A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Please Help with Perennials!

I need a little help figuring out which perennials would look good together and in what arrangement/configuration. I have a section of soil on the side of my house (it is the south side that gets a lot of sun) that is about 3 feet deep and about 10-15 feet long. I was thinking of alternating day lillies (the short variety--12 inches high-- that bloom all summer) and hostas, but I am not sure if they would look okay together or not. If so, do I plant them in a row, first a daylily, then a hosta, and so forth in a straight line, or do I plant one forward and one back, or...? I do not have any idea what would look good. I would just wing it, but with perennials there is a bigger investment, and I cannot just rip them out at the end of the summer and start over. Any help with this would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you!

Hi and Welcome to the Garden Helper
You mentioned this area is on the south side that gets full sun. Hosta's are a shade loving plant,, so Not a good idea to plant them there,, Hosta's do well under full trees,, or under awnings, where ever there is plenty of shade,
lily's will do well in full sun,, You also need to know lily's will spread over time IN a few years that area will be full,( depending how many you plant now, Since they are the taller plant they would be better placed in the back row,
What would be nice planted in front of them are flowers that have a long blooming period so when the lily's bloom's are gone you'll still have something blooming or at least something with very nice foliage ,
Vinca's , cone flowers, Campanulaceae (The Bellflower Family) asters, blanket flowers, are long bloomers,, There are many members here that are in your same planting zone, that would have a better answer as to what to plant in full sun that would come back every year. I just wanted to make you aware that Hosta's are for shade.
You could also Look up native plants for your area,, so you could have a better idea which ones loves full sun,, blooming periods,, Height,, etc,

Thank you so much! I will definitely NOT be planting hostas in that spot, given your helpful advice. Now I just need to figure out what will work with the lillies. The ones I looked at, though, were shorter (projected total height of only 12-18 inches) and the card said they bloomed all summer. I think these are a different variety than the typical Day lillies (?). They had long, slender, spikey dark green leaves--different from other day lillies I have seen. Thanks again for your help!

There are over 200 varieties of hosta. Some are good in full sun. So there shouldn't be knocked out completely from consideration.

I'm not aware of a day lily that blooms all season long. That sounds cool. Mine bloom for about a month all together and then they are done.

I like to have blooms from spring to fall so I would suggest starting in front with some early spring bulbs: Snowdrops, Daffodils, Hycinthia, Tulips, short irises and the miniature gladiolus that will take you up to the time your day lilies bloom. Then have mums to bloom over the fall months. And of course you can fit is some full sun hostas if their are any that you like. They only bloom for a short time in summer but the leaves are interesting from spring through the fall.

Also I would suggest that you know depend on the cards that come with the plants. The information on them is often wrong or misleading. Get the scientific name of the plant and check it out on a reputable sight. Like this one. Bill knows everything.

Enjoy your garden.

Welcome!!

Just a quick thought that might help you visualize your bed. First, go out there and really measure it. Then take a photo(s) of what it looks like now (you'll be glad you did). Then come inside & draw out the rectangular bed, preferably to scale on graph paper. Keep the photo in front of you for reference.

Then gather the information you have about the individual plants. And everyone is right-- use that info as a *guide* only along with everything else you can find out about how fast or slow things grow, what spacing to plant & so on. Then start drawing in these elements on you plan. A hosta, for example, with a 1' diameter would be 3' across in 3-4 years, so draw a little green circle about 2-3' (to scale) on you plan. And so on. Remember height. And when you think you are done, look at you plan in terms of blooming time.

I find this helps me "arrange" a new flower bed-- just like arranging furniture but without the work of moving stuff half a dozen times before I get it right.

Also consider that you can shift the "focus" from season to season. If part of the garden is closer to the front of the house, you may want to plant a lot of spring bulbs in that part, and later blooming stuff in clumps further to the back. (In other words, don't be afraid to look at the bed from all angles.)