I'm a collector, composition? it's musical chairs here. Left standing without a place to sit, there's always the container. If that doesn't work ask the neighbors if they'd like another plant :o).

Annette

I buy the plants that "strike my fancy" and then worry about where to place them. If I absolutely love a plant, I will find a place for it.

I'm trying for overall composition using collectibles. :)

Some plants I like just for their traditional appeal, black eyed susans, shastas, echinacea. I don't need the latest and greatest, just the tried and true. Let me learn about the old varieties before springing Mac&Cheese or Tomato soup on me. I've got some wants...glads, more roses, more hibiscus, more salvias, etc.

I tend to start with the composition, then look for a plant that meets my requirements. For some reason, I like monochromatic groupings of different plants with the same bloom colors. I don't know how I got started on that. I think it was trying to keep the color scheme going longer.

I'm not a collector at all, though I've ended up with a lot of perennials (in different colors) because they are strong performers.

I don't usually buy the latest trend and I never look for rare or unique plants. I'm too cheap! LOL

Cameron

Cameron, seeds is a great way to get rare and unique plants. For instance, brugs do well here, and each one from seed is different than any other. They're like snowflakes. I'm waiting on mine to bloom so I can hopefully get a few seed pods.

"They're like snowflakes" -- I love that! :-)

This was my year for using a lot of seeds and I'm really enjoying what has sprouted and produced. Some of the seeds that I gathered from my favorite plants are doing well, too.

It is so interesting to see who is more of a collector and who is the composer (and those who can do both!).

I envy those of you who can stick to a scheme! I think my garden would look a lot more put together if I could. But then some interesting new plant oddity or collectable enters my life and...well you know. I guess I just love plants.
CMK

Definitely a collector, but not in the sense that I have to have every variety of a perennial known to man. I want individual plants that perform well and earn their keep over the long haul. After that, I consider the composition, so I'm always walking around with that new plant trying to determine where it would look best. With regards to composition, I think I'm pretty good at form and texture combinations, but I struggle with color.

There's a nice post on the blog of 'Miss Rumphious' Rules' -- some of you may recognize her as Susan on the Landscape Forum. She has what she calls the 'Garden of Lost Plants.' She plants at least one of anything she's going to recommend to a client. You can imagine why.

Nell

Well I don't have a long gardening career to draw from but I definately would say that I am more of composition. First order of business is that the plant will work in my conditions. After that it is about color, scent and texture. I actually don't care that much about the flower. Gasp! I love all flowers so I am not that hard to please.
I really just want to create a sense of expanses, as if you were swept up in a field of this or that. Like when you were a kid and everything seemed so vast and you could get lost in a field of daisies. You know, Dorothy in the poppy field. Then the scents are very important. They are texture for the senses, mint, lemon, honeysuckle, lilies... then sounds to ground you to the experience by weaving and connecting a theme in your mind. Touch is also a very important element to consider.
So yeah, I am more about the composition.

I'm going out now with containers and envelopes of summer seeds and a few pots of rooted things to see what I can Compose.

Nell

I'm a collector, largely because I'm always testing new plants in my yard. If someone wrote a book recommending perennials for gardens in the Great Lakes/Midwest with sandy soil, dappled shade, hungry deer and no extra watering, let me know, so I don't have to try every plant myself!

Meanwhile, I'm like token, trying to do composition with my collection.

I am striving to turn a collection into a composition. I have very recently come to realize that there are just way too many plants for a collection with my time, space, and budget limitations. So I am slowly paring down the variety. It makes me feel a little more serene too, when I look at the few places where it's starting to happen. It's very tricky finding the right number of varieties so that the overall space is cohesive but not boring. You know -- not a whole yard of just black-eyed Susans, nor a yard of one of everything either, but somewhere in the middle.

I'm a collector. I do tend to try to compose a bit, but I also buy plants that intrigue me.

And there is no help for me when I see a plant that intrigues me. I will move heaven and earth to find it.
kay

Another thumbs up for "composing the collection". I have to have every plant I read about. I have to have every cultivar of every plant I like. I have to have new plants I've never tried before every year. I am a sick woman.

It's musical chairs here, too. I'm even running out of room to put containers! I plant containers with colors I don't even care for. I scoot them around the patio wondering why I planted them. Yes, sick.

I do try to anchor the garden with repeated colors and combinations. I also have garden rooms so it seems a little OK to change from pink and yellow to blue and white, or from a formal rose situation to a butterfly border/prairie.

All on a city lot.

I like reading your posts; I can tell some of you have the same sickness.

:)
Mickie

Definitely composition over collection here - I'm always trying to figure out what will look good together. And I'm always a fan of wide shots so I can see the composition! I do try to get certain plants to try out, but I need it to work with the other things I have. I'm more a fan of collecting individual specimens of larger plants like roses that can stand on their own - but for smaller ones, I like bigger drifts. Otoh, I don't like to invest in lots at once until I know how they will do in my garden. Last year I bought 9 heuchera Plum Pudding and felt so daring! Fortunately they have done well, or I'd have been annoyed.

I definitely don't have to have the newest cultivars - I'll let others try and report back. Tho I do sometimes experiment a bit...I'm not always consistent.

Well I try to have some sort of composition in mind. But certainly I will buy a plant when I see one I like and was not planning on buying it. Especially what I call the old garden or passalong plants. For example, I recently saw a flowering almond, and I've always wanted one. Now I am looking for mockorange and when I find one I will find a place to put it. Where? I'll find a spot. Once I found a lovely japanese maple for a very good price, while driving from the coast back home to north MS. I bought it and found a place for it. Same with a variegated weigela, I found a place. My long front cottage garden was not jiving with the short other side (other side of the entry) so I thought of a composition, where I put nandina firepower every few feet across the 2 gardens. I love how it pulls it together. And I wanted something evergreen becoz I was getting depressed in the winter. I deepened the bed to accomodate that and put in curves. Love it. Now my next project is to move 2 butterfly bushes (where? not sure yet) and replace them with 2 KO roses in the fall. The reason. Becoz of composition. The short garden area has KO roses and when in bloom (several times a year or most of the season) it draws the eye over there and there is no balance. So putting 2 of the same KO variety on the other side, not exactly in a symmetrical placement but a balance, will help the overall composition. So I admit to being a collector, but I do try to compose.

Fortunately, having always gardened on a farm, I can do both. Being 6'2'' tall, I'm not really happy till I have a clump of a plant that I need 2 of me to get my arms around. But I'm still picky. The sun borders have to be purples, oranges, hot pinks and friends(blue, red, soft yellow, cream, white) . Therefore composition is more important

The shade garden is a different story. Lots of treasures with lots of space between. I still try to compose these areas foliage color wise. If I see a good deal, I'll splurge on 5-12 of one plant to make a fast clump or 2.

I found 6foot Halesia caroliniana last week for $18.95 each and bought 5 for the creekside. I wanted bigger ones but couldn't resist the deal!

... Don

Hmmm. I was a collector, but I started trying to create a composition in my garden a few years ago. It's composed alright: sort of the garden equivalent of atonal music. That's why I come over here and look at all of your gardens.
Renee

I'm kind of like some of those above me who've commented...I started out a few years ago just buying things I thought were pretty, and it's only this year that I feel I'm beginning to get a knack for this gardening thing. I'm finding though it helps to think in terms of composition, because after all that hoarding of anything that striked my fancy, I have a lot of clashing colors going on. So now I'm spending more time thinking about what plant combinations will give me the cottagey effect I'm looking for.

I've been flower gardening for only a little over three years and like a lot of the other beginners at first I just collected what looked interesting or what anyone gave me. This year I've started to think about composition which is very hard for me as I don't really have a knack for design.