Well, the iris bed that I (almost finished) planted out in the Back 40, is largely blue, yellow, and white (and has a lot of rebloomers). That is where the December blooming 'Snow Day' and 'Grand Bargain' were planted.

However, I was afraid of it being too dull/subdued with just those colors (and truthfully, I have a ton of irises here that need to go into the ground), so I put in just a smattering of lavender-ish and purple, and a dash of amber.





(and 10 others in blue, yellow, white, blue-and-white, yellow-and-white).

Before my 2017 orders, I used to plan a bed with a colour scheme and so on _before_ ordering the plants, which would then (mostly) match and (almost) always have a place to live once they arrived.

This year, I did it backwards I ordered a bunch of irises (well, not quite done yet! ) that I simply had to have and then tried to come up with places to put them and colour combinations which would work.
Some will go into existing beds and borders, but many(!) did not really fit in, colour-wise or space-wise...

So, looking at the colours of some of the rest, I came up with a theme, which suited most of the 'leftovers'. The inspiration is colours of the Belle Epoque and the 'mock-up' looks like this (open to see full picture):

Looking great, Marilyn!

I love the way Gilt by Association ties together the yellow from the beards on the last two with the purple of the rest!

Do you plan to use any companion plants or is it an 'irises only' bed?

Lilli, I love the muted colors in the 'mock-up'. That bed is going to look wonderful. Did you place them according to bloom time or just color and size? Most of my good color placement is a happy accident.

Wow, both schemes are lovely. Cool theme, Lilli, love the muted tones. I also think Marilyn's bed will be beautiful. Lavender and purple are very close to blue and I think will look great as part of the mix. A garden designer at Chelsea once said to me that almost always with a colour scheme, the result improves if you deliberately 'break the rules' by adding just a little of something unexpected. I tried that and liked it - I added a couple of spots of red in a blue, yellow and white bed. It grabs the attention and makes you look more closely (and even smile).
One of the best things about gardens is that each one is unique and there is almost always something to please and something to learn. Thanks for sharing!

Bonnie, this was sort of a happy accident too!

I'm not sure exactly what order I am going to place them in yet. The border is long and narrow and 3 small Japanese Flagpole Cherry trees already live there , so it will take some jousting to get things juuust right.
Fortunately, irises don't mind being moved around as much as most other perennials!

Lilli, that iris "bed" is contained within and part of a larger bed. After I planted out the irises, I planted out 3 clumps of tall "Unusual Form" daylilies behind them. (Whether or not they do well is of some concern... like much of this property, that bed gets a fair amount of shade.) At one end of the bed are some fuchsia colored Loropetalums and some Geraniums, at the other end of the bed are some Cuphea, and I tried to plant another shorter daylily. (It died; I will have to decide on a replacement.)

I would put annuals in, but rabbits. I would put Iberis (an all-purpose edger here) in, but it might be too shady. I may put some dwarf cyclamen in, if I ever get to the nursery.

I'll post a picture later this year, after I plant out the last 3 irises and mulch the bed.

What one small part (with 'Snow Day') looked like back in mid-December (the mushy-leaved thing is one of the daylilies); the bed is to the front of the stepping stone path. (The black fencing is to keep the deer from coming up the creek bank.) :

That's an inviting path, Marilyn.

It is. I see space for some dwarf irises.

marilyn, i love the blue, purple, yellow combo, and love the 'orchid dove ' which melds the colors together of the deeper colors and the brighter yellows and orange beards.

i've had my eye on 'od' for a while, but it's a few seasons down the road for me, yet. as i figure out what's planted, what will need to be added, and what will be tossed.

lilli i adore the subtle combinations you've gathered for that iris bed!

they're both winning combos, and will be glorious in the spring!

i like the way several members have put together collages of their irises on one page to see what their potential beds will look like. i think i am going to use that method on the computer from now on........and if you squint at the flowers and colors ( a trick watercolorists use and other artists) it helps one to 'see' the lights, darks, colors, and hues better.

squinting helps me determine whether or not there needs to be more lights, mediums or darks to anchor, add counterpoint, or as mika succinctly put it 'add a foil'.

another trick is to reduce your color collage to greyscale, that helps determine the overall value.

kudos to all, again thank you for sharing.

I'm loving everyone's color mixing, whether it be just irises or companion plants

Here's an interesting peachy pink/blue combo I'm thinking up for some new Mid Late bloomers on order:

Unchained (white and blue with pom pom flounces) http://wiki.irises.org/bin/vie...

Liz, that combo is a heart stopper for me! Gorgeous blooms and colours - and First Prize connects them all together - really clever!

One of the new beds:

Color is important to me, in two ways. I love individuals; but I also love massed color.
Lately, I've been focused on earlies together, mids together, etc So, I consider that, as well as color placement when choosing a spot.
I made the mistake at first of putting blues together for a big blue presence.But now they are all starting to look the same to me - and some have lost their i.d.s !

Rob, you have some amazing colour combinations there! I can't wait to see photos of them in spring.

I agree with Bonnie's 'room for dwarf iris' comment. after all you need color while you are waiting.

I just stocked up on dwarfs and IBs, at BlueJ, Lucy. I didn't have many before. although I did get some beauties from a forum member.

Sorry about your lost IDs, Jan! I've had that same woe with daylilies (which I left soaking in buckets or tubs too long ).

I gave in and slapped together a "collage" (as daphne put it ) of my Back 40 iris bed. Images were shamelessly stolen from the database (2 of them are mine, from December). 'Visiting Royalty', 'Total Recall', and 'That's All Folks' are still to be planted out.

The taller irises are in the back, the shorter in the front. Everything in the front row is a rebloomer; 'Snow Day' (back row) was in bloom for me last month. Ideally some pale pink cyclamen would go in front of the front row, and scattered along the sides, and in back (between the daylilies). The colors look like there is rather too much white in there, but this bed gets a fair amount of shade, so... It's my first attempt at an iris bed; I'm sure that I will decide that I like some things and dislike others, and the bed will morph. (A gardener's work is never done.)

Lucy, the "color".... "while you are waiting".... is what the cyclamens are for. Ideally there would be violas, but.... rabbits. I also have some true geraniums that I can transplant, but the violas and maybe cyclamens would give me color for longer.

Apart from the rebloom, the bloom periods of the various irises are different, so overall while not everything in this (sub-) bed will be in bloom at once, there should be a colorful presence longer. And then when (if) the daylilies bloom, they will take center (well, back of the back row) stage and command attention.