I love to pair my daylilies with other plants in the background to offset them. Here are a couple:


Going Bananas with Barberry and Dense Yew behind


Free Spirit and NOID red and pink in front of Summer Wine Ninebark and Dart's Gold Ninebark


My Oranges and Yellows (miscellaneous) in front of Little Miss Kim Lilac and Combination of Miscanthus Grasses (Graziella, Gracillimus & Morning Light)


Autumn Red in front of Miscanthus


Knock Out Shrub Rose in front of several daylilies with a purple iris that bloomed earlier





Various daylilies in front of the Annabelle Hydrangea, Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass, and the timber of course!


The new bed will have Russian Sage and Coneflowers, etc. as a backdrop for daylilies


Annabelle Hydrangea sets off Double Daffy and a NOID red


One of my favorites is the Rock Lobster in front of the Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea



Amongst the daylilies there are Annabelle Hydrangea, Miscanthus Grass, White Pow Wow Coneflower, Walker's Low Catmint, etc. etc.

The next area isn't filled in yet, but sure working on it!





Faberge Easter, Count Your Assets, Dragonfly Dawn, and Limonero Squeeze in front of the Summer Wine Ninebark and behind the Green Jewel Coneflower and the Snowcap Daisies



Blueberry Dream and Bella Note will bloom in front of the Limelight Hydrangea



And when all is said and done, the Summer Wine Ninebark and Limelight Hydrangea in back, bubbling rock in front and various daylilies (you can see the stems right now! ) and salvia, daisies and coneflowers will all blend together along with a red shrub rose!

Now I would love to see pictures of your daylily combinations!!!

Just beautiful combos, Ginny! Love your grandkids' enthusiasm for gardening! You have a very lovely garden and it is going to be so gorgeous when the daylilies start to fill up.

Posted earlier but these two bear repeating

Blue dianthus with any red or near red, in this case CIMMARON ROSE


Cosmos with BLUE BALLOON


Charley

Charlemagne said:Posted earlier but these two bear repeating

Blue dianthus with any red or near red, in this case CIMMARON ROSE


Cosmos with BLUE BALLOON


Charley

Charley - for sharing! I can see already I am going to LOVE this thread - your combos are stunning . I can see already I am going to get a lot of ideas I can use for my own garden and then put them into practice with more plants

Here is a winner!

"This wonderful plant loves poor, alkaline soil… the stonier , the better. It is drought resistant, very hardy, self-seeds but isn’t invasive, loves full sun and the summer heat, and flowers from the end of May until the first frosts!" From Words and Herbs.

Some call it "Centranthus ruber," some "Jupiter's Beard," I call it Red Valerian. Here it is in my garden this morning behind SUNNY INTERVALS;



...and here it is by itself;



The blue grey foliage and the tiny pink/red flowers go with anything. The flowers attract hummingbird moths and have no scent. Mine is about 30" across and tall and has been blooming since before daylily season. It does self seed but is not invasive as far as I can tell. Hardy zones 4 - 9.

Finally, here is a close-up of its bloom borrowed from the web;

Charley it's gorgeous! Great combination! The color and texture would fit perfectly in my garden - I'll check it out! Lovely!

beautiful combination!!!

Total cheat here but we always plant 'rudbeckia hirta Indian Summer' in our daylily beds because just as the bloom season dwindles we get this;



About the same size and shape as a well grown clump of daylilies. It's recommend zonal range is 3 to 7. It self seeds but not reliably. It makes a great autumn statement.

Charley

This one was quite by accident. The False Indigo bush grew into this daylily (Georgette Belden). Not a color difference but I like the texture difference.


Here is another. Again not a great color contrast. Curly Pink Ribbons against Nora Leigh Phlox.


You can rely on garden art also to set off DL colors. (Blazing Lamp Sticks)


Irish Envy with Ladies Mantle:

Charlemagne said:Here is a winner!

"This wonderful plant loves poor, alkaline soil… the stonier , the better. It is drought resistant, very hardy, self-seeds but isn’t invasive, loves full sun and the summer heat, and flowers from the end of May until the first frosts!" From Words and Herbs.

Some call it "Centranthus ruber," some "Jupiter's Beard," I call it Red Valerian. Here it is in my garden this morning behind SUNNY INTERVALS;



...and here it is by itself;



The blue grey foliage and the tiny pink/red flowers go with anything. The flowers attract hummingbird moths and have no scent. Mine is about 30" across and tall and has been blooming since before daylily season. It does self seed but is not invasive as far as I can tell. Hardy zones 4 - 9.

Finally, here is a close-up of its bloom borrowed from the web;

Charley,
I'm always on the lookout for drought-resistant plants for my windy hilltop zone 6b gardens, so I was thrilled to read your posting about Centranthus ruber (red valerian) and would love to plant it. However, I am puzzled about the zone restriction (8b) listed for it in the Plant Database in light of the zone listed for you (4b). Also, the soil here is acidic and you mention that it grows well in your alkaline soil. How fussy is it about soil pH?

Awesome combinations!!! Getting great ideas

I hope you guys will keep up with this thread. All I have are daylilies and irises plus a shasta daisy. I put in some annuals to fill the beds this year (I prefer very full beds), and I'm planning to move them around next year when I see blooms, but I don't know what else to do at this point. You're giving me ideas!

For annuals, I like gomphrena, vinca (catharanthus) and white sweet alyssum (I just let it self-sow every year) around my daylilies. They all seem to handle my dry soil well and stay fresh looking past the daylily season. It's just a matter of finding colour combinations that don't clash. I've found them all to be very easy to start from seed as well.

Here is 'Arnold Raeker' surrounded with Gomphrena 'Audray Bicolor Rose' and a couple additional pictures showing how lovely this annual is. It grows easily from seed for me and handles my dry, somewhat sandy soil well. This particular cultivar was not very tall, but still best beside or behind my daylilies. It would certainly complement other daylilies better than Arnold Raeker, but even still I liked this combo.



I love 'Peggy Jeffcoat' with Achillea 'The Pearl Superior', though the latter flops for me as a mature plant as seen in the 2nd photo. If only it had stronger stems! For now, I've kept them together. The achillea blooms do turn brown as they age, but then I just shear the top half of the plant off. I love white, frothy sprays of blooms with most daylilies.



My garden is typically pretty packed, but I'm always adding things anyway. I tucked a few bulbs of Allium 'Fireworks Mix' in near 'Orchid Elegance' and got lucky as they seem to bloom at the same time and to my eye, they look quite lovely next to each other. I just need to get the lavender ones to multiply and move the yellow ones out of there. (I didn't get any of the white ones in my mix. ) Also blooming nearby at the same time and complementary (to me) is this Veronica 'Purpleicious' (terrible pic, but from the same day/lighting) and Goniolimon tataricum. I think all 3 would have potential with any daylilies in the pink, lavender, white range. The Goniolimon was grown from seed.


I'll have to see if I can come up with any other combinations I've enjoyed in my garden.

petruske said:This one was quite by accident. The False Indigo bush grew into this daylily (Georgette Belden). Not a color difference but I like the texture difference.


Here is another. Again not a great color contrast. Curly Pink Ribbons against Nora Leigh Phlox.

• Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Curly Pink Ribbons')
• Uploaded by petruske

You can rely on garden art also to set off DL colors. (Blazing Lamp Sticks)


Irish Envy with Ladies Mantle:

Love the combos but really like the Lady's Mantle combo I'm already thinking of moving mine to a friendlier location I had Baptisia and daylilies and coneflowers together in my previous garden and thinking I might try that again as well

I like monarda (bee balm) with daylilies, especially the purple or deep pink cultivars. I also like echinacea and lady's mantle, as well as some of the astilbes, especially the Vision series. This year I tried rudbeckia hirta along with El Bandito and there was some overlap, although the rudbeckia is still blooming and the daylily is finished.

Anne I love your combos would the yellow allium pull out the yellow throats of the daylily?
Globemaster and yellow iris is one of my favorites even though not a daylily

I also like daylilies peeking up through Russian Sage- just starting this one but next year should be better.

Going Bananas in front of Purple Emperor Sedum is a good contrast. First yr on both

csandt said:

Charley,
I'm always on the lookout for drought-resistant plants for my windy hilltop zone 6b gardens, so I was thrilled to read your posting about Centranthus ruber (red valerian) and would love to plant it. However, I am puzzled about the zone restriction (8b) listed for it in the Plant Database in light of the zone listed for you (4b). Also, the soil here is acidic and you mention that it grows well in your alkaline soil. How fussy is it about soil pH?

Carol
The zonal range I gave was from cold to warm, 4 - 9. I think the zone 8b zone restriction is its warmest zone. I think your zone 6b would be perfect for it. The guides do say slightly alkaline but I quote from "The Garden Helper;"

"Generally speaking, it is easier to make soils more alkaline than it is to make them more acid. Because different soil types react in different ways to the application of lime you will have to add more lime to clay soils and peaty soils than you will in sandy soils to achieve the same result.
To increase your pH by 1.0 point and make your soil more alkaline:
Add 4 ounces of hydrated lime per square yard in sandy soils
Add 8 ounces of hydrated lime per square yard in loamy soils
Add 12 ounces of hydrated lime per square yard in clay soils
Add 25 ounces of hydrated lime per square yard in peaty soils"

I would try treating the spot where you plan to plant it with a little lime and see how it goes.

Jupiter's Beard is rated as one of the longest blooming perennials. Centranthus ruber, also called red valerian, spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox's brush, Devil's Beard and Jupiter's beard, is a popular garden plant grown for its ornamental flowers.
IT IS LISTED AS INVASIVE ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COASTS.

Red Valerian also attracts butterflies.

And that is more than I know!

Charley

These are all combinations from the garden I left behind when we moved . Annabelle Hydrangea, Daisies, Coneflower and ornamental grasses were some of my favorite pairings, along with backdrops of bushes and shrubs. I added the daylilies after everything else was there and tried to make the colors pop in front of white backgrounds when possible. I also had Baptisia, Allium, Russian Sage, Spiderwort and in one a Porcelain Vine and Annabelle in the mix. Since I didn't find out about the wonderful colors or daylilies until after I had the backdrop, I tried to pop them in not only where I had room, but where I would really notice them:

Legalily said:Anne I love your combos would the yellow allium pull out the yellow throats of the daylily?
Globemaster and yellow iris is one of my favorites even though not a daylily :hearts:

Thanks Ginny! There is just something about the yellow allium in that mix that feels out of place with Orchid Elegance many (or most) days to me. Maybe it's just too much going on for my mind to feel calm looking at the grouping or maybe it's because the pink self of Orchid Elegance can be a bit fleshy or muddy pink some days?

I do love purple and yellow together in the garden though. I love your alliums and iris there! Beautiful!

I have been looking through my photos and here is a photo with Tennyson blooming alongside Astilbe chinensis 'Visions'.