I have to chuckle at your description of how the neighbours' garden looks vs. your own; I feel similar sometimes.

What I've finally figured out that may also help you is that I suspect their magic touch may have to do more with other elements than with the plants themselves: mulch, for instance, makes almost any bed look better than it should, and if you also add (a) edging, and (b) maintenance such as sweeping up after working in the yard, that may be all it takes. The day I discovered that a broom is also a gardening tool and bought one to keep handy outside, my garden definitely went up a class.

But also, think about the kinds of plants you're selecting. It sounds like you are very focussed on the small details of the plants, for example, what the flowers look like. You're talking about a pretty big bed, and being at the driveway it's likely mostly seen from a considerable distance. So, not only is no one going to see individual flowers (not to mention they're only in bloom for a few days), but also, what they are going to see is plant shapes, and some that you are mentioning, such as bachelors' buttons, are just indistinguishable lumps of green most of the time.

Consider dwarf conifers, for instance, instead of perennials, and you'll have plants with form, structure, colour variation, and real "presence" vs a jumble of green stuff. A spreading juniper gives you a base, a columnar golden yew punctuates it, etc. Then you can dress up those bones with perennials for their periodic colour. Your spiky iris can make an impact, and maybe so can things like lilies, but for a bed that big and to make an impact from a distance, you may also need to think in larger quantities of plants.

Also, and this will work best for your shady areas, consider plants with big or bold foliage instead of flowers as their feature. Hostas come to mind, but also ferns. Hellebores even have nice foliage, and as a bonus flowers early in the year.

In short, step back and look at it from a distance, and you may find you make different choices.

KarinL

You have given me a great deal to think about. I'm very excited now to see what I can find that is along the lines you have explained to me.

I went by lowe's today and bought a birds nest spruce. I'm very excited. It will get to 6 feet high and 8 feet wide according to the label. between it and the cypress it will make a wall between the shady and sunny side of the bed. The sunny side faces the street. I will transplant my lacy japanese red maple in front with the groupings of iris and in the back I'm going to take your advice and look for some ferns possible the japanese painted lady ferns.

Happy to have helped! Those sound like good ideas. You might also enjoy reading a website called the Renegade Gardener - he talks about using foliage in design, and has many other very good points to make.

KarinL

I'll look that up thanks.