. They will repeat some with dead heading. This plant is so dramatically different from other stokesias I have grown, it's hard to believe they're from the same family. I have also grown May Night salvia. It is a lovely plant, but only blooms in the spring. After about three years, it declined and died. Salvia Victoria is far far superior. I am going to need to check out Blue Ice. I have the larger Amsonia taberaemontana, and it's one of my favorite blue perennials.

Caldwell Pink -- 3 x 3 seems like a safe bet. Carefree Beauty -- mine is new this year. It shot up a new cane that's already 4' long. Hopefully, I gave this one enough room. Gruss an Aachen -- I have pink Gruss. 3 x 3 should be good. Mme Isaac Pereire definitely wants to get long. I let her peg herself ... she grows up and arches over on her own. Verdun is one of my oldest roses. It will easily stay at about 3' high, if you deadhead the whole cluster of flowers once they're finished blooming. It grows mostly vertically, with little spread. This one must be sprayed in order to have any leaves in summer. Shailer's Provence -- my original Shailer's grows in the front border by the cherry tree, so it gets less sun than it probably should. It wants to be about 5 - 6' tall. My second Shailer's is in the rose field, in full sun, and it's the same height. The difference between the two is that the one in more sun is suckering like crazy. Plan for this. Mableton Rouletii should stay about 2 x 2. It grows very densely. When it starts blooming in spring, the whole plant is a mass of tiny pink flowers. Wonderful! St. Thomas China is a bit looser than Mableton Rouletii, but still a compact grower. There was no winter damage on it this year at all, while Single Pink China and Comtesse du Cayla on either side of it were killed to the ground. 3 x 3, maybe if it grows for a couple of years. Little Buckaroo will fit very nicely with the other mini chinas. The size should be somewhere between Mableton Rouletii and St. Thomas China. Beauty of Rosemawr ... I'm beginning to doubt the ID on this one. It was sold to me as BoR, but I haven't seen a photo of it online or anywhere else that looks like the one I have. The flowers are stunning, but it's definitely not what BoR looks like on HMF. Thanks for the endorsement. I have tried really hard to make this a welcoming place, with quality roses and good information. It's nice to see that it's working. Too many other old garden rose nurseries have left us ... I have to hang in there to make sure these roses have a home, and to provide a source for people who want to grow them in their own garden. Connie

I agree with Dingo about sun exposure. H. arborescens doesn't much like full or western sun, though it wants some sun to bloom really well, so it should be fine in the exposure you described above. H. paniculata in my garden is fine in full day sun, though farther south it benefits from some shade, but with the bright shade involved here, it still should bloom and grow well with morning sun. I have a friend with Bobos in part shade, part sun and they look happy. One difference between the two is that H. arborscens suckers some, so for my Annabelle, I have to remove suckers once or twice a year (ususally fall and then in spring for the ones I missed) if I don't want it to overtake the surrounding shrubs. I don't know if all H. arborescens are quite as vigorous as Annabelle. H. paniculata doesn't sucker so in my garden is less work. I had an injured knee that made much garden work difficult to impossible for about three years, and here's my Annabelle, unchecked for all that time, but if kept maintained it is a lovely plant.(windowsill sits at 4' to give you height.) I would look at the summer color and fall color of various H. paniculatas and H. arborescens in your size range along with the shape and density of the flower heads and how upright the branches are. Only you can decide which appeals to you the most. They should all bloom well for you.

mxk3, I went out to the yard this morning to show you all my red to purple foliage, mid-height plants and realized I really don’t have many. As discussed, there are lots of sedums that might fit the bill like ‘Karfunkelstein’ and ‘Purple Emporer,’ below is my ‘Chocolate Drop’ but the leaves right now are more green than purple. It will darken up some but it’s not quite as tall as you want. Another plant for your full sun spots that gets to around 3’ and I’ve touted repeatedly on here is Heliopsis helianthoidea var. scabra ‘Burning Hearts’, an amazing false sunflower with dark red to purple leaves and yellow-orange blooms. But again, it’s not the color you want and it blooms late June to September so may interfere with your existing scheme. Anyway, here are the ‘Chocolate Drop’ and ‘Burning Hearts’ both now and last summer: The only other mid-height plants I can think of are the previously mentioned dark-leaved Actaea, which would work great in your shady spots, and the Chocolate Joe Pye you don’t want due to reseeding (we just got one last year, hope it doesn’t reseed too much). We have lots of Heuchera and Heucherella that would give you that foliage color but alas, they’re too short. Quite a puzzler.