Sorry I can't find pics right now that show them well, but some combos I have liked:

Happy Days mix French marigolds with Nanho Blue butterfly bush

So Lovely daylily (a pale, pale yellow - near white) with lavender nicotiana (part of the Cranberry Isle mix from Select Seeds)

blue borage intermixed with different colors of four o'clocks - the blue flowers set off the reds and yellows and pinks, and the fuzzy, silvery foliage of the borage also contrasted nicely with the shinier green of the four o'clocks

As a matter of fact, I found the borage and the black prince snapdragons (a deep, velvety burgundy, with reddish foliage) mixed well with lots of things.

Echinacea and Rudeckia is always a good combination.

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I also like placing large flowers like hardy hibiscus with smaller daisy like flowers.

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Trying to figure out what to plant with Knockout roses... they turned out SCREAMING hot pink and looked ghastly last year with the yellow and orange that I usually gravitate toward. I figure more pink shades, white, pale blue, and pale purple might not clash too badly?...

@ Silver cat--Nepeta/catmint looks very pretty underplanted around roses. The bluish-lavender would look nice with the screaming hot pink. Maybe something small and white, Achillea "The Pearl" or baby's breath, to soften the hot pink?

@grateful gardener--I liked how my Irish Eyes and delphiniums turned out last year. I like yellow and blue combinations.(Sorry, I am not a great photographer.) I also liked yellow and red nasturtiums as a border. Cottage garden forum has some great threads on combinations with pics, too. I'll include one.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Combination thread from Cottage Garden

I was going to suggest lavender for Knockouts too. Or blue salvias. Blue Bedder is a great salvia to plant with knockouts.

This is Mystic Spires. It's a cross so it can only be purchased. I have lavender planted in that bed too.

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I love yellow pink and blue or yellow red and blue,I also love hostas, with corabells. cranberry leaves against folage of hosta is amazing and put in a annabelle hydranga and or some bleeding hearts in a shade bed it is wonderful. all spring and summer. email I have pic on my kodak pic I have been on the master gardener tour our home and have lots of pic an ideas to share. but I cant get them on this side maybe some day I will figure it out when Iam not planting ha. Bon I think 3 main colors always look best in most cases.

Good thread! I love my catmint with almost anything but it does look good by the yarrow and it has some wormwood in front.

I have a bunch of yellow marigold seeds. I may just direct sow them around some plants. I did not think of butterfly bush, nice idea

I absolutely love the pictures!!! My favorite combo last year was in an "oops" container that had some hot pink dianthus and some california blue bells.

Not sure if you were looking for annual suggestions or perennials too?

Anyway, one of my favorite things to do is put flowers together that are the same color, but different shapes or textures, like this Agastache 'Apache Sunset' with Echinacea 'Summer Sky'
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Or Gaillardia 'Oranges and Lemons' (Hybrid) with Asclepias tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies'
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Another monocolor combination that looks good together, but I don't have a picture of is Solidago 'Fireworks' with Coreopsis 'Sunburst'.

Last year, I tried to pick color themes for each of the pots on the porch, like peach and chocolate, red and yellow, lime green and burgundy, gold and bronze, etc., that made it easy to know where to put things when it came time to plant out the wintersown seedlings. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures, but I'll be trying it again with some tweaking ... some of the flowers weren't the color that was shown in the online catalogs.

Everyone has their own opinion about which colors look good together, but for me I like to keep hot colors together, and cool colors together. Most of my garden is oranges, yellows, and reds, so pink looks out of place. I have seen people put bright orange and dark purple together, which is a striking combination, or a pale yellow together with blues and it looked nice. Just as an example of how different everyone's opinions on what looks together will be, the photo Token posted above of the Echinacea with the Rudbeckia, I would never put those two colors together. That's the beauty of gardening though, we get to plant whatever we think looks good to us, regardless of what anyone else thinks : )

Bonnie

This is my second year of WS and IÂm still trying to figure out what grow best at my place and when it is flowering. This year I have again some 50 new flowers to try out and some new blums of perennials from last year, but IÂm enjoying this part of gardening also :P. This year I will also include Mama Nature to do her part, because IÂm expecting my first baby in the beginning of May and I will let a lot of things to self sow.
Here are some of my combinations I really liked last year.

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Cosmos sulphureus with Sedum and Iris

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Coreopsis tinctoria and Tanacetum parthenium

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Phlox drummondii with Lobelia and Alyssum

I hope to see more combinations from all of you :)
Highalttransplant, interesting idea and combos :)

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden 2009

I love the gaillardia oranges and lemons.... I want some of those now!!!

I guess I need to get some more seeds :)

^^^ Beautiful combinations above. Love them all.
I love to look at gardening books and borrow/steal ideas from them.
A favorite book is Perennial Combinations by Colston Burrell
Perennial Combinations

But you have to experiment.
What works in other climate may not work in yours or the plants may not bloom at the same time in yours.
You might have to substitute them with what grows best for you.
And that's where the beauty of Winter Sowing comes in. lol.
You can afford to rip them out and try new ones without breaking the bank. :-D

I like to combine colors, tesxtures, heights and forms.
If the plants or flowers are samll, I like them in swatches.
If they are big and bold, one specimen is enough.

thanks everyone. last year i focused mainly on perennials but this year i'm incorporating many more annuals. i'm noticing myself being drawn to almost anything with white. lots of alyssum this year.

@gg3300
I am working on incorporating more white into my flower palette this year, too.

Botanical Interest is a favorite seed line of mine.

In addition to the Indian Peace Pipe Nicotiana and White Swan Echinacea I will be trying, I have posted a link to a beautiful morning glory that might interest you. Moonflower is quite lovely, but I like the soft blue in the veining of the Flying Saucer--weird name, pretty flower.

cheers,
Norabelle

Here is a link that might be useful: Flying Saucer MG

Wow Bonnie, I always love your pictures! But this time you out did yourself, monochromatic, I love it! I'm drooling over the agastache and echinacea...
Spela-those coreopsis really pop, I've never been a fan of the smaller single coreopsis(always liked the early sunrise type)but I think they would fill spaces in between the larger plants in my "hot colors" garden, I picture them mixed in with the yellow daylillies.

Wouldn't it be nice if the garden was like a game and you could just click and drag stuff you wanted to move? Or clear the whole area in front of a fence with one click? There I go dreaming again. Lord, I need minions!(little people that do what your tell them, I thought the kids would work but nooooo...)

I think I'll made some more coffee-I'm rambling
-B

Monochromatic! That's the word I couldn't think of! Thanks, Brandy : )

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This is more of a foliage and flower combo, but worked well for me last year in a shady area. It's my first year winter sowing, so these were grown from container plants. These are Hardy geranium 'Jolly Bee' with Heuchera americana 'Dales Strain' and Heuchera micrantha 'Palace Purple'. There is a little annual Coleus 'Jazz Combo' or maybe it was 'Green Halo' in the background.

I think you can get seeds for Heuchera 'Dales Strain' from Summer Hill Seeds. Park Seed has Heuchera 'Palace Purple' seeds. This year I winter sowed Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) seeds, because I don't think you can buy seeds for Jolly Bee geranium? I know you can get Coleus seeds from Burpee or Park Seed...haven't ordered my coleus seeds yet.

This is the kind of thread that gives me ideas my balcony can't handle! Gorgeous pictures!

This was one of my all-time favorites in my garden - sedum 'Neon', red gaillardia (WSed) and clematis 'Sweet Autumn':

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Yarrow and malva are nice together too:

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One of my nicer windowboxes - blue and white verbena, red and white petunias (all Wsed):

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PV

PV...I showed you pictures to a young colleague of mine. He just bought a condo with a balcony. They got him all fired up and ready to create a garden overlooking downtown Chicago. :-)
Always an inspiration.

spela, I just looked at your photos. You are in Slovenia. Wow.
Can we visit you sometime? I am serious. I like to travel. :-)
And will you please collect seeds of that Primula vulgaris for me, please?

topie, that's a beautiful combination. I love foliage too. I can't wait to see how my new batches of Wild Ginger will look this year. And Epimedium:
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Here goes mine!
1) a favorite area of mine that will really change this year 'cause I lost the apple tree that shaded it! Hosta(if anyone know ID please LMK) Astrantia-roma, Creeping Jenny,Columbine and Dianthus.
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2)An over exposed picture of echinacea-sunrise and rudbecia-gloriosa daisy, This was one of my first monarch releases!
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3)More sunrise echinacea this time with Asiatic lilies-cote d'azure and some pink yarrow
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4)one of my favorite color combos, blues and purples- creeping phlox and violets. Don't mind the weeds!
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5)Lilies-cote d'azure, Echinacea sunrise,and rose campion.
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6)Blazing Star,Guara, and Butterfly Bush-black knight
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7)Iris-pale yellow,Painted Daisy,and German Catchfly
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And one further away(in most pics I try to leave out the steet!)
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And this 'cause it makes me giggle every time a read it!
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When we first moved in the front yard was all grass-most of these pictures were taken shortly after the grass was ripped out-it has since creeped back in and the beds don't look this good anymore-I have so much work to do this summer!!
-B

Nice pics!
Brandy-could that possibly be Hosta Gold Standard?

Rhonda