The colours look lovely, Liz, Rob and Marilyn!! This is a great thread!

Daphne, for the tips on looking at colour combinations - I do the 'squint' thing, but never tried the gray scale trick - I'll be sure to do that now!

Ok... how are you all making the collages? They look beautiful... I've printed out pictures and am currently shuffling them around... but the color is better on the computer, than what I'm printing out...

Marilyn, Iberis can take some shade.. It may need to be cut harder every year to stay bushy. I'm annoyed that I can't find the good old species Iberis sempervirens anymore. I found it to be less leggy than the one currently available locally (Alexander's White?).

IrisLilli said: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):

Love your color mix but would put the shorter BB Dragon Kiss in front of Dragon Dance. DD is quite tall by the way. It looks great next to it, but may get lost behind the one you have in front of it. Dramatico doesn't have the same problem since a shorter plant is in front of it. Not sure what iris is directly in front of DD but it looks to be a tall and colorwise could easily be swapped with DK. My opinion only though!

Sherry, I might try a small 4" Iberis there, then. Thanks for the tip. Right now, the ones currently in the garden are a mix of cheapie nameless ones (originally in 4" pots), 'Alexander's White', and last fall I added 3 of 'Autumn Beauty', which is supposed to rebloom in the fall.

(Hmm... maybe I should finally learn how to propagate Iberis? Right now I have three clumps in full bloom, and a few scattered others in bloom. I don't know which these they are... originally nameless cheapie clones, or 'Alexander's White' that didn't get labeled. For certain I would only want to propagate ones with a long bloom season, or that rebloom.)

As to how to make the collage, Photoshop is your friend (if you have it). Open up a new file, then serially copy images from the database here, and then paste them into the new file (when the pasted image first appears, you can move it precisely where you want it in your file). When done, crop the whole thing to the size that you want. (You may also be able to do this in Paintshop, if you have it. It's been some years since I have used Paintshop, but I vaguely recall being able to do something similar, just with different commands.)

I have Photoshop on my desktop computer and I have used other software in the past. On my laptop, I used GIMP, which is free, to create my collages. On how to create it, I did as Poly did.

Yep.. don't have photoshop..

Iberis propagate very easily.. I have a bunch that I cut back last winter.. some pieces fell between rocks in the wall that I didn't get to, and are now rooted... cut some pieces off now and stick 'em where you want 'em... I do this with Heuchera this time of year too.. which may also be a thought for your shady area.. I like Heuchera maxima for part shade..

Try using GIMP Sherry, it's free.

I do like free, Rob....
I was messing around with Picasa the past few hours, and I'm either really stupid, or it's really annoying..

I vote for the second, Sherry. LOL

I don't put my computer in danger from my frustration by attempting to make a collage. I just keep saying 'well, I could do that if I put my mind to it' and just keep not putting my mind to it. I expect to see a wonderful collage soon that you have created. I have enjoyed the groupings you make by shuffling your photos around.

I use Open Office Impress - also free and easy to use.

Lestv said:

Love your color mix but would put the shorter BB Dragon Kiss in front of Dragon Dance. DD is quite tall by the way. It looks great next to it, but may get lost behind the one you have in front of it. Dramatico doesn't have the same problem since a shorter plant is in front of it. Not sure what iris is directly in front of DD but it looks to be a tall and colorwise could easily be swapped with DK. My opinion only though!

Leslie! I agree that Dragon Kiss and Dragon Dance go well together - and the plan is definitely to put the shorter ones in front!! I also have a few SDB lined up for that bed and they will get the very front row of course. I am still adding and subtracting TBs too, so the end result could be quite different from the mock-up and all suggestions are most welcome! :

Still pondering my choice of companion plants too... not that there will be a lot of room for them...

Thanks for the rooting tips, Sherry!

I have some Heuchera scattered around, but the rabbits do for most of them. They don't seem to like the chartreuse colored varieties, though. (At least, not thus far; I admit that I haven't been on a garden walkabout lately - they may have changed their minds.) There may (or may not) be room to shoehorn in one or a few of those in there. (I still want some of the small pink cyclamen in there, though!)

Marilyn, that is a great looking combo and I like the idea of adding deeper amber and some violets. Most blues have a degree of violet that seems to make them blend with each other nicely. I agree with Sherry and also have found Iberis easy to propagate with cuttings.

Sherry, I've started the species Iberis from seed easily; I believe seeds are readily available from lots of sources.

Lilli, I love your combo of muted colors! Very similar to the new area I'm working on. I find foliage plants with bronze and amber tones are very striking with muted iris colors. Bronze foliage looks amazing with dark beards!

Neal! Taking notes here!

thx. neal, i starred your tip for bronze and amber foliage.

Liz, I forgot to mention earlier how much I like your blue and peachy colors combo! I think its a particularly successful combo because peach is a tint or softer shade of orange, which is opposite blue on the color wheel. That subtle use of complimentary colors will draw the eye across the garden!

It is a great and very vibrant combo!

I have these in pots that will likely go to the new space left from removing a dying spruce tree. Not sure they will all stay there, but by pure luck they look pretty good together.

These potted rhizomes will go to the new bed I'm working on.



..hmmmm....wondering if Mandarin Morning would be better with the previous combo? Some of Blyth's unique colors are difficult for me.