I agree. Roses are my favorite companion but your narrow bed wouldn't accomodate them. Do you have room between clumps? Or can you arrange room? Shasta daisies, rudbeckia, salvia, yarrow ~~~ any plant that accepts full sun and doesn't require moist soil and won't crawl over the rhizomes overnight :-)

i have ordered (to be shipped, early october) ornamental onions (alliums) to plant in my long narrow bed

mr toad

All those suggestions sound good! I love the new Echinacea that is mostly lime green petals with a little pink toward the center and they're in pots awaiting planting...maybe they could go there? I don't think they would 'crawl'...but I've never grown it before so I'm not familiar with it. The allium sounds good as well as the salvia...I assume you're referring to the perennial salvia? I love blue and I think that one is blue.

Thanks for the ideas and any further suggestions!

Westy

I put pony packs of low growing anuals that bloom all season in front of mine. We usually have wet mild summers so my iris need all the air flow they can get to stay drie. Plus I really enjoy the 5 plus months of color the annuals provide.

I was just thinking of this question as well. I just dug up and cleaned up my Iris and I have them drying in the shade right now. I am planning on planting them later today. I am thinking of planting aquilegia and verbascum with mine. Just around the area that has the Iris in it. I also want to give mine as much room and air as possible. We had a lot of rain this year, way more than usual in May and June and they did not fair well at all. I am putting them in a raised bed which helps with the drainage. I know Verbascum also likes it on the dry side and aquilegia seems to tolerate it pretty well. The other good thing about the two of them, is that the aquilegia gets cut back to basal growth after bloom and doesn't creep. The verbascum also gets pruned bk to basal growth after flowering. So they don't restrict the air flow and neither of them spread much. Reseed yes.

I have a short rock edging along the front of where I am planting them and want to add something in front of the Iris. I was thinking of edging with Golden Thyme, which also seems to need good drainage and doesn't mind it a little dry. The particular variety I have grows about 6-8" high. I feel optimistic about the combination, but it doesn't really offer a very long bloom season at all in that area. I am thinking maybe adding annuals might be just what I need. Madeyna, which annuals do you feel have worked best for you?

This is a great thread. I always want something thirsty that creeps next to my irises!

Verbascum is a brilliant suggestion. i'm going to order seeds today for fall starts.

I use Lime Thyme, and it is very pretty- a bright green. I also use lamb's ears. In my climate, it does not grow very fast, and it does well without much water. I also love golden sage, aquilegia, foxglove, feverfew, dianthus, and acorus with irises.

Renee

Wow - thanks to everyone! Every one of these is great and really opened my eyes to how pretty it can be!!! I've never seen 'Lime Thyme' but have others types - I'll be looking for that. And Lambs Ears...I ripped them out of another spot a few years ago....how dumb was that to not move it to the Iris bed! And annuals! HELLO?

Thank you all,
Westy

Crocosmia, liatris, true lilies, sedum, monarda, dianthus, mallope, oenothera... Johnny Jump-ups (Viola tricolor) are fun to let do their thing amongst the irises. Verbena bonariensis is another non-perennial self-sower that should play well with irises.

Now, having listed some non-iris ideas, I've gotta revert to true iris freak and say, "...only a few weeks?!?!" No, no! Get some reticulatas, MDBs, SDBs, IBs, Siberians, Louisiana, Japanese, species and spec-X, spurias and REBLOOMERS! ('Zurich' is sending up stalks in my garden now...) ;-)

I,,m tired and cann,t remember any names right now but I use plants that bloom all season and only get about 4 inchs high. I put them in front of the iris clumbs. So the green sward like iris foliage lends a nice stucture to the low growing flowering annuals. I,ll dig around and see if I can find a picture. I just pulled a bunch of them up today even though they are still flowering and gave the space to iris that were crowding them selves out in their clumps. I just ran out of room to put iris in a pinch and could bring myself to throw anyaway. I,ve really got to get on it and get the new beds tilled.

Some of the annual flowers I use are alyssum , short snapdragons and one I just cann,t seem to remember the name of. I use the type of snap dragons that only get 6 inchs high and they have been in full bloom since may and are still going strong. I don,t expect them to slow down until we have a really hard frost. I put each pony pack in a circle with one plant in the center so I get a fast mound. I also use a carnation that has silver leaves that mounds and stays under 6 inchs high. The plants is taller for the month it has flowers but I really grow it for the silver leaf color as well as the flower.

I use larkspur in the iris beds in the spring (and let it reseed)and portulaca moss rose around the base for the summer