flower beds

[blue skys]

Hi everyone! I have an "L" shaped flower bed at the front of my house that I want to do something with. I am in zone 8. Is it too late to plant perinnials now or should I wait until fall or does it depend on the plant? I'm not even sure what I want, but hubby wants something tall next to the house and then a cascade of color from there. I'm not sure if I give the right picture but if you are looking at a cross section he wants it to start out tall and get shorter and shorter and shorter. One side (west facing) gets quite a bit of sun the other side (north facing) gets afternoon sun. Any suggestions? Does someone want to just do it for me? (hahaha)

I'm not good at these things, remembering what does good where or the names of plants... I need help!

 

[vfem]

I plant perrenials anytime... I got a ton onsale late summer and early fall last year and filled my beds with as much as I could get for less then $20. I knew I wouldn't be able to truely enjoy the color show from them until this year... but I got some blooms last year and worth the price.

I think now its late spring, go ahead and plant and you'll probably get a better show then I did planting late summer.

I bet you could get some annuals to fill in between those perennials until they fill in next year.... a nice little amount of filler can't hurt. I did it in my back garden until the perennials fill in for them in 2010.

Good luck!

 

[GrowinVeggiesInSC]

I'm in zone 8. I have lantana in my front bed. This is its third year and it just keeps getting bigger. It dies back in the winter and then comes back full force. This picture was taken a month or so ago - it's even bigger now!

My bed gets full sun, but I've had lantanas in shadier areas and the only difference I've noticed is that it blooms a little less. Once this was established, I didn't have to do anything for upkeep. I never water it, ever.

Lantanas come in so many different colors, so you can really make it colorful if you want. You could try something taller in the back - I have salvia growing behind the lantana - I wish I had planted more - you can't even see it in the first picture. My friend down the street has daylillies in the back of her bed. They are tall and striking.

If I were to go with the staggered effect, I'd get some kind of pretty creeper for the front. I have some creeping phlox that I really like.

Here's my front bed, everything is bigger and taller now:

 

[blue skys]

Those Lantanas are beautiful! I will be getting some of those, and maybe some of the crreping phlox too. Thanks for the suggestions!

Thanks vfem, I will probably plant some things this weekend, and hope that they do well!!

 

[vfem]

Here's my piddly front walk last year where I was trying to fill with late Hygrengaes, creeping Jenny (which is not in bloom this year) some cone flower you can't see, tickseed...ect.

The cosmos are annuals I used as a filler along with some foxglove you can't see either that did not weather good at all and died this past winter.

Here's the walk this spring with super grown coneflower, lots of tickseed in bloom, added new coneflower and foxglove and my Hygrengeas are coming back like crazy. Even my creeping jenny is coving 3x as much area. 1 year makes a HUGE difference. But I planted all this LATE last year. August or September actually.

 

[blue skys]

I love the pictures. Thanks y'all!

 

[blue skys]

So I took the plunge!!

I went today to get plants for the flower bed!

I got lots of different things, I like a lot of variety and different textures and hubby likes lots of color. I got a gardenia for by the front door and then an indian hawthorne for the other corner, with a black eyed susan bush and another yellow plant to go in there - I will be putting lantana as filler (also had a couple things in there already - mexican petunia, and some other grassy thingys that I don't know the name of)

and then for the other side of the L I got some day lilies, and hibiscus and an azalea and a pretty bush with red flowers and a star jasmine for by the gate. There are also some Zinnias that came up so I'm keeping them in there for some excitment!! and then I'll put some more lanata there too.

I have not put them in the ground yet, I'm still kinda playing with them to see what looks best.

I will post pictures soon! Hopefully tomorrow!

 

[GrowinVeggiesInSC]

Hurray! Can't wait to see the pics.