I'm probably in the minority here, but I tend to like bright, clashing colors with my daylilies: bright purples next to screaming reds; hot pinks with oranges; yellows with fuchsia/purple. I used to plant them with a more subtle color scheme, but the ones I haphazardly threw together appeal to me more.

When possible, I do like to match the eye of one to the main color of its neighbor (Etched Eyes next to Ruffles Elegante). Daylilies with yellow eyes also look nice next to perennials such as Moonbeam Coreopsis or perennial sunflower.

My phlox is one of the few perennials I have that tend to bloom at the same time as the daylilies, so it's fun to plant daylilies with that in mind. Unfortunately, the phlox is now taking over the garden, so it's time to thin it out so the daylilies don't suffer.

But of course the best compansion plant is always another daylily . . .

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm just really starting on daylilies and my list has gotten BIGGER over the past two months LOL. Although I have had some for three years but only about 8. .
Last night I was looking at daylilies on Aren't I pretty daylilies gardens and while looking I came up with thinking of doing Purple/lavander daylilies with some bring bitone with my purple clematis and double knockout rose which is red and a blue Henry Duelburg salvia. Not sure what other colors to mix in with them. I have two phlox in with them but they did not bloom this year?
In the front I'm doing yellows and red daylilies. I already have garlic and some daylilies in the front bed and they are yellows, reds and purple. I'm removing the purple one to replace with a yellow daylily.

I seem to like the dark colored daylilies they do make a statement and show off so nicely IMHO. Not to say that I don't have lighter colored daylilies cause I do, I have some pinks I also have one orange but have found a few more that I'd like to get. I wonder how orange and purple would look together?

Then I have some daylilies from a trade last spring that did not flower this year and I'm going to pot them up so I can plant the ones I want to get in the ground.

Barb

I'm kinda with you maximus, on the screamin' colors, mainly because I'm off the road a bit & I like to be able to see them from a distance. I was thinking of putting all my loud ones along the drive, with the softer, delicate colors close to my porch which I can enjoy them. I prefer the softer colors, but when I look from a distance I seem to prefer the ones I can see from afar. I'll try some of those combinations. I've seem some combos on a thread or 2 where they've paired the eye with the main color of the neighboring daylily, that does look really pretty. Barb, I've been getting a few more of the dark colored daylilies, especially the deeper purple ones & looking forward to seeing them next year. Hopefully, next year will be better than this one. I have a few daylilies I got in trade last year that I have not seen bloom yet, I guess due to the drought. That would be nice to have some daylilies at the foot of a clematis where they get a bit scraggley looking. I hope I haven't lost my clematis this year. I'm thinking maybe I should start a picture album of all my daylilies, & start pairing them up this winter. I thought in the spring I can do some moving, & if I take a big enough clump of dirt with the daylily, they probably won't even know they've been moved :)

Daylilies in late May with Allium giganteum & Firewitch dianthus.

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Daylily in the shrub border in June with Itea & Variegated Red-twig dogwood.

OOOOOOO, Leslie your garden is just beautiful. Sometimes I wish I could just take pictures of other peoples gardens and plunk it right into my garden. Thank you for sharing your photos. I just love seeing other peoples gardens.
I guess you could say I'm somewhat garden challenge LOL.

It's a very slow learning process what goes good with other plants. Spacing is a challenge for me. I purchase a plant that say's it will only get 3 feet in height and 3 foot wide then within a few months or less it's gone way beyond it boundaries.
This year my cleomes got up to 6 feet tall and was still going and NO I did not fertilize them with anything other than compost. They had so many seeds that I fear their going to pop up a zillion babies next spring. I did try to pull all the seed pods but miss getting many of them before they dropped the seeds.

I love those pictures! It seems like when I "plan", they refuse to cooperate & bloom at the same time. I really like that yarrow, does it try to choke out the daylilies? I'm personally rather fond of yarrow, it does tend to cover ground & I think prevents weeds. Of course the reason I like it might be doom to daylilies too :)

Boy, Leslie --- that is absolutely amazing.
The pictures are gorgeous. I don't think anyone has mentioned Liatris. It blooms at the same time as mid/season daylilies and gives a vertical look to the garden. Both the white and purple are fantastic.

All your pictures are beautiful. I looked through 3 years of mine and can't find a one to illustrate this subject--I have some, too.

Anyway, I have found blue flowers really set off the daylilies. I like caryopteris, I have a blue sage that is very pretty and smells good, too. Liatris works nicely. I usually let the daylilies choose their partners and they do very well.

Kay

I like mikeandbarb's description of being "somewhat garden challenged". I can relate! This year I used a lot of Profusion Zinnia. Unlike mose zinnia, they hold up well to our heat and humidity. The white ones are my favorite because they go with everything. Here is Indian Giver with White Profusion Zinnia -

Leslie, all your photos are just beautiful. I'd love too see your garden in person. It must be something. :)

Kathy, I like your idea of the white zinna's. They look great with IG as I'm sure they would with other dl's as well. I may have to "steal" your idea for next season.

Jan

Jan, be my guest! It wasn't my idea. I stole it from someone on here...Laurel, was it you? I'm not sure. I look at so many pictures on here in a years time, it could've been anyone.

Dang, my picture isn't working again and I can't figure out why. It works in the message preview, but not now?! Very strange. I'm trying out another free server and using a different layout. Y'all bare with me.

Kathy

I like Daylilies and Roses. Some pictures from earlier this summer. The daylilies are long finished blooming but the roses bloom on and off all summer until the cold zaps them.

Liatris! I have that already in a bed I'm redoing, so that is a great idea. I had forgotten too the beds I saw somewhere on this forum that were edged with a low growing annual, I don't think it was sensation zinnia, but something very similar. I like those too, & would be so easy to scratch a few seeds in early in the season. Melampodium might be nice too. I would love to combine with roses, but Japanese beetles love my roses so much that I don't grow many. Darn beetles!

I forgot all about having lark spur with my daylilies this year.

Leslie, what daylily is that with the beebalm? Is that a beebalm cultivar or the species? I really like that combination.

I like to plant dwarf 'Alaska' nasturtiums among my hot-colored daylilies - you can't go wrong with that combination, IMHO. Blue stokes asters and pale yellow daylilies look good, too - 'Ida Miles' blooms long so it overlaps the asters for quite a while. I also like tall yellow daylilies (like 'Hesperus,' 'Golden Chimes,' and 'Spellbinder') with shasta daisies and Maltese Cross.

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'Golden Chimes' with Shasta daisy 'Becky'

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I also like using cannas among the daylilies - the foliage contrast is striking. You can tell I mix all sorts of stuff among the daylilies, more to constrast foliage than flowers: sage, phlox, peonies, irises, dwarf oak leaf hydrangea, asters, asiatic lilies, columbine, alchemilla, heliopsis 'Lorraine Sunshine,' etc. . . .

Laurel

MikeandBarb, thanks so much for your comments. As far as learning to match plants up, it is a SLOW process. I probably have 30 years on you - this is my third long-term garden - eventually you start to get some stuff right. LOL.

BTW, your larkspur looks great with your bluish pink dl, but they would even do well with all those pink dls that turn out looking peachish or even orange. I've never had much luck seeding larkspur in this yard, but have had success with bachelor buttons (Centaurea cyanus). Love your caladiums!

NGraham, I garden on wettish heavy clay, not very hospitable to yarrow, so its spreading is absolutely no problem for me. The dls suck up a lot of water and nutrients that the yarrow doesn't need, and the yarrows grow okay in the top few inches of duff in the bed, spreading a bit around the dls, but not enough to crowd them. The best thing about yarrows is that they come in so many colors and you can mix and match them with daylilies of all sorts. I grow Fireland, Paprika, Cerise Queen, Appleblossom, & Moonshine with/near various dls.

Carmen Grower 2007 & Phalytyme21, this one's for you.

Katlynnlily & Tweetypye,
Apricot Profusion Zinnias also look wonderfull with a lot of warm colored daylilies and NGraham they will also look super nice with your new Sundown Echinacea and dark blue salvias and veronicas. There are 4 yellow and soft orange daylilies (think Autumn Wood) in the corners of this small square bed with the zinnias & Sundown coneflower.

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Newyorkrita,
Nice roses - just love the house color too. Easier to work with than my orange-ish brick. Only roses I grow are the cherry red Knockouts in the far back of the yard. Haven't found any good dl matches for that color yet. Any ideas??

Vegangirl,
The beebalm is Jacob Cline, a little short because of the drought. The dl is Rumble Seat Romance. A fast grower & good performer with a very crepey texture. Does not rebloom for me in zone 5.

Laurel,
I always use nasturtiums in my containers for their wonderful leaves, but never thought about them with dls. Good idea. Couldn't agree more with the cannas - they add a lot to a garden and I agree foliage contrast is more important with dls than the color of blooms on other perennials. That's part of the reason that dls look so good with shrubs. Your pix are lovely too and our gardens look similar - lot of mixes.

Another note for NGraham,
I just thought of this when looking at the fenceline in Laurels 2nd picture. If you can stand the sometimes mess of vines, they work well with dls too, giving some height and sometimes acting as a focal point. I use a lot of annual vines as well as several dozen clematis on my fenceline & on wall trellises and free-standing tuteurs. The zinnia picture has a short 3 ft one in the center of this otherwise rather low bed.

I have nothing to add... YET. I am waiting until next year to see how everything blooms together! Your *everyone that posted here* yards are so beautiful! Wowzers! I have been wondering what that tall purple flowering plant was - Liatris! Gotta get me some of that! I have some 'May Night' Salvia that just got swallowed up by my Bi-Color and Victoria Blue sage... think I am going to move it next to my DL... I have some Fire Witch Dianthus seeds to plant... or maybe just divide some of the others...Thinking out loud...

Barb - do your caladiums overwinter? I have seen them around, but wasn't sure if they are being used as an annual here... I see you have hostas out there young lady... maybe we will soon have to trade those as well as DL!

Oh no wonder your garden looks so great Leslie. I've never tried growing flowering gardens only done some maters and corn, oh yea and peppers.

I'm not kidding when I said that some of my plants are giants, there's got to be something in the soil in that one bed LOL. Do you thing maybe I'll have monster daylilies from that bed LOL.

Michelle, My Hosta's don't really do all that well in the ground, pill bugs love to eat on them and caterpillars too. I have better luck growing them in pot's. I don't do anything to them in the winter months then when spring comes and I start seeing a little green I put some fertilizer in there. The caladium's I have to dig up and store for the winter but I love them so much it's worth it and if I lose any they are cheap enough that I buy more in the late spring.

How about these two together?

Here is my clematis from last spring that flowered off and on all summer, I did not give it any fertilizer and this is the bed I'm working on. I'm planting purple, salmon, white and maybe some yellow daylilies with it, including spider daylilies for height.

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I'll have to be sure to show pictures next year when it's all in bloom.

Barb

A couple of years ago I accidentally introduced dill to my garden. The fine leaves and lace like flowers of the dill contrasts well with the larger flowers and leaves of the daylily. The only draw back is that almost EVERY SEED from the dill germinated the following year. Some one else mentioned Salvia which I also like with the Dls.

Leslie, thanks for the ID. I think I'm going to have to try that combo:-)

Hi Barb, is that 'Lady Neva' above that coreopsis? Those would look wonderful together!

Leslie197, you can bet if that fence were mine it WOULD be covered with climbers, lol. I have clematis in various places around the yard, and I've also used tall pole beans ('Trionfo Violetto' is gorgeous) as an ornamental. Having that fence bare just BOTHERS me, lol again.

Laurel

You've all given me some great ideas. You have a lovely grouping. I was just remembering I have some coral colored gladiolus that looked good beside Pink Damask daylily that I just moved. Now I need to move the glads too. I have that daylily & coreopsis early sunrise and Mexican hat would look good with it too. I can move those, or scatter some seeds. Got larkspur I need to scatter between them, I think blue larkspur looks so pretty with almost any color. I bought some shastas in that .25 batch of flowers, so they will have a home now. Probably beside some of the screamer daylilies? I need to move some of the yarrows anyway...I can see a lot of work the next few weeks before it gets too close to winter. I like the coneflowers with the zinnias you have Leslie, the fescue & salvias really set them off.

Laurel, that is Bonanza daylily.

ngraham, I hear ya fall and spring always bring's lots of work outside and I love it when the weather cools down or warms up and I can stay outside all day long puttering around.

Going to do just that as soon as I get my cup of coffee :)

Have fun and I think your well on your way to having a beautiful garden.

Hope mines turns out pretty next year.

Barb