Apart from my
Moon Garden (which among other plants has white irises and near-white daylilies), I don't have the luxury here for themed beds (lots of shade), short of tearing up our sole lawn (which also has a lot of shade).
But if I DID (this is a matter for consideration, as a move to Austin may be somewhere in our future, so I have been thinking about it a fair amount), the additional beds would have both daylilies and irises as well as shrubs and other perennials (I dislike monoculture), and they would have the following themes:
S & SF (the shortened title for "Science Fiction and Fantasy", a science fiction magazine); DH and I are both SF/F fans, so everything in there would relate in some way... and there are a surprising number of plants I currently have that could go into this bed. For starters, the daylily 'Stars My Destination' (named for an Alfred Bester novel that DH loves) and irises 'Katniss' (for 'The Hunger Games'), 'Purple People Eater' (song on the radio when I was a kid), 'Triffid' (for John Wyndham's 'The Day of the Triffids'), 'Total Recall' (we're Arnold fans too, but we both read the Phillip K. Dick story the movie was based on) and 'Alien Mist' (just because), and the
Hosta 'Captain Kirk'. (There are lots more plants that can go in there, including many which I have not yet bought.)
A bed for my
Daughter... would include the surviving (because it is rust resistant) daylily I bought for her as a child, 'Crystalline Pink', other daylilies, irises (including 'Afternoon Delight' which she especially wanted), and hosta bought with her in mind (as a child, or pertaining to her college and/or friends), and some roses (she likes roses a lot more than daylilies or irises
) including 'Lady Emma Hamilton' (which she picked out to plant here).
A
Memories bed (or beds), for people or childhood (related) memories... Potential plants include daylilies 'For Lois' (Lois is my sister, and the plant's tenure would be subject to rust resistance - it's a new plant here), 'April Fools' (someone's birthday), 'Sears Tower', 'December Wedding' and irises 'Lovely Lois' and 'Wedding Kiss'.
A
Faith bed... Potential plants include daffodils 'Faith' and 'Rapture'; I will clearly have to work on the daylilies and irises. (Emmerich plants would seem obvious, but I am not a fan of most purple daylilies, both for the color itself, and also because the purple daylilies melt and slick here. I also like my daylilies taller.)
A bed for the
Dogs (I hope to someday register daylilies or irises for them). Will include the iris 'Pink Puppy'.
A
Polymerous bed
which may include unregistered seedling(s)
Since DH loves the dark purple irises, I seem to be acquiring more than a few. I'm not sure what I would call that bed, but it would be a mix of dark purple irises with one other color, maybe whites (since I have a lot of those), maybe a very few pastels also thrown in. I could also put my very few purple daylilies into there, and maybe some of my lavender ones also.
Clearly some of these beds need both sunny and shady areas, and clearly some of the flower colors won't want to play together nicely.
It would be a challenge to make these beds work, but the result could be very satisfying...
I could go on and on in this vein... doing separate reblooming iris beds, late daylily beds, and (if we do eventually move to Austin) a
California Dreaming bed (because I really don't want to leave here...).
How about some pictures of some of the plants in
your themed beds?
