Very nice! I love purple/blue flowers, the salvia is gorgeous (don't know which one it is though) :0)

How pretty! Also don't know the salvia-sorry, but do love those beds. That blue/purple bed is outstanding in both the colors and variety. Well done!

Cynthia

I'm no expert, but your salvia looks like May Night (Mainacht). Sound familiar?

Hmmmm....I have both Salvia 'May Night' and 'East Friesland'. This salvia tends to look like E.Friesland to me. It's straight and well-kempt. I find that my May Night tends to peter out as the summer goes on, but the E. Friesland continues to do quite well.

Another nice salvia that looks like this one is 'Blue Hill' which is lighter in color. I planted the Blue Hill in a row with my E. Friesland and the Blue Hill ate my E.Friesland! It is much more robust but less intense in color.

Thanks MXK3 and Syn427, funny thing is that I planted that bed in a hurry when we first moved and love how it looks but ironically I've planned and planned the front yard flower beds and cannot get them to look right!

Thyme2dig, E Friesland sounds familiar so maybe that's what it is. I just bought one for the front yard. Good thing I got the same one, this salvia is amazing!

Donnabaskets are you referring to my May Night?

melaroma~There is nothing wrong with repeating the same flowers in another bed. You could mix it up, and use different colors, same forms. Or just use divisions from the first bed, since it was planted first, and save your money. That looks better to me than cramming in one of this, one of that. Although in this case, it may just be that the bed is newer, as you have added only a few new varieties. The bed will look better as it becomes established. Be patient, you're doing a great job! I think you have EF salvia. It divides very easily, one of my faves. I think it would look great with the yellow allium and shasta dasiy. In my own experience, I have found that moving a few things around is sometimes the way to go.

I think that the situation was that I had to get my plants into the ground in one bed at the time so I planted them where I thought best at the time and it worked out because I have enough plants to fill the bed.

The problem with my two newer beds is that they are much bigger and I have been acquiring plants I like little by little so I feel overwhelmed when trying to plant in them. Maybe I should just concentrate one on bed at a time. I did buy another ES Blushing bride and a Nikko blue and having those bigger plants or bushes in makes it easier to figure out what needs to be filled in now.

The other thing that I like about the smaller bed was that I planted two salvias at the ends, a catmint next to each of those, two boxwoods a bit towards the back... so I have two of those plants planted in the same spot as the other side but then have a buddleia only on one side and so forth so it's formal but not completely identical. But I think that I was able to accomplish this because of the beds size.

In the bigger bed I have been trying to group plants of the same kind while breaking it up here and there. The other problem is that it is a shade garden with 3 to 4 hrs of sun. It is a long but thin flower bed that is along the foundation of the house. I think that I will wait until next spring to finish the beds and see how the current plants fill out.

melaroma, I think the beds look lovely. I, too, often feel overwhelmed with the beds I need to work on. I have several projects going and I think you are right-should focus on one at a time. Oh well.

melaroma~But having more than one bed gives you a place to move them to, which I admit, is a problem for me, LOL.

I agree that using shrubs as a backbone gives a little more weight to the beds, and something to look at in winter, if that applies to you, since most perennials die back to the ground.

I'm done for the year.

Im in z6 so my shrubs loose their leaves but other than boxwoods I can't stand ever greens. So I have the two beds in front of the house that I am working on and that are overwhelming me but do I learn? Nope! I started another bed in the back yard for sun perennials! I'm getting in deep way over my head! Gardening is addicting!

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Wow, those daisies are exquisite! I love that color on the phlox, what is the plant next to it that is forming buds? Also on the second picture what is the plant that is a deep rose color behind the Daisies? It is lovely! How long did it take for you plants to get this big? Love it, thanks for sharing!

Melaroma....I just picked up a salvia from Lowes recently called Merleau Blue which is supposed to be a more compact variety. Maybe that's what you have. Question for you: What kind of agapanthus is that in the second photo? Is this it's first year for you or has it overwintered for you?

Jeff....What kind of Coneflower is that with the dark stems in your first pic? Merlot maybe? I recently picked one up on clearance and am hoping it overwinters okay.

hello melaroma, the plant next too the phlox is a black eye susan "goldstrum". The red plant in the second picture is jupiter's beard. This is only my second year gardening so this is the second season for most of my perennials.

Garry, The coneflower in the picture is "ruby star"

Jeff,

Wow, your plants look super mature. I wouldnt have guessed they were 2nd year plants...

Was your garden plox bareroot or a container plant when you planted it?

I planted some bareroot phlox this early summer, and they only grew about 12" tall. The David Phlox barely grew 6" high, and about 6" wide. It didnt bloom, but the other two did.

Danielle

Garry, I am not sure what kind of Agapanthus it is but I am happy to say that it survived the winter! I mulched it with hay then laid regular mulch on that and topped it off with a load of leaves. At this point it is growing slowly so I don't know if it will bloom at all this year. I might have to bring it in this fall. How did yours fare?

Here is a picture of the new growth:
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