Photo of a section of my garden and pond, looking west. The black arrow points to a gap in front of the white rock where I would like a splash of color.
Must be perennial, and match the informal nature of the surroundings.
It gets full sun for several hours.

Any ideas ?
Thanks.

To give you a good answer we need to know your zone and general region

Wow! Beautiful! How about a herbaceous peony? Or a bright red penstemon? Japanese Anenome? Knowing the location of your outstanding garden would help though.

My suggestions are based on your very Aisian (to my eyes) looking garden.

Daisy

Looks like the Pacific Northwest to me (probably way off). My first thought was an anemone too, but a geranium would be nice also. Not a pelargonium, a true geranium like Geranium sanguineum.

something tall and narrow. Maybe a sky pencil holly? I think they do eventually get kind of large, but they grow slow, at least mine does.
you can prune them to what you want also and they are a rich deep dark green which would look nice next to the lighter greens.

Do you want a perennial or a shrub? Flowers or foliage? How about a hosta? There are some fabulous leaf forms. Or a columnar yew. Or a candelabra primula.

Gorgeous.
Sounds like you want flowers. Or would gold or variegated foliage work?

I am thinking something with grasslike foliage would be nice contrast, Siberian Iris? Spring bloom, compact plant that won't need dividing like standard germanica Iris,and grasslike foliage that stays decent looking through summer.
True geraniums are great too. But i'd like to get you something other than another mounded low plant.

I'd go for a water iris. If the pond level ever rises so their feet are wet some plants wouldn't like it, but iris don't mind wet feet. The foliage would be a nice sharp vertical contrast in there. Plus of course the beautiful flowers would be a plus in the spring.

Is there sun on that part of the garden for some of the day?

Thanks to all - I'll check into all these.

Sorry I didn't show location - I had it on a first draft !
I'm in Northern New Jersey - zone 7a

I think tall and narrow would be out of place with the shapes around it - rather a low clump. Preferably flowers, but contrasting foliage would be good too.

How about "Leopard Flower aka "Blackberry Lily", Belamcanda chinensis? It is a perennial and is a summer bloomer. Mine all die down in the fall, after the first frost, and then reappear in the spring. The plants only get about 18-24" tall and the flower stalk a foot taller. They look great growing in clumps and the blooms are really nice, swaying in the breeze. This is actually of the Iris family, not the Lily family.



9 mo. old seedlings

What about a geum? Mrs. Bradshaw has nice bright red flowers.

How about Heuchera, purple foliage to pick up on the purple in the maple- ?-behind? Or any color. The color would last all summer, not a short bloom time of most perennials. Rounded mound, large leaf. Unless too sunny.

Welcome to Garden.org, @stanshap ! Your garden is absolutely beautiful... I think there have been some great suggestions made, and I'm on "team some sort of iris" myself. I hope you will share more photos with us once you decide on what to plant there!

I am with Sally in that you need something with the deeper color to marry it to the burgundy foliage on the other side. I would love to see a hot chartreuse color near the burgundy - would be stunning. But not sure it would look good in that spot because of the other shades of green you have ...but you could start with a spurge that would like that site and have varying levels of the red tones. I got these off the net. Would be in keeping with the shapes you prefer. I have a cushion near our rock pond side and it looks good. We do not have fish. The last two are photos of the cushion sp. at our house ..seen in the foreground. This is about as round as it gets. Will die to ground in winter -- which I like because it makes leaf clean up easy

One year after my appeal for suggestions: I decided on Geranium sanguineum 'Tiny Monster'. The varietal nickname is well deserved: I was expecting something small just to set off the bare rock, but this new player thinks he's the star of the show !

Here's the original again, and the new addition.
As you see, it is glorious !

Thanks for all your ideas.

stanshap said:

Very nice choice. Thanks for the photos.

It's LOVELY!! Great choice