do you have a favorite combination in your garden?

18 years ago

I have a combination that arose from pure luck, and I absolutely love it. It's been blooming in full sun almost all summer. Wish I could post a photo, but let me try with words.

The bed is tiny, by the driveway, maybe 3'along the driveway x 5' along the sidewalk and a curved hypotenuse. In it are a small mugo pine (a very prickly, deep green mound), a yaku rhodie that's very lopsided, as it's lost branches from snow, 3 salvia n caradonna (very purpley-black stems and nice, never-ending purple spikey bloom), 1 centranthus ruber (somewhat floppy, open, airy, endless pink blooms), 3 heuchera (purple leaf with lots of green and silvery tracing, possibly "Silver Scroll"?), and several variegated sedums (purples, pinks, greens, a little white edge here and there). What works SO well is the pink/purple/deep purple color combination, and the contrast between the foliage shapes of the rhodie, the heuchera and the mugo needles. It's the only spot in my garden that is just right. So...I wonder which plant I'll lose next? LOL.

I would love to hear about combinations you like in your gardens.

I am thinking of moving a Rozanne geranium over to join some Scabiosa Ochroleuca, and maybe some more salvia. Maybe all of those should go by a peony? The scabiosa is open and airy and blooms forever in a very pale, moonlighty yellow with great seedheads following the blooms. I like that creamy yellow with the salvia's deep, plummy purple -- and I love the idea of Rozanne weaving those 2 together -- but I am not sure about their colors together. Is Rozanne too bright? Will it make the other 2 muddy? Will it do OK in full sun? What if I add some plumbago? Still don't have it quite right in my head.

Tell me what you think!

Thx.

ML

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Comments (8)

garlicgrower
18 years ago
Hi ML (my initials are also ML)
I took a book from the library titled something like "Plant Marriages" or something similar. All about this topic... I agree that a pairing of complimentary plants makes the most of their usefulness and beuaty.
I don't happen to have a specific favorite combination, though. At the moment it might be the Heavenly blue morning glories twining up the same pole as purple Hyacinth bean
Chers
Maryanne in WMass
ParkDriveBoston
18 years ago
I have a small mostly shaded / part sun garden. Something that I tried this year is Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia Nummularia - invasive) & Chocolate Chip Aguga (Ajuga reptans Â kinda invasive). Yes itÂs high maintenance but I love the yellow/green Â burgundy color combo. IÂve also light blue argeratum thrown in as well, looks great.
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sequoia54
18 years ago
My "combinations" are hit and miss--either by chance or a recreation of a combo seen in a catalog or book! For example, Achillea "Moonshine" leaning into Asclepias tuberosa...Russian sage next to Sedum "Autumn Joy." I have one truly sunny border, perhaps ten feet long, anchored by three peonies. They "go by" quickly but leaves are then good foils for whatever I try out in between. Echinacea (purple), liatris, and coreopsis "Moonshine" are another good combination (saw it one year in the White Flower Farm catalog).
atlas_ma
18 years ago
The garden at our church has Elijah Blue fescue tucked very close to Crimson Pygmy barberry..Very nice texture and color contrast.
mayalena
Original Author
18 years ago
Good thoughts, all! THanks for responding.
ML
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
16 years ago
One of my favorite questions...anyone else have a favorite combination?
mayalena
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi again!

This is still something I think about all the time. I am trying hard to plant groups of foliage/flowers that will make one another 'pop'.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Here's one I tried this fall -- coreopsis 'sweet dreams' with aster 'september ruby'. It will be better when the aster fills in a little more. I do have some of my perpetual salvia nemarosa caradonna in here too somewhere. They are all thru the garden, as I am hoping their repetition will tie things together.

And here's another combination that happened serendipitously -- 'rozanne' weaving thru carex with a variegated butterfly bush above, a caryopteris 'grand bleu', black-eyed susans (not pictured), a white daisy (also not blooming in this photo), against that yellow-leaved cornus. It's pretty for a long season.

This is a satisfying combo too -- sedum with heuchera.

This is a nice June-July combo with salvia, delphinium, scabiosa. I think I've added some siberian iris to this spot to complement the peony and add some spiky foliage. I also added some dianthus, to give it a pop of hot, raspberry pink, and to tie into dianthus in another bed.

Please, please share some combos with me!

Thanks,
ML
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
16 years ago
You have your photos working well mayalena. I like that combo with the carex and rozanne geranium with the shrubs behind it. I am a carex fan and that is one of the best looking ones I have seen.

I do not have many combinations that I truly am excited about yet. As a matter of fact, next spring I will be playing musical plants and hope for some better combinations. That will be my winter project to figure it all out. [g]

I did have one combo that I really enjoyed this year..it was Dianthus Siberian Blues with Coreopsis Moonbeam on one side and Blue Hills Salvia with a Pennisetum Hamelin nearby and a Phlox subulata underneath it. They were in bloom about the same time and lasted a pretty long time with some deadheading. It was the second year with the Dianthus which didn't impress me half as much it's first year.

This isn't the best photo and doesn't show all the plants. It has cosmos that volunteered and isn't supposed to be that close to the front. Sorry, but here it is:

I'm sure somebody has to have better combinations than mine! I hope I will have something better to report next year. [g]

pm2

do you have a favorite combination in your garden?

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do you have a favorite combination in your garden?

Comments (8)

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