The perennial bed must have lots of sun.

How about coreopsis (both red and yellow), bachelor's buttons, rose campion, blackeyed Susan, globe amaranth, silene, phlox, vinca, strawflower, tithonia and/or portulaca? Also, you could use some of those short sunflowers. I grew them last year, and plan to do so again this year.

Janie

I've got about 6 hours of sun. 2 in the morning, then shade until about 3pm, then full sun from there on out. Once the leaves arrive, I'll still have about 4 hours of sun due to the changing sun angle.

I've got red and yellow coreopsis planted out. Will they bloom the first year?

I've got black eyed susans I started in the fall. I hope they will bloom too. I've got vinca which I just sowed today. And petunias, etc. I guess I should hit the 20 cent seed rack and pick up some more annuals. I really want things I can direct sow. I'm out of potting mix and I refuse to buy more soil for a yard full of it.

How about...
Nicotiana
Cosmos
Asters (Callistephus)
Calendula
Cleome
Snapdragons

Annette

I know I have some cleome seeds here somewhere. Now where is the question. And I have nicotiana and cosmos. Last year's cosmos should return and hopefully the cleome too.

Snapdragons just can't take the heat here. I've tried them before and they look really bad by end of June.

There are many purposes for holding beds. Another is so you have something ready to put in 'that spot' where something didn't come back.

Coreopsis will bloom the first year from seed if they are planted early enough. In fact for me most of the time they are annual. Occassionally they will come back and bloom a second year.

Not all perennial beds need full sun. I have a large perennial bed with astilbe, daylilies, oriental poppies, dianthus and several other plants. I know I know the 'experts' on here will say I can't grow these in a shade garden.......but you know what? I am growing them in a shade garden. The same goes for my hosta bed. It gets about 8 hours of full sun.....then gets shade in the afternoon and evening. You don't know if you don't try. If a plant doesn't thrive in a spot....move it before it dies and see what happens in another spot.

I use lilies a lot for filler plants, between the perennials. Of course I also have large areas of lilies too. Most Asiatic lilies produce little bulbs along the stem underground so multiply rather quickly. Tiger lilies produce bubils at the leave nodes so multiply even faster than the Asiatics.

You can also plant dahlia tubers....pick a size and colour that will fit.

For annuals as fillers I use snapdragons, marigolds all colours and sizes, nasturtums the climbing types make great ground cover. Annual rudbeckia 'spotlight' is a favourite. Schizanthus, nicotiana, lobelia, sunflowers put on a nice show. Ornamental grasses....might even be perennial in your zone. The list could be huge, it really depends what your tastes in plants are.

Again, what works for me in zone 2 may not work for all other zones.

Have fun building your gardens,

Sierra

I suppose mine would be Calendula and poppies. I can just toss them out into the garden and they will come up. Then I just weed out any unwanted ones.

It is hard to say with perennials as I use so many different things. I will see a plant that meets my standards and then I wedge it in there. It fills the space!
CMK

Are you asking about fillers for spring, or fillers for summer, in the hot and humid south? Spring fillers for us are calendula, violas, snapdragons, poppies, nasturtiums, larkspur, annual dianthus -- to name a few, mostly planted out or sown in the fall.

When the spring annuals can't take the heat any more, the hot weather annuals follow: zinnias, marigolds, Madagascar periwinkle, tithonia, globe amaranth, ornamental peppers. Many of these, especially the vinca, require really hot weather to thrive.

Don't forget summer bulbs, like gladioli, lycoris, caladiums, crocosmia, liatris, tuberose, triteleia, society garlic and zephyranthes.

One plant rarely mentioned are the miniature daylilies, like 'Little Grapette' 'Bourbon Kings' and others that make tiny clumps with small flowers. They give an entirely different look than the full-sized daylilies we usually think of as garden plants.

Nell

Token:

Queen Anne's Lace is biennial, FYI.

Feverfew is white, blooms first year, and is perennial. The foliage is pretty, and has a strong chrysanthemum scent. It blooms earlier its second year. It spreads a lot by seed, so I move the seedlings into my bare spots. It will grow in dry shade, sun, whatever. There's single feverfew, which looks like tiny daisies, and double looks like white pompoms.

And then there are white zinnias, and white marigolds.

With so many heights, colors and shapes of zinnias, and their everblooming happiness, they are a go-to flower for filling in, or anchoring a bed. They don't even need all-day sun. (Up here, where plants like all-day sun)

Bachelor buttons - so easy to grow and they reseed like crazy. But I also like cleome and cosmos too every year.

I have to second the cosmos. Just throw them on the ground and you'll get a rainbow! They don't even blink at high heat. I also like calendula, but it is a much denser plant and closer to the ground. It's very dry here so I don't have to worry about susceptibility to fungal diseases, but NC might be different.

Ugh. I really thought QAL was an annual. Are they two types? Or something that looks like QAL?

I have lots of zinnia seeds now from trades. And I have cosmos from my plants last year and others that I collected. I will direct sow all these after the last chance of frost. Last year I did that with the cosmos out back and ended up moving many of the plants. The soil was just too shallow for them to grow well and they looked really bad until I moved them.

Queen Anne's Lace grows as an annual, however some plants do come back the next year. Biennial to me means foliage the 1st year, flowers the 2nd, but I could be wrong. This year I got some Ammi Majus seeds from Stokes. This is a hybridized QAL, so it will be interesting to see how it looks!!

Nancy.

I have QAL blooming. It was not there last year. Last year that area was grass. I suppose from a handful of mixed seeds I threw out.

Kathy

I use alot of those that are mentioned. One I didn't see is celosia 'Flamingo Feather' in both pink and purple. The purple has burgandy leaves. I also like amaranth 'Oeschburg' again with burgandy leaves. Kiss me over the garden gate is a nice tall annual. I like the variegated one. Castor bean plants and cannas are also great fillers. I quite often cut back my mums mid-season and root the cuttings. I get lots of nice sized plants for fall. I also use some herbs for fillers, such as bronze fennel and some of the purple basils. Opal basil is actually quite lovely in bloom.

Bishop's Lace (Ammi Majus) is the annual version of Queen Anne's Lace (aka: False Queen Anne's Lace), and is a very nice substitute. QAL can get unruly and take over, and removing it can be somewhat of a chore, as it has a tap-root-to-China.
I love QAL in a field setting, but it won't have a place in my gardens because of it's bad behavior.

Anyway, the Bishop's Lace will look just like the pic in your catalog, and you won't be disappointed. I bought mine from Wildseed Farms this year because I missed having them in the garden last year. BL is somewhat 'whiter' than the QAL:

Bishop's Lace:
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QAL:

Most of my favorite annuals have been mentioned. Don't forget decorative edibles. Among the herbs: in addition to fennel and basil, fern-leaf dill, low-growing chervil and, more esoteric, purple Perilla. 'Mizuna' mustard has pretty foliage. I love ruby chard for a bold leaf(especially 'Charlotte' for flavor) and often raid flowers of both nasturtiums and Gem Marigolds (Tagetes tenuifolia) for salads.

I filled in some blank spots in my rose garden with nepeta. I cut it back after the first blooming for a second blooming and to prevent them from getting 'leggy'. Flowers & foliage are both very pretty and it returns year after year with very little effort. Disclaimer: if you have cats in your area they will be attracted to this, if that's an issue for you!

Here is a link that might be useful: nepeta

I've been taking notes. :)

Thanks!

How about non-conventional choices - like the annual beebalm? scabiosas, ammobium alata (white everlasting) bachelors buttons, bells of ireland, celosia flamingo feather, Didiscus, gomphrena, larkspurs, penstemon, nicotiana, nigella(a favorite) poppies,

or foliage plants like lambs ears and dusty miller

In the perennial bed - Joe Pye Weed, Veronicastrum, Sea Holly, Blue Thistle, miscanthus, achillea, coreopsis, helianthus

Nicotiana plants are looking very good in my garden right now, blossoms should show up with the poppies and last for months.

Plains coreopsis (calliopsis), (annual coreopsis) is a fav here. You usually see the yellow with dark red center in pictures, but I love the Dwarf red coreopsis which is maroon colored.
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Upper left corner in this pic of June 1, 2006. Wish I could find a pic showing a couple months later, lol.
Annual coreopsis is a great filler where you need something dark.

Nell

A couple of comments -

QAL is definitely a biennial, and I wouldn't plant it unless it was in an area I wanted to stay relatively wild. It self-seeds like crazy, and once plants are established, they can be a huge pain to get out. (Our old house backed to protected wetlands. I didn't dare plant carrots because I was afraid I'd confuse them with the QAL!)

Cosmos - height is variable. I had some taller than me!

I highlighted the ones I have wintersown or returning from last year. :)

How about non-conventional choices - like the annual beebalm? scabiosas, ammobium alata (white everlasting) bachelors buttons, bells of ireland, celosia flamingo feather, Didiscus, gomphrena, larkspurs, penstemon, nicotiana, nigella(a favorite) poppies,

or foliage plants like lambs ears and dusty miller

In the perennial bed - Joe Pye Weed, Veronicastrum, Sea Holly, Blue Thistle, miscanthus, achillea, coreopsis, helianthus

Nell, I have some of that yellow/red coreopsis and I have seedlings of the red variety. I moved it around last year and it lived through the winter. I thought plains was an annual? It's still out there. Green and growing.

Irene, I have QAL in the white bed. It's on the edge of the woods, so if it takes over, so be it. I'm planting datura there too. They can fight it out. One has large leaves, the other tiny. I think it should be a nice combination with the shastas mixed in.

Plains coreopsis is described all over as annual. Maybe it's one of those half hardy perennials that is always called annual and sometimes lives over, like sweet alyssum.

I don't know if you sowed any Agastache--I have foeniculum or something else really close--but it gets big fast and blooms the first year, so it can be a good filler, too. It's lavender, and there's a white version. It spreads like crazy from seed.

Ianna - tell me about - like the annual beebalm? -I'd love to know about it!! Nancy.

I'm not Ianna, but can tell you about the annual bee balm - aka Lemon bee balm/Monarda citriodora - which I winter-sowed last year. I loved it! Grows about 2 feet high, pretty light purple flowers. Foliage has a vague lemon scent. Will grow in dry areas, much more drought tolerant than Monarda didyma. Attracts bees and butterflies. It makes zillions of seeds, so I am expecting it to reseed abundantly in the garden this year.

It probably will make a good filler plant. I also like Cleome, Cosmos, Dill, and Cilantro. Around the edges, Alyssum and California poppies. It's no coincidence that they all reseed abundantly so I just weed out the ones I don't want.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Monarda citriodora -
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token, Looks like we like the same kinds of plants. You've got to try Blue Thistle enmass. They look fantastic. I like to group them and contrast them with something spherical (salvia blue mignight) or fluffy (Joe Pye), or even umbrell shaped( dill, sedum autumn joy, achillea) or even similar shaped (astrantia) plants. Other ideas that come to mind, Russian sage (tall airy), double decker echinacea, coreopsis moonbeam.

Annuals that can fill up spaces well - like amaranthus, papaver somniferum (which look architectural when it starts to form pods)

Stage rat - I forgot about agastache and I have to say - it's beautiful... I grew them last year.

Midnightsmum - terren's photo is right on. Last year, I sprinkled a lot of wildflowers to create a meadow garden. This particular plant caught my eye and it's so pretty and yet not too loud... The advantage is that this plant isn't invasive like the perennial monarda - so I can sprinkle it at will anyplace in the garden... This year, I've started it indoors. They do germinate easily.

You can find it in many catalogs. I think I spotted it on Richter Herbs & Vesseys. Any supplier dealing with wildflowers should have it available.

Ianna