There are a couple of combos that come to mind. First. asters. For the life of me, I can't find the name of the species/variety of aster I adopted when I moved here, it grows by succulent runners underground, and I can get it to spread fairly easily over a 3' span by whacking it back in mid-June. Anywho, I did a large border with a combination of this purple, wild aster and several varieties of redish New England Aster, the round clump kind. Its spectacular for at least 5 weeks.

Another border combo thats somewhat bigger is the red sand cherry in the back, butterfly bush, asters in the front, and pop in some mums at the very base.

Try Russian sage surrounded by bright yellow mums.

I also did a nice patch with a magenta Rose of Sharon and several shades of butterfly bush mixed in.

I have found that concentrating most of the perennial garden on fall flowering stuff is a good foundation. They look pretty good most of the summer, and usually, early Aug until end Sept, they really put on a show. In spring I do lots of poppies, then its roses and carnations, then its on to fall.

Here are some of my favorites:

-Rabbitbrush with native grasses like little bluestem, with penstemons interspersed
-Agastache cana in the back with dwarf forms of New England aster in front, with Liatris spicata interspersed
-Agastache cana in back with Penstemon x 'Margarita BOP' in the foreground
-Rudbeckia hirta (and cultivars) with Gaillardia (all forms) and Liatris (spicata or punctata) and tall native grasses
-Mugho pine with Carl Foster Feather Reed Grass
-Maximillian's sunflower with purple forms of Agastache and New England Aster (tall NE Aster)
-Tall yellow yarrow with NE Aster and russian sage
-Big Sage (Artemisia tridentata) with native grasses, Gaillardia x 'Goblin', and Penstemon pinifolius 'Shades of Mango' or "Mersea Yellow'

I'm learning plant combinations from creating cut flower arrangements from from my flower gardens - I note what flowers look good together in a vase, then strive to re-create the combination outdoors :) I also check out the recommended combinations in the High Country Gardens catalog - I get lots of ideas from reading through that.

Happy ordering!!

Nancy

Perennials: Helen Elizabeth(White Flower Farms) pink oriental poppies with campanula glomerata(dark purple,about 10" tall).

Speedwell/Veronica with Pin cushion flowers/scabiosa(light blue)

Pink climbing roses(eden cl) with Jackmani clematis(dark purple) growing entertwined

Yellow asiatic lilies next to centranthus rubrus

Blue mist spirea next to hysops(red)

Orange turks cap lilies next to queen annes lace(both are very tall)

Forgot all about roses and clemantis, and do go for the Jackmani. I've tried a dozen clemantis, and Jackmani beats them all hands down. There are two varieties, a large bloom and a smaller one, but still the same great flowering.

Oh what a great thread! Love all these ideas.

One thing that accidently looked wonderful for me is bush cherry in back, then Nepeta (Catmint) Walker's Low (which is not low, its about 18" tall and 3' wide), with penstemons in front (Rocky Mountian and Barberi 'elfin pink, they bloom at different times). An ornamental grass with this combo would be grand, I think, I'm adding one this year. (In the fall the elfin pink is still blooming and the leaves on the cherry go scarlet red--so its nice for 3 seasons).

A naturally pleasing combo for difficult hot spots is russian sage with echinachia poking through it. In HCG this spring on the back page, they have in addition to this your basic Autumn Joy Sedum and a plant I don't know (*but must have!*) Oreganum 'Rotkugel'. Also Miscanthus in the back. Its lovely.

Lavender goes will with many penstemons. ITs just a matter of deciding who goes in front. :>

Great thread!

Are there more good ideas out there? I love this and would like it to continue:-)

I have penstemon 'red rocks', blue flax, and coreopsis. I don't know what variety the coriopsis is but it gets about 12 to 18 inches tall. They bloom together almost all summer. More the first half than the second. The three colors together look fantastic.

I like this thread too, since I'm brand new to Colorado! In the house we just moved to, I discovered some good stuff in my front planter. Lavenders, artemesia, lambs ear, hardy geranium, thyme, and some others I don't know what they are yet (they could be weeds for all I know LOL). It's a little too much of the same color for me, so I need to mix some color in there. But very pretty just the same, and does not require very much water.

Also discovered a small planter in the back with a couple of small aspen trees -- gotta figure out what would go good with them!

OH, Aspen trees! Most of these send little trees everywhere. We have dug the runners out, taken a trowel and ground the shoot from the underground runner and mostly we just cut them short with the mower.

What could go great would be hostas and campanula's some lower water use ones are carpatica and "Bavarian", or 'Olympia'. I look for lower water use, because the tree roots take the water (Hostas will take less water once established).

Istanbuljoy

You all have such lovely suggestions!

One of my favorite contrasts is daylily and hardy geranium foliage. If you get bloom colors/times that complement each other, that's an added bonus, but there's just something about the foliage combination that appeals to me.

Another combination I love in the spring is iris pallida variegata surrounded by alyssum montanum.

The most stunning companionship that popped up in my garden happened when a bed of "Mary Todd" daylilies played host to some volunteer campanula glomerata superba seedlings. The purple interspersed with the yellow was really beautiful.

I wish I had the knack of coming up with good combinations on purpose... most of mine are accidental!

I specialize in Hemerocallis and I don't think you can beat daylilies for variety of color,pattern,size, and form. I choose a lot of blues and whites as companion plants because you don't find those colors in daylilies. I must admit that some hybridizers are getting very close to pure white and there are eyezones now that are very close to true blue, but I digress. The companion plants that I like with my daylilies are scabiosa, platycodon, shasta daisies, veronicastrum virginicum,and campanula. I also like echinacea. I'm trying some of the fun, new double ones and orange and yellow ones. I like buddleias of all colors with my daylilies, as background or in the center of my long, rectangular beds. I love crocosmia and have many clumps of it around the garden. I was told many years ago that it was marginal and difficult to grow here, but it has thrived for me. Lucifer is the easiest to grow. I've tried some of the oranges and yellows and had fairly good luck with them. Echinacea and Russian Sage are pretty together.
Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: The Cat Lady's Garden

Great ideas on this thread but just found all your ideas. I like putting broad, large leaved perennials like hostas and bears breech with finely leaved plants like ferns and bleeding hearts. Put color combinations together that are opposite on the color wheel like orange and blue or green and red or silver and pink. I have "Pattie's Plum" poppies with Red Dragon Persicaria combined with Lavatera "Barnsley' and surrounded by large Miscanthus Sinensis. Another favorite combination is Cardoon in the back, combined with burgundy Banana Canna Lily, Russian Sage and Yellow Rudbeckia 'Indian Summer'. Gorgeous combos.

My two favorite drought-tolerant combos are May Night salvia + artemisia (the low, rounded mounding one, name escapes at the moment) + pink twinspur. The soft artemisia with the strong, spiky purple and airy pink is just awesome. I also love Walker's Low catmint with ozark sundrops (oenothera macrocarpa). I will try to post pix!

One of my favorites is white Seafoam shrub roses in front of bright red Linda Campbell roses. Very xeric.

My favorite is to put the huge canna's in back, the peonies and several dianthis in the front. I love the rainbow effect of them all.