What is your sun/shade situation there? Perhaps hostas might work? This way you'd have interesting foliage all season and not have to rely on just perennial blooms (although you could still add some!). There are many gorgeous hostas. My personal favorites are variegated ones and the giant hostas - real eye-catchers!

:)

Dee

P.S. If it were me and I were adding hostas, I think I would bring the bed out a bit further. Actually, you might want to do that for whatever you plant. Hard to tell from the photos but once those hydrangeas fill in I think you will need more room for the perennials - unless they are temporary till the hydrangeas fill your needs. Edited to say, if the perennials you are planting here will indeed be temporary till the hydrangeas fill in, then perhaps you might want to go with annuals. Longer bloom period and you wouldn't have to worry about moving them once the hydrangeas are mature. :)

My limelights in Zone 6 are also late bloomers- always just about August befire they are in full bloom. At this point, I've got buds but not many actual flower petals.

Perennial Geraniums might be a good choice. There are spring bloomers, summer bloomers and all season for sun shade and inbetween.

Limelight hydrangeas are 6-8’ tall and wide at maturity…and they will really start growing/filling in over the next few years. So you’ll eventually need to double the depth of those beds. In the mean while, if you plant perennials in those beds, know that you will be transplanting them when the hydrangeas outgrow the space. So maybe research perennials that are easy to dig up and transplant well. If you don’t mind yearly $ outlay/planting/clean up, annuals will give you the longest bloom time.

I agree about adding blooming annuals instead of more perennials, or perhaps perennials with colorful leaves like heuchera, or heucherella.

agree completely with susan just above ...

this is how i imagine future growth ..note i got the proper name from the provenwinners website ... scroll down for large individual plants :

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Hydrangea+paniculata+limelight&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

you need a 5 year plan .. those being the years it will take the shrubs to get big ...

what is the use of the lawn.. are you willing to give up another 5 feet or so ... do you want to garden such a space.. though it wont take much under the shrubs as the get large ...

the lawn looks pretty lush as far as available light.. i doubt there is any limitation on light levels ...

but direct sun can be a factor in regards to water availability on the water hog plants ... as compared to hot sun ... e.g. hosta ...

once you can define in words.. what the what you want to accomplish.. beyond just saying you want to shove more stuff in there ... then we can help you choose plants ...

zone is simply estimated coldest day of winter ... we will need big city name.... as z6 is very divergent and about half the US ...

the patio looks cozy.. you must not be in mosquito territory ...

ken

ps: do i recall a prior post about your white garden dreams ... wonder what we said there ...

Thank you all. My goal is to have a lush view when on the patio or looking out the window of the house. Happy to have the greenery but want some other colors and texture too, especially in the Spring/ early Summer months. I am not necessarily willing to give up 5+ feet of lawn but understand I may have toon the long run and like the idea of a 5 year plan. I’m in the suburbs of Boston, about 10 miles west. I may plant some allium bulbs this fall to have pops of color is late spring. Any additional thoughts are very welcome!