Plants that play well tpgether!

 

If I could only have one flower bed, this would be it.  As a person with impaired vision , making the right  plant choices  can save me a lot of headaches down the road. This very small bed is only about 6 feet  square.  What makes it dramatic is the obelisk in the center. 

The important thing is that the plants play well together.  There are no bullies that want to take over and crowd other plants out.   And also there are no wimpy plants that can't hold their own.  All the plants in this bed are robust but well mannered  and coexist very nicely.

This was the first bed I planted after we moved here. It started out as a circle but now it's a square . I have  removed all the grass and put pavers around it. 

I planted a small clematis in the center knowing it would take a couple years for it to take hold.   So I planted perennial sweet peas to fill the obelisk in the beginning . 

Right now the sweet peas and the clematis are neck and neck.  It will be interesting to see which dominates next year. I let the sweet peas go crazy until the1st of August and then I cut them back.  They started reblooming in a couple of weeks and will bloom through September. 

The bed is planted so densly that it overwhelms any weeds trying to germinate. That makes it very easy to care for.  There's a lot of daffodils in there that bloom in the spring and a few alliums. 

My primary concern when planning this bed was that all the plants were robust perennials between18 and 24 inches tall.  Plants include Veronica (Six Hills Giant ), lavender. salvia, iris, shasta daisies, perennial geraniums, yarrow, doronicum, clematis, and perennial sweet peas. As a bonus these perennials also attract bees and hummers.