Wow, that is stunning! It's a great list. I have Sarah Bernhardt and I find it's a little paler than the photo - could be my particular growing conditions - so if you want a peony to really pop, you might want to consider a deeper color. Last year I fell in love with Gaillardia(sp?) Oranges and Lemons - that thing bloomed it's head off for me all summer long. You could use that in place of the Coreopsis which in my opinion, has a shorter bloom period.
Happy shopping and happy planting!

I love your combination of plants!

I agree about Sarah Bernhardt; for me, she's a more pale pink than in your photo. Not that she wouldn't work with your other blooms - just depends on how much color you want your peony to provide.

I'm not completely sure about the photo of E. Ruby Giant either. Somehow it seems slightly more... "electric" than I remember it being in my garden. Could be just the sun's angle when the picture was taken, though, or my sketchy memory on a cold snowy winter's day!

Good to know about the Sarah Bernhardt. I searched the list I have from a couple local nurseries and found Edulis Superba which seems to be a more violet rose pink. A bit deeper but not the fuschia/red pink which I didn't want. I'll substitute that one in. Does anyone know about this peony?

Re the Gaillardia I too have some in the garden but from a distance because they are so low their beauty is a bit lost. The sunray or early sunrise coreopsis which I have as well bloomed right into fall for me with three deadheadings or so during the season. I'm thinking of it more as a blanket on the bottom to anchor everything. Perhaps someone knows another long blooming intense yellow?

I think Ruby Giant opens an intense pink but then fades a bit but I was hoping the big flowers would show up from afar? I know there are a couple other "wine" coloured ones but I really was hoping for a true pink. I'll keep that in mind when I go shopping!

Thanks all, on to the next colour scheme. I'm planning on planting various colour theme beds along the back rather than a riot of colour along 375 feet of property line. Anyone have any favourites?

Sharon

Nice plants but can I suggest you add a plant with a large leaf and if that leaf had color that would be even better.

I can't be of much help, but I wanted to say that your choices look wonderful, and I really love the way you laid out the pictures - I'm assuming that this is how you will plant them? What a great idea. I'm severely design-challenged, so this is truly a helpful idea for me to use. Thanks!

:)
Dee

Hoyess - How'd you do that? lol After seeing this post, I was thinking about cutting up old plant catalogs to do something similar but if I learned how to do it on the computer, that would be even better.
In my very unprofessional, opinion, it might look good to pull something tall and spikey to the front row. Grass and spikey plants, in my opinion, look best when they stand out, have much shorter plants surrounding them, so you can see a contrast. And since the red hot poker is your only red plant, it might look good to repeat the baptisia or something else there instead. It looks great the way it is though.

christie -- it's actually really easy. I copy pictures of the internet after MUCH browsing and past them into powerpoint. It does take a while to get pictures that don't look artifically color enhanced. Then I can resize them and move them around as needed. To get them posted here I print them in adobe (OK I'm an accountant and have access to lots of software!). After that I open up the adobe file and save them as a JPG -- bingo they are now in a picture format for uploading.

I too like the look of taller arching plants like irises and grasses surrounded by groundcover. I have lots of room to make the bed as big as I want so can play with that a bit. I'm still not sure the Hameln fits here so perhaps I'll take out the Hameln and Huron Sunrise grasses & move the Karl Forester up a bit and give it a focal point in the scheme. Any suggestions for groundcovers?

Re the red hot poker I'm hoping the Helenium Moerheim Beauty balances it out.

By the way the Adobe I have is Adobe Writer 7.0. Have fun.

Sharon

I too like the arrangement you did. Nice way to visualize the garden.

I found another way that might work for some. A little cruder result, but no PowerPoint or Adobe involved. You can just paste pictures into a Word Document and move them around a bit. Not as easily as in PowerPoint, but it does help with some visualizations.

If you want to save it as a JPG, some photo editing software should do the trick. I have Paint Shop Pro. In the Word document with all the pictures I wanted, I did Select-All and Copy. Then I opened Paint Shop Pro and right-clicked to get a menu choice of Paste as New Image. Then I cropped it and saved it as a jpg.

I don't think I would want to design a garden this way, but it might help with some combination planning.

And if you do have PowerPoint, you can just keep them as a PP file. Easier to make adjustments in the future that way.

{{gwi:198300}}

Sharon, lovely color scheme. Here's some info on the grasses based on my zone 5 experience.

Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln' is a very nice grass for me with a much different look (softer, rounder & wider and less formal) which works well with the more stately upright feather reed grasses (Calamagrostis). I have 2 Overdam (a shorter variegated calamagrostis, but Karl is wonderful) with my 4 Hameln.

Both types of grass look especially nice with sedums (contrasting foliage & the stiffness (formality) of one with the movement of the other). I have had no problem with either self-seeding, but have been able to split the pennisetums to make more.

The Calamagrostis are cold weather grasses and the pennisetums are warm weather grasses so they are on a different schedule with Overdam starting to flower before much is happening with the pennisetums, which is a very slow starter. This difference in timing is actually an advantage in the garden.

Another difference is in color. While the calamagrostis flowers have a purplish cast to start, the pennisetum is always beige(ish). Both glisten and glow in the sunlight, but there is no pink tone to this pennisetum that I have ever noticed, if that matters to your color scheme.

I also wanted to mention that your garden doesn't seem to have many early bloomers. And of course, most early bloomers are somewhat on the small size for this type of garden anyway. My suggestion would be for you to plant the area with clumps of daffodils. Daffs work really well around clumps of grasses (give the grasses room to spread then ring them with clumps of 5 or 7 bulbs). You can do the same around the daylilies and monarda won't be bothered by them either, they'll both just spread and entertwine together in this case. Plant some big bold golden ones (large cup or long trumpets will work) and a few with red edges and the daffs will make quite an impact in a few seasons. Then quietly disappear in the mass of foliage until next year.

I have found that Sedum Matrona seems to change colors with water, sun exposure and even soil - I assume pH changes. There are other tall sedums with dark foliage - tho none I can think of that are as tall. Something like Sedum Dragon's Blood would be a nice groundcover down low.

Another plant you might like in this group is Japanese Bloodgrass - Imperata cylindrica. If that Monarda is really that purple I need some too. And may I suggest using some Dahlias or Mums for the late season holdouts? Dahlias last past the first frost and they come in all the colors you chose.

I have found that Sedum Matrona seems to change colors with water, sun exposure and even soil - I assume pH changes. There are other tall sedums with dark foliage - tho none I can think of that are as tall. Something like Sedum Dragon's Blood would be a nice groundcover down low.

Another plant you might like in this group is Japanese Bloodgrass - Imperata cylindrica. If that Monarda is really that purple I need some too. And may I suggest using some Dahlias or Mums for the late season holdouts? Dahlias last past the first frost and they come in all the colors you chose.