Hello! How about some roses? They will fufill color and depth, as theyare much bigger than regular perrenials. I feel like you and i have similar color tastes. Those are the only colors in my garden! I have problems using reds and oranges and bold yellow. I think the flowers with daisy like petals add a light and airy feeling. Dont forget about sages ans agastaches, not only are they beautiful but bees and hummers love them! And a nice addition would be some hydrangeas, i LOVE limelight for height and color. Annabelle is nice for shade. I also just thought marshalls bee balm and mountain bluet are different too. Good luck!!!

Ps, i dont have patience for the biennials either but will be winter sowing them, and keeping them in the back of the border, before you know it the following spring will be here and theyll be ready to bloom, and ill be glad i waited it out!

Delphinium is a perennial not a biennial and is in the Buttercup family. Larkspur is a delphinium. Some say Delphiniums die out after a couple of years, but I have had the same plants for close to 10 years.

Biennials require no more care than perennials. Plant a biennial and it will drop it's seeds and grow a plant and flower the next year. The only care it may need is to thin out the seedlings around the blooming plant. I grow English daisies(a biennial) which border 1 bed--they do not have daisy like flowers but little pom poms. They bloom in the spring. As soon as the first flower buds out, I group them in clumps with spacing for an annual between. That's all the care they require and I wouldn't be without them.

You could plant some anemone/Pasque flowers, gaura/butterfly flower is hardy in your zone, trollius/Chinese globeflower is a very pretty gold/orange color. Pulmonaria/lungwort, brunnera/Siberian bugloss and alchemilla mollis/lady's mantle for shade along with the astilbe and maybe some coral bells. Do you have bleeding heart? There's hardy hibiscus too as well as hummingbird mint/agastache that comes in lots of shades of pink and purple. Armeria/sea thrift is available in pink and white. Balloon flower also comes in pink, blue or white. Bergenia, campanula/bellflower/Canterbury bells, columbine, cranesbill/hardy geranium. Lots to choose from in your zone that aren't necessarily fussy or demand too much attention and don't look a bit like daisies.

What about some ornamental grasses too? Japanese sedge 'Ice Dance' looks beautiful year round and has a nice mounding shape to it. It needs shade. There are more sedges hardy in your zone that I can't grow here in zone 6. Dwarf fountain grass, ribbon grass/phalaris and blue fescue for full sun. Cushion spurge is completely care free--mine comes up every year, is beautiful and dies back in November so it might last a bit longer where you are. Lambs ears/stachys, liatris spicata/gayfeather, and Stoke's aster go with your color scheme too.

Yarrows are very nice for texture and a different flower form. So is asclepias. There is a rose blooming form. Be aware that the pink yarrow with ferny foliage tends to be pretty aggressive. Moonbeam is a really good yarrow and its soft yellow blooms would go well with your scheme.

You can't go wrong with some daylilies, and with savvy selections, you'll have blooms well into July at least.

You'd do well to incorporate a few small evergreen shrubs so you have something to look at next winter. There are many lovely ones with beautiful foliage that should do well for you: Abelia Kaleidoscope, Purple Pixie loropetalum, and dwarf nandinas come to mind (the berrying types can be invasive).

You are highly likely to be disappointed with delphiniums in zone 7, although larkspur is a real winner. Foxgloves need at least afternoon shade, as do astilbes.

Just a note: nearly all the plants you mention bloom out by early summer. You might want to research some plants for summer and fall interest too to keep the show going longer. I can recommend several salvias as stellar performers: farinacea cultivars, indigo spires, leucanthas and guaraniticas (these spread aggressively).

Here's some summer bloomers your color range:

Texas Tulip (Eustoma grandiflorum) short-lived perennial.
Summer Snapdragon (Angelonia angustifolia) annual.
Fancy-Leafed Caladium (Caladium bicolor) annual bulb (needs shade).
Canna (Canna x generalis) frost-tender bulb.
Chitalpa (x Chitalpa tashkentensis) small tree.
Crinum Lily (Crinum hybrids) partly evergreen bulbs.
Mexican Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia) annual
Horn of Plenty (Datura metel) annual (afternoon shade).
Hybrid Pink (Dianthus 'Allwoodii') perennials
Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri) perennial
Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) annual
Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) shrub
Four O'Clock (Mirabilis jalapa) tuberous perennial.
Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana alata) annual
African Blue Basil (Ocimum species) annual
Star Cluster (Pentas lanceolata) annual.
Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus) shrub.

All of these things I have grown and found them to be easy and not demanding. I have deliberately avoided daisy-like blooms.

Hope this helps!
Kevin : )

If you have shady spots, consider growing hosta for their blooms as well as the leaves. I have several with late summer flowers ranging form white through pale lavendar to mid-purple. Clematis are vines that fit well into a cottage garden, either as a groundcover, or climbing a trellis or obelisk, and many will fit your color schemes. Type three clematis bloom in summer and often into early fall. Perennial geraniums mostly bloom in spring, and many of these are mounding. Jolly Bee and Rozanne are more trailing and will bloom just about all season.

Also, think about varying the leaf color and texture as well as the flowers, since most perennials will be without flowers for longer than they have them.

I like tucking mounds of Roman chamomile here and there for texture. It always looks lush and puffy - smells good too.

Lynda

Hardy hibiscus can add a lot to a daisy bed. These are Luna Red, but they also come in pinks and white. There are daylilies in there and a butterfly bush somewhere.

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Or you can search out Turn of the Century.

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Just a small fyi. Since the seeds of the hardy hibiscus are hardier than the plant I have turned to dead heading it after blooming. This was after seeing a roadside valley on I29 full of various colors of hibiscus. I am not aware of any problems in other places except for it's cousin Rose of Sharon.

Probably over kill. Although biennal various holly hocks can give different colored blooms and if picked carefully for a range of cultivars and the weather cooperates can bloom in this area from early June to mid September.

Is this a full sun bed? with lots of daisy-like plants, I am assuming it is.

You are right to want texture in your bed. It really makes the difference. One year I tried Angel Trumpet in a pot in a full sun bed. I was amazed at the great impact the large leaves made to that bed. THey also had a blue-ish tone which helped even more hold the bed together. I try to repeat this every year now.

Lavender is great for texture and mounding in a full sun and well-drained bed. And, as mentioned, grasses are super-textural. Not all are giants.

I have tried to incorporate hosta in my sunny bed for the large leaf effect, but its a struggle. They do so-so, but take time to get established and need extra watering if very dry.

THe thing about large-leaved plants is that they generally are shade plants whose leaves get large seeking the sun. That means that large-leaved plants that are adapted to the sun are not as common as large-leaved plants adapted to the shade.

Agastaches make a nice contrast to daisy-type flowers and are long blooming.
In your warm zone, I think there are many cultivars that are winter hardy. They need excellent drainage and love full sun.
Have you ever looked at the High Country Gardens catalog?

I like to vary forms, textures and colors, so I mix all kinds of plants in one tiny garden like so:
Front yard:
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Backyard:
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All the photos above were taken recently except these two:
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