Yes! Highly recommend it. I got some on clearance at Lowe's last summer-early fall ($1 for a very nice-sized pot; quart maybe? I'm bad at sizes) mostly to fill in what I had of Rozanne. In the short time they were in the ground during the growing season, they went gangbusters. I can't say enough good about this plant. Long bloom, good recovery (from floppy-sad to fabulous in very little time), vigorous and I think there's a little more pink in the eye, too, but I could be mistaken. I won't buy another Rozanne unless it's a sub for Jolly Bee. That said, JB does seem harder to find. I hope they all made it through the winter.

I use different types of hardy geranium here. There are some that are very heat tolerant. They make a nice rounded mound and tolerate cutting back if they get larger than I want them to. I love alyssum and plant some every spring knowing that it won't last through the summer but it is beautiful and fragrant in the spring. My plants aren't necessarily planted at the base of my clematis since my clematis are mixed in beds with my roses, Iris, delphiniums, foxgloves and various and sundry other plants. They are planted at the front of the beds. Carol

It is true that 6 inches is very narrow to plant perennials, but it would work if you don't mind the perennials spilling over the edges of your soil. Some of the sanguineum hardy geraniums might work well there, but they would would definitely sprawl over the edges of the 6" strip. 'Canon Miles' is a fairly compact variety or even 'Alpenglow', 'Max Frei' etc. The sanguineums are all very tough, grow in sun or shade, and are drought tolerant. There are other rock garden types that are quite compact, but they are not quite as tough as the sanguineums and their hybrids. These include 'Ballerina','Lawrence Flatman','Carol', 'Alice', etc. Even with selecting daffodils, I think that I would pick the shorter, sturdy varieties such as 'Tete a tete', 'Jetfire', or 'Feb.Gold'. The other benefit of these somewhat smaller cultivars is that they will have less foliage to look messy after bloom time. Small bulbs like crocus or chionodoxa would look great in this strip, too. I think it is too narrow for daylilies or tall bearded iris. You could plant dwarf iris, but my personal opinion is that their bloom time is far too short to give them space in a small garden. Don't forget that you can still plant some annuals in between the perennials and/or bulbs.

Some nice suggestions here, but I need to go further. My hosta garden is in an area that gets virtually no morning sun, then when the sun gets over the highest trees, it gets blasted with about three hours of incredibly hot sun, and then the shade from the house hits it and that's it. It's also quite dry. My astilbe always crisp up just as they begin to bloom, and the ferns I've planted refuse to get any bigger. The lily of the valley are surviving and spreading (as if there were anything that could stop lilyof the valley) and so far the lady's mantle hasn't died yet, but the only thing that likes it there (besides the hostas) is the dicentra, and that's probably because it dies back before the weather gets really hot. I'd really like something to contrast the various hosta shapes (I've got a variety of sizes and colors of hostas), but I can't find anything that tolerates the combination of dryness, lack of sun, and those few hours of hot, hot sun. Any ideas? I'm sort of looking for taller things. Stuff like primroses and ajuga are awfully short.