Legalily said:William WOW WOW and in case I missed it WOW. I imagine in person it's a spectacular view I think with the Frits next to the white tulips it depends on what angle you're viewing from and with so many colors the orange frit and pink tulips are good together.

Out of curiosity I googled about orange and pink combos and found this which basically is exactly what you said, Ginny:

"Mingle orange flowers with pink and you end up with a plant painting that's slightly dissonant but delicious. Add white or pale yellow to knit the two other colors together."
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/d...

So what you're saying William is we have good taste

Man you guys are going to make me raerrange my whole lily beds. Lol just kidding

Ginny, hopefully we do have good taste! I found an internet page that says it so it must be true!

Honestly don't know what good taste is when it comes to colors. What I do know is that we all love different plants and colors and somehow it has to be okay. It does seem to me that the fewer we have of one plant, the more important it may be to have something to match it. Mass plantings and color repetition never seems to go wrong in my eyes. Perhaps because this mimics nature and I'm more in favor of natural looking gardens. Others wants more structure and that is okay too.

I love the natural look that you've created, William. and with the Wow! factor. Now I'm going to have to look for some frits to order, especially the crown imperials. Moisture should not be a problem, as I live in a fairly high rainfall area. We only need to irrigate during the height of summer, when rain is lacking.

I am partial to naturla and cottage looking gardens. I do not have enough discipline to have a more formal appearing garden. In truth I am probably more of a "collector" I do admire gardens of all sorts and it is great to have so many options in our gardening styles.

Beautiful, William. I agree that it's wonderful to be able to see so many different gardening styles. And I too will be buying more frits (also more tulips from Nijssen - the Yellow Perfection have an additional plus, which is a lovely, slightly citrus perfume).
Congrats on your lovely gardens!

I'm with Gary!

While I also prefer the combo with the hellebore (the contrast of forms really speaks to me ), I do enjoy combining bold colors that can seem clashy.

Being that I'm a floral designer and am somewhat OCD about color harmony, most of my beds have a specific color palette. Hovever I'm working on a bed where I want something polychromatic with a bright assortment of chaotic color. It's a place I want to place hot pink next to orange and use bright yellows and saturated purples! It has been a fun project, and I'm finding that anything that isn't richly colored seems to get lost visually. I have some daylilies that I thought of as orange or coral that look too pastel among the brighter colors- those will be moved soon. I'd love to see some crown imperials in this bed! There are several varieties of yellow/orange daffodils in there already, which would look great with them.

Thank you, Neal. You do a really terrific job combining your beds - they are always a pleasure to view. I believe 'Maxima Lutea' and 'Orange Beauty' had the most intense colors in my garden so that might be something for your brightly colored bed? I'm sure there are other choices as well, but I have noticed that most Crown Imperials are slightly subdued in their colors.

Speaking of which, if the 'Rubra' (which of I had extra bulbs ) does well in this bed I might choose to replace them with one or two of the earlier blooming cultivars with softer colors for next year. They probably wont bloom with the tulips, but they might be better partners for the hellebores.

I pulled this thread out of the dead. There is no point in creating a new thread when this one exists. Fritillarias are probably my favorite flower after lilies and this year I bought my first (F. imperialis) and I am showing more and more interest in them, although unfortunately I have no place in the garden (because lilies have filled everything ). Currently blooming:

F. messanensis subsp. neglecta in nature:

Cool! We, obviously, don't have those here

Oregon and California have some of the best looking Fritillarias.

my new Frit
not in the wild

That one is beautiful!