Alex you are right about interplanting with other flowers. The gardens I see here with peonies, lilies, tulips, columbine, etc are just breath taking. I have one round bed almost dead center of the back yard. Used to be a putting green but DH never used it so I had it dug up and made into a flower bed. I put a small round (3x4') rhubarb bed in the middle, three bushes along an edge, a Little Lamb Hydrangea in the middle and edged in some Ajuga Bronze Beauty. The ajuga looks kind of crummy first in spring, then the green purplish leaves start to peak out and shortly they send up about 6" spires of an electric blue like small delphiniums. They last a fairly long time. They will spread but fairly slowly and you can dig clumps to start in other places. From there is goes down hill as to what is there. I did dig out a 2x3' section, dug down 1 foot to get horse tail and such out, then refilled and planted with Tangerine Avens, Lambs ears, mouses ear hosta and a coreopsis Moonbeam in the center. Slow to take off this year. I may move it all to another spot and convert that to a rock garden. lol. Never ends.
