i like coreopsis spilling out at the edges of the garden. it blooms all summer long, is nice and ferny, and gives continuity. i also sprinkle cosmos sedds in among the perennials. they are also long blooming and don't tkae much space, so they are good between perennials that are done blooming.

I repeat plants as you mention. Nepeta Walker's Low, Lambs Ears, Veronica (ground cover), moonbeam coreopsis, coneflowers. I don't really have a forumula but just follow what looks best. My back island is curved accross the front and I try to repeat at least some of the above in each section.

As for winter interest, I don't do real well here. I thought about it before but noticed that the drifts in the front yard get pretty deep close to the house so much of landscaping would potentially be buried. And, no one elses looks good either. Perhaps I might change that some day. In my back yard, I have plenty of 'borrowed' views so don't feel the need. The shrubs in my back border loose their leaves (I do have some red and yellow twig dogwoods). But I have my neighbors spruce and pine trees to view and off to the right some a rolling hill that is very pretty any time of year. We also have a corner filled with pine and spruce ourselves. I like the more open feel in the back yard during the winter since privacy is not an issue.

I understand your dilemma and can sympathize :-) I too am a plant collector as well as a landscape designer and trying to combine those somewhat diverse interests can be a challenge. As someone on another forum described it, collectors run the risk of having a plant zoo as opposed to a garden that has a sense of unity and cohesion. Cohesion or continuity can be achieved by repetition but you don't necessarily have to repeat the same plants - a similar effect can be achieved by repeating similar plant forms, colors or even different forms of the same plant type. For example, the spiky, blade-like foliage of irises can be repeated in clumps of crocosmia, sisyrinchium or ornamental grasses. Members of the Asteraceae have similar flower forms so using shasta daisies, coneflowers, asters and rudbeckia, even heleniums or perennial sunflowers will provide a sense of repetition, even though offering a wide range of heights, colors and even bloom times. White flowers tend to be a good unifier as well as an effective foil for other, more intense colors. Or repeat similar foliage colors, like the gray-green found in lamb's ears, lavenders or sunroses. And if you collect hostas or similar plants with a wide range of varieties, several groupings of even very different hostas will make an impressive showing, but the repetition of the similar forms and shapes will tie separate areas together. Another trick is to use what someone once described as "snakey" plants that weave and wind to tie various plants together - hardy geraniums can be a good choice for this or herbaceous (non-vining) clematis. And finally, developing a feel for plant combinations can help significantly. In my classes, I try to encourage budding designers to select at least three different plants that combine well - a pleasing and complimentary blending of forms, textures and colors, both in foliage, stems and flowers: Carex 'Ice Dance', hosta 'Francis Williams' or 'Patriot' and a fern, for example. Then take one of these and use it as the foundation for yet another combination of three and so on throughout the garden. A successful development of these type of plant combinations will draw the eye through the garden with little stopping and starting.

In a zone 8 PNW garden, winter interest is not all that hard to achieve. There are a good many evergreen perennials or groundcovers you can incorporate that will retain a presence throughout winter - bergenia, heucheras, hellebores, many euphorbias, most Mediterranean herbs (lavender, sages, thymes, rosemary, germander), sunroses, candytuft, thrift, various ornamental grasses or grass-like plants. And I include small evergreen shrubs and dwarf conifers as well as heaths and heathers. You may be missing the high impact color charge of midsummer but a winter garden - even one focused primarily on perennials - doesn't have to be devoid of interest or present a barren appearance.

Thank you for your thoughtful and eloquent answers.

Inthegarden_k I love the idea of the coreopsis with itÂs cheerful flowers. I have coreopsis Moonbeam, C. and C. Zagreb. Which ones do you use? Maybe IÂll try for cuttings, or dividing, though it may be too late for either this year. IÂve read that cosmos is invasive in my area, so am leery of trying it. I wonder if thereÂs something similar I could try.

Silvergold do you find the Nepeta Walker's LowÂs color to catch the eye from one grouping to the next. I love N. Walker's LowÂs, but find it very soft colored and wonder about itÂs ability to move the eye along.

About winter interest, your area already sounds lovely with the rolling hills and trees as your vista. Your winter view is very different than mine. If you wanted to add interest I would imagine people with lots of snow would go for shapes from interestingly twigged trees and shrubs, the shrubs being maybe taller than what IÂd need to be above the snow drifts. I think you could have tons of winter interest, with a bit more thought than I seem to need, but just as interesting. YouÂll have to let us know how it goes.

Gardengal48 thanks for the commiserations and the many ideas. I have tried at times to add similar textures and colors, but soon find myself distracted by the many, many plants out there to collect. I leave home with the idea of looking for spiked this or that, or a purple of a similar color to one I already have and come home with a Viburnum Carlesii, or a Loropetulum Chinense Razzleberry, or Helianthus Lemon Queen and Rhododendron Stenopetalum Linearifolium, lol. ThatÂs what happened the last few times I tried to shop for similar shapes. IÂm shaking my head at my own silliness. At least if I have a plan of getting lots of one kind of plant, maybe IÂll be able to stay on task. One can only hope.

I hadnÂt thought of using different forms of the same plant type, like the perennial sunflowers. ThatÂs collecting without straying from the task of having the cohesion I am after. :) IÂve been able to make myself buy a bunch of heathers of different colors at one time, so in a small way IÂve been doing that. I can see that attempting to stick to one plan is going to be as hard as buying more than one of a particular type of plant.

Another idea came to me that maybe I should try to make a border of the same type of small upright evergreen shrubs to alleviate some of the plant zoo-ness as you aptly quoted. ThatÂs exactly what I have. People do admire my garden, but I notice that many are admiring the individual plants, not the garden as a whole. Anyway what do you think of the small shrub border, of say, maybe a herb, or dwarf Azalea, or ?.

Thanks again for your wonderful answers, Any other thoughts or ideas are welcome.

Yeona

GardenGal, Do you encourage budding designers to select 1 each of those three different plants that combine well, or do you have them create drifts of 3 of each plant (or so) to make the first grouping?

Then how do you use the first grouping as a "foundation for yet another combination of three and so on throughout the garden"?

It looks like you are saying that they can indeed use one of each plant to make the first grouping (1 grassy, 1 ferny, and 1 large/bold-leafed plant).

Then, do you have them take one of those plants from the first grouping and combine it with 2 other similar plants to make a second group? (ie. repeat the 'Patriot' hosta, but then add a "grassy" Liriope and a "ferny" Astilbe plant instead of the Carex and fern)? Is that what you mean by using the first grouping as a foundation? Or can you replace the 'Patriot' hosta with a 'Green Spice' heuchera as well - so long as you keep the "1 grassy, 1 ferny, and 1 large/bold-leafed plant" combination in reasonably similar colors?

I've seen this idea mentioned before, but I was never quite certain on those two points.

Thanks,
Sharon

You just need to start with three different plants - the actual number of those plants will depend on the impact you are trying to make. You might decide to use three or five of each if you wish to make a statement in large area or just single plants if in a smaller area. And how you build on those combos is up to you. You can take the carex and add the Green Spice heuchera and a dark leaved ligularia (like 'Britt Marie Crawford) which will accent the burgundy veining of the heuchera. It doesn't have to be a formulaic approach of one spikey, one ferny and one large leaf plant - just three plants offering complimentary/contrasting colors and textures that look good in combination. And repeating the same plant down the line aways will help to tie things together even more.

As an example, in my semi-shady woodland garden, I start at one end with a grouping of Dicentra 'Goldheart', Hakonechloa 'Aureola' and hellebore 'Wester Flisk'; I use the hellebore as the anchor for the next sequence which includes a purple leaved daphne and Lysimachia 'Golden Alexander'; 'Golden Alexander', the hakone again and Ligularia 'Othello' make the next grouping, then ligularia, Cornus 'Hedgerow's Gold' and Hosta 'Golden Tiara', etc. These are actually all more towards the front of the border, as I use larger, more shruby plants in the back. Often these larger plants will repeat some element of the smaller combinations but often that element is very subtle - a burgundy stem color perhaps, or a pink flower that blooms at the same time as the dicentra. And sometimes it is not 3 separate plants that make the combination but 4 or 5, but they are all plants that combine well together, repeating growth habits/form, foliage texture and colors that provide the continuity.

It is much the same principle as designing a successful container combination, just enlarged to incorporate an entire planting area.

Hi there..regarding walker's low...After thinking about it....I think I rely mostly on repeated texture and form for continuity. Flowers do help but it isn't in flower right now. So, maybe both.

i use moonbeam, but i also use the common ferny pink coreopsis with the tiny yellow eye. gardengal48's method sounds wonderful...i wish i had better planning skills and less reliance on hit and miss. this summer i noticed that an area i have been working on finally looks "good". everything in the area is either red or orange-ish (not peach), and that color is the unifying factor. oddly enough it isn't what i would have picked to start out, as i am not a big red fan. i have burgundy gallardia, which never quits, canna tropicanna ( i love the leaves even more than the flowers), jacob cline bee balm, bishop of llandaff dahlia, 1 columnar barberry, and one smaller shrub barberry. there are some sedums with reddish stems, and a late blooming red chrysanthemum. and some great asclepias tuberosa (in the wrong spot, but i still like the colors). as summer fades, muhly grass will be blooming. it isn't red, but last fall i noticed that at that time of year the pink looked good. there are other things in the area as well, including some annuals. its my favorite emerging garden spot now.

Ohhhhh! I think I get it now. I really like the combo of 'Amethyst Myst' heuchera, 'Firewitch' dianthus/'Jack Frost' Brunnera, and 'Pink Panda' fragaria (strawberry).

So, if I wanted to use that as a foundation, I could choose another blue-leaved plant like Blue Oat Grass/Blue Fescue and 2 plants that combine well with those (I'm not sure what the other 2 plants in that combo would be, since I've never grown them)...

...and then I could play off the grassy texture with a combo using Siberian Iris and 2 plants that combine well with it...

...and then I could play off the 'Firewitch' blooms with a combo of Echinacea (Purple Cone Flower) with pink Yarrow in front and Cosmos behind and/or 'Prairie Blue Eyes' daylilies and maybe 'Sunny Border Blue' veronica (which grows 48" tall for me).... (I really like this combo, so I could use it as a foundation, too)...

...and then I could play off the 'Amethyst Myst' with a combo of purple-flowered Lenten Rose (hellebore), a pink bleeding heart, and maybe a 'Jack Frost' brunnera...

...and then a 'Burgundy Lace' Japanese Painted Fern and maybe a blue hosta or a liriope or something like that....

Some of those combos may need some more work, but as long as I repeat some "growth habit/form, foliage texture and/or color", that will help me to keep some continuity going in my border. Is that right?

Sharon

Yeah, I can relate to the collecting angle. I do it mostly because I don't want to invest in something that won't grow for me and you can save money by just waiting for the plant to mature and then making your own divisions. PLUS - I just love everything! To make my beds look less like a spotty mess, I repeat either colors or one particular plant. On the side of my house, I repeated lemon yellow Happy Return daylilies. In one bed in the backyard, I used purple as the thread that tied it all together. I personally don't like giant beds that just have these great big sweeps of plants with only 3 or 5 different types of plants. Snoozefest.

Hi there

I use a favorite shrub to provide the primary continuity and linkage - spirea goldflame. I have groups of 3 and some single bushes in my 90 foot bed and 2 planted in front of the house as well. I love the plant - leaves come out red in spring, turn lime green in summer, bloom pink flowers in July (I tried deadheading this summer and got a second smaller flush of blooms now), and turn red again in fall. It provides a twiggy structure in winter too. Also use silvery woormwood (valerie finnis),ladies mantel and coral bells (plum pudding and palace purple) as links too. I like the look!

When things start to look messy, I pull out any plants that are insignificant or poor performers or move things around. This is a great time of year to reassess. I stand back and see what's "missing" or what I don't like. I make sure I repeat good performers that bloom during different seasons to avoid blank areas. Some groupings I like are "Becky" daisies, "Fireworks" goldenrod, summer blooming phlox, Black-eyed Susans, spring blooming perennial alyssum (yellow), "Rozanne" geraniums, grasses, crocosmia, Japanese anemones, with a few hydrangeas and seasonal blooming shrubs thrown in. Of course that's not all I have in the garden or I think you go to the other extreme. These are just the ones I like repeat throughout the different beds. What I find helps to avoid choppiness is to plant larger groupings of the same plant in one area that are similar in size - for instance don't stick random skinny taller plants amongst thicker shorter clumps. I tend to have all my lilies in one place, and my daisies in another, etc. Your eye should glide across a garden, not continually stop on something out of place. That also helps a lot with continuity. What you choose is totally up to you.

GREAT advice Gardengal48 THANKS so much, I'm applying it just now to my garden zoo! I'm also trying to reach the two goals, winter interest and continuity, at the same time. In fact I mainly use grasses, herbs, some geraniums, yarrow and other evergreen plants in repeated combos.
I hope next year the whole thing will look more like a real garden than a collection of plants! :-)

I am enjoying this thread. I seem to have missed it before!

I am in the group that is usually buried in snow in the winter, so have little winter interest as far as plants are concerned. I have one grass, Miscanthus malepartus, that does survive the elements and show off its plumes. Pruning trees is often a February project, and getting rid of their water sprouts certainly improves things visually. Other than that, it is pretty much the architectural elements that show, such as fencing, obelisks and arbors.

In terms of colour, I have added a good bit of burgundy to the gardens, and in a shade area, lots of white and gold. There is some variegated foliage, but not a great deal. I think it can be overdone for my taste.

Repetition of certain plants is unifying I find, so I have several kinds of berberis in different areas. These are combined with assorted perennials. A hedge of Berberis Rose Glow is combined with stachys 'Countess Helen von Stein', blue anemone blanda and annual blue sweet woodruff. In another area berberis mingles with a clematis and sedum 'Citrus Twist'. In yet another area, roses and phlox and bulbs are companions to Berberis 'Royal Cloak'.

In shade areas I like to play with foliage, so the larger leaves of ligularia, rodgersia and hostas are mixed with ferns, corydalis, tricyrtis and epimediums. For height, I like to use candelabra primulas, thalictrum and foxgloves. I also like to use european ginger because I like its glossiness along path edges. But I am also a plant addict and have many 'one of a kind' plants as well. I would love to work on continuity more, but weeding and edging of the large gardens takes up most of my time. This year it is a very soggy and wet autumn. Maybe next year? I hope!