I've got many favorites, and I'm always looking for new ones to try, so I hope this becomes an active forum query and I can learn from yours. Thanks, moo sue, for asking us.

Since I'm eagerly awaiting spring bulb season, and have only a little time to respond right now, I'll focus on my favorite tulip combination. I am actually cutting and pasting it from a response I made to the "Favorite tulip" query in the Bulbs forum. I hope Spike doesn't mind this sort of thing.

The combination then is..."White Triumphator" with "Queen of Night" underplanted with "Angelique," "Toronto," and "Lilac Perfection."

The following additional comments are similarly lifted from my same response, but PLEASE STOP HERE if youre not a tulipomaniac. I donÂt want to bore anyone or waste your time...

...Except for "Angelique" Â a fragrant and beautiful shell-pink double late or peony type, none of the other tulips would make my short llist, though each does good substance on its own. But planted together these are a late-blooming smash. The contours of the white triumphator and the purple-black "Queen of Night" single late fit well together, and the short peony-flowered tulips are effective as a color-coordinated "groundcover" under these taller varieties. The peony varieties, especially "Angelique," are very fragrant as well. Got the idea for this color blend by studying a photograph in a wholesale catalog that does not specify the varieties they use in their various mixes. Feel a little bad about leaking the formula.

I would really enjoy reading about your favorites? What are yours, moo sue?

And by the way, moo sue, last year I started a job as a horticultural specialist with an award-winning garden design company. I have learned so much, and will learn more still about using design principles for plant combinations as we start this year's season. I will be happy to share in a forthcoming response, when I've got a little more time to do so.

cranebill

cranebill

Thanks Cranebill,

I'm kind of new so I haven't had much luck with combinations yet. I have planted most things in seperate areas in the border. One of my biggest problems is keeping the garden tamed. When I have tried combining I have usually ended up with one type dominating or with a tangled mess. I never know how to restore order. By mid summer my garden can be quite wild looking.

Maybe you can suggest some companions for my favorite existing plants. Short list Columbine - Gooseneck Loosestrife - Tall Bearded Iris (these seem to have such a large "footprint" - can you plant in between them?)

Also I love Lupines - but have never seen them planted in this area (NYC). Will they grow here? They sure are lovely up in Maine & New Hampshire.

Glad you are a Tulip fan. How do you know if the different tulips will bloom at the same time? I planted 150 bulbs in 2 or 3 different shades - most bloomed together but a few were late for the show.

I have been drooling over Queen of the Night for a few years now. I think I will try your combo of Q of the N with White Triumphator and Lilac Perfection come this fall.
Tell me a few of your other fav Tulips that are not the peony type - I have a large stand of blush pink peonies and since my yard is so small I try to plant different shapes. I love the simple rounded and pointed var of tulips. Is it important to get the late blooming varieties as you mentioned?

If you don't mind one more question - how long can I expect tulips to bloom? This will be their 3rd year - years one and two were both very healthy.

Cranebill - Good Luck with your new job. I hope you will have many opportunities there to apply and increase your knowledge. It sounds exciting.

Hope more people will add their ideas.

Moo Sue

Hey Moo Sue,

If you look at the replies to tulip91's query "Favorite tulip?" in the Bulbs forum, you'll find my comments on ten or so of my favorites.

Your question about longevity is interesting. It's true that some are more ephemeral than others, whether in terms of perennializing or how long the blooms will hold up, but this doesn't seem to correspond too well with tulip "types" (like "single early," "triumphator," "double late" and so on), nor even for the various species tulips. If I can think about this some more, I might have some comments about specific tulips.

I'm really enjoying the tulip talk. Maybe we should move this topic to the bulbs forum?

cranebill

In the shade I love the combination of hosta and columbine, interplanted; something about it is just cooling and lush. For sun and easy no-care, nothing beats the combination of May Night salvia and Moonbeam coreopsis...purple and yellow and they bloom all summer in the dry heat. Another favorite combination for spring is daffodils underplanted with vinca, so sweet and classic.

Patty

I have a couple (new to me) combinations that I have loved this past month - one is looking at day lily "Ice Carnival" in front of butterfly bush Lochinoch, and being able to glimpse caryopteris worcester gold behind this combination, a little way down the border.

I also enjoy looking at a blue star juniper planted next to a sedum autumn joy.

I love reading about other peoples' combinations! It's so much fun to tinker with these. I tried Angelique with White Triumphator but they didn't bloom at the same time for me at all. I'm excited to look up those other tulips and see if I can get a same-blooming combination to work.

Moo Sue, I have no idea if you're still checking this thread (probably not!) but I just had to recommend one of my favorite books. It's called "The Encyclopedia of Planting Combinations," by Tony Lord. At $59.95, it's not cheap, but it sure is wonderful! There are 416 full color pages, and it's organized by plant type. Check it out.

Ditto xantippe, I hope you're still checking this thread too, moo sue. As a companion to your columbines, maybe something with contrasting foliage? I have mine interplanted with Siberian iris, one of those haphazard newbie gardener serendipitous successes amidst all my early mistakes. The iris have very nice grassy foliage all summer, and the first blooms occur around the time the columbines are winding down, so you do get a couple of weeks to enjoy them together. The irises have a "jewel tone" quality that is simialar to the columbines', and the flowers and foliage of both plants are nicely complementary, in my opinion.

For the gooseneck loosestrife, a plant I really love in a semi-shade garden, I suggest a low growing, deep green groundcover such as wild ginger. I'm going to try this combination next year. I have both plants in my garden, but not situated together. Since the loosetrife blooms late, though, the wild ginger's foliage will possibly have started languishing by then. It stays vigorous a long time in my garden, into early fall, and it even weathers the first frosts, but I believe it's possible that wild ginger could get rather ratty in other garden situations. But the deep cool green of it would really set off the beautiful white goosenecks, and I think it would be a very elegant combination. A variegated lamium would also look nice, I think. But if you're set on a flowering companion, then, ummm...how about a beautiful blue Playcodon grandiflora (balloonflower), which starts flowering in mid-summer and continues well into fall. It likes more sun than the loosestrife, but maybe you could find a compromise location where both would do well together. Or maybe some late-flowering turk's cap lilies? Bottle gentians would be stunning, if you can find them.

Some of my tried and true favorite combinations are stargazer lilies planted among hostas and lady ferns; black magic colocasia planted with Bengal tiger cannas, black mondo grass planted with golden creeping jenny, and a collection of miniature conifers of various forms and colors planted together in a whisky barrel, a combination that looks great all year.

Sorry, but I can't think of a single plant that might survive amidst bearded iris as they just get too dense. Maybe you could plant something shorter in front of them. Drawing a blank at the moment though and can't think of anything that would flower at the same time, though I know there must be lots.

Revisiting your tulip questions. Hybrid tulips, as opposed to the species tulips, rarely do well as perennials and tend to dwindle after a couple of years, with smaller and smaller blooms. In some cases where they can be situated in soil that gets fairly baked and dry in the summer (simulating the conditions of their species ancestors' habitats in the Middle East and Central Asia) they may be better performers. I've read that the Darwins tend to perennialize well, and some of the single lates also. Triumphs aren't too good, and double lates and triumphators seem to be among the worst perennializers. I've tried to perennialize many kinds of hybrids and have never been successful. Now I just yank them out after they're spent and replace them with new ones in the fall. Kind of expensive but it's fun to try new ones each year. The species do much better, but chipmunks like to chomp on the bulbs throughout the summer so I lose a lot of tulips anyway.

Hope to hear from you here again, moo sue. It's such a great question that you've asked, and I'm surprised there haven't been more responses. Maybe when people start growing again, this discussion will become more lively. I hope so.

cranebill