Great plant combinations are as important to a successful garden, as actors are to great films or TV dramas. Let me explain. This year’s TV sensation has to have been Normal People. It was based on a very successful novel, had a great script and brilliant acting but it was the on-screen connection between the leads, Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, that won audiences over.
When it comes to gardening, like these young actors, some plants just have natural chemistry. The plants look great together, they like the same conditions and bring out the best in each other. They just work. When you get them together in a bed (a flower bed folks!!) there’s magic. However, finding new, great plant combinations can be a hit and miss affair. (I promise I’ll stop using the romantic puns now).
So I thought I’d share a few of the hits I’ve discovered over the years.
Great Plant Combinations for Beds & Borders
Liatris Spicata and Sedum
For a sunny, mixed border there are a number of great plant combinations worth trying but this has to be one of my favourites. Liatris Spicata (pink), with its spears of fluffy flower heads, looks wonderful rising up next to the flatter form of Sedum Hylotelephium Herbstfreude.
The Sedum’s flowers don’t open until early Autumn. As I mentioned in last week’s blog about gardening for bees (which you can read here) this is great news for bees. It means Sedum offers them a lovely source of nectar and pollen late in the season. However Sedum’s late performance can leave a border looking a little green and drab during summer. Happily, the vivid colour of the Liatris sets off the green Sedum heads to perfection from July and through August. As a result the Sedum looks gorgeous well before its flowers arrive.
Sedum and Eryngium Blue Steel
If you have Sedum another plant to try with it is Eryngium. In my bed I have Eryngium Blue Steel. I went for it as it’s slightly smaller and looks almost a metallic blue.
The spikey form and electric blue of the flowerheads from July through to September look fantastic with the Sedum. This is a relatively new combination for me. I wanted to experminent with it before fully committing to the idea. But as you can see in the picture, the plants have passed the audition. They’re a double act that works. So I’m definitely going to plant more Eryngium to really create some ‘wow’ in this bed next year.
Gypsophila and Echinacea
Echinacea Purpurea is a wonderful perennial. Butterflies love it, as do bees. However, the way the daisy-like flowerheads form, in a solitary fashion on long stalks, can leave a bed looking a bit straggly and unsophisticated. However, add in Gypsophila (I have two types Snowflake and Bristol Fairy) and the gaps between the flowerheads are filled by a gorgeous cloud of soft white. The flower bed has a cohesion. In this picture you can also see Lythrum Salicaria Blush – another fantastic ‘leading lady’ for the Gypsophila.
Grasses and Achillea
There’s quite a fashion for prarie planting. It’s not a style that I’m particularly going for in my garden. But in my ‘hot’ corner I’ve some great plant combinations that would work in a prarie scheme. These include Achillea Terracotta, Geum Totally Tangerine and the perennial grass Pennisetum Dark Desire The orange fading to yellow Achillea picks up the yellow hues in any grassses wonderfully. You don’t have to go for Pennisetum. It’s just the one I happened to have. Other grasses would work just as well.
Rose and Astrantia
This next combination I’m particularly proud of as it’s not an obvious one. When selecting the plants for my mixed sunny border I chose four roses, one of which is Jacqueline Du Pre It’s jawdroppingly beautiful. In fact every time I walk past it I am stopped in my tracks. Its blooms have gorgeous, slighly raspberry coloured centres with flecks of gold and blackcurrant. I wanted to complement it with other plants which would highlight this subtle but incredibly attractive aspect of the flower. I spent literally hours scanning pictures, surfing etc. After much deliberation I chose Astrantia Major Rubra. It’s a much stronger coloured plant but it doesn’t upstage the rose. They are both the more beautiful for being side by side in the flowerbed.
Great Plant Combinations for Walls
Ivy & Salvia
In theatrical terms Ivy growing over a fence or wall provides a brilliant backdrop. So you’d think that lots of plants would be perfect partners for it. However, I have concluded that hot-coloured plants work particularly well against Ivy. I particularly like Salvia Royal Bumble. It’s a Salvia that can stand a bit of shade – so if the ivy gets out of control and you forget to cut it back, (as I do all too often!) the Salvia won’t suffer too much.
Furthermore, it’s attractive to bees and other pollinators – as is the ivy. If you let ivy form flowers, it’s not only the perfect pollen source for the solitary Ivy bee but it will provide an important late nectar source for honeybees and for queen bumblebees fattening up for hibernation. So a corner with these two plants together will provide a veritable bee buffet! A great looking plant combination and it’s doing something great!!
Wisteria and Roses
Perhaps the most classic – the Burton and Taylor – of plant combinations for walls is the pairing of Wisteria with roses. On the front of our cottage we have Wisteria and the climbing rose Zephirine Drouhin . The rose is a brilliant repeat flowerer. It’s thornless and smells lovely, growing around 15 ft tall. Like a talented but temperamental actor, it does have a downside; it is very prone to blackspot. But if you can overlook this shortcoming, it makes an ideal partner for the Wisteria. Once the Wisteria has finished doing its thing in May and June, the rose picks up the slack. With plenty of deadheading, it flowers merrily from June through to September. And the rose’s pink is strong enough to ‘zing’ even when surrounded by lovely Wisteria leaves. One doesn’t upstage the other.
Great Plant Combinations – Things to Consider
I certainly don’t have all the answers on this. A bit like the pairing of Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen for Pride and Prejudice (look lovely on paper but zero chemistry) I’ve had my fair share of flops when it comes to floral double-acts. But when gauging whether plants are going to really work together I have found the following checklist helpful.
- Do the flowering seasons or changes in leaf colour complement each other? You probably want them in bloom together if the colours really work together, but it’s always handy if the flowering period is slightly staggered. That way there’s a greater period of interest.
- Think about height – will they work together and from all angles?
- Is one plant very invasive, will it dominate too much?
- The flower/plant shapes need to contrast – spires and clumps look great together. Alot of spires or daisy type heads together can be samey.
- Will they both live happily ever after – ie. do they like the same soil types and conditions?
- Do they compensate for each other’s shortcomings?
- Think about how the plants’ colours change and what are their seed heads like? Sometimes, the seedheads of one plant against the form of the other is where the magic happens.
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