Mondarda and snapdragons, astible ..oh, and IRISES!!!!

Adorable!
They use a lot of impatiens. It also looks like they use just a few kinds and colors of flowers in three or four levels- alyssum, impatiens, then snapdragons, for instance. That's a lot of annuals to plant every year.

I would choose two tall perennials to start with, then switch out the small bedding flowers in front each year.
If you want the same effect, go with pinks, blues, and lavendars. You can also go with pinks, whites, and reds to get that look.

The number of plants will depend on which you choose, and which will come back for you each year. The Metivier beds look very narrow in front of the fence to me- perhaps two feet. Three feet should be plenty. It strikes me that in about 30 feet of fenceline they have about 26 snapdragons, perhaps the same number of whatever the blue flower is, and a few flats of impatiens in the front.

Thankyou for sharing the pictures- they are beautiful.
Renee

Here are at least two of the pictures from your links (the third kept saving as a blank white sheet for some unknown reason, sorry):

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As a fellow "Michigander", I too admire the romantic, cottage-style gardens on Mackinac Island. The gardens in your photos have such great visual impact because of their limited color palettes and also because of their limited plant choices. Any of the plants in your list would work well in a cottage-style garden. Hosenemesis gave you some really good advice about choosing just two or three perennials and colors with which to begin.

Your red geraniums are indeed the essence of Mackinac Island--you could create something lovely with the red geraniums, coneflowers, either red or pale pink astilbe, and red or pale-pink bee balm. If you wanted to go in a different color direction than pink, you could create a wonderful warm-colors garden using the red geraniums, daises, and rudbeckia. You might tuck in some sedum "Autumn Joy" and asters to extend the bloom season into late summer.

This will be a fun garden to design--let us see how it progresses!

So today I purchased two cartfuls of goodies for the garden. I have a variety of pink and purple astilbe (REALLY hoping they get tall enough). The kinds I bought didn't have buds yet so I figured they could get a little taller first. Also some purple coneflower and a few hollyhock. These will go along the backside. In front of those I have a mixture of two sedum, some white shasta daisies, pink balloonflower, asters, globe thistle, and then in front of that I have three kinds of annuals, pink and purple snapdragon, white, pink, and purple impatiens, and white and pink alyssum. It's a lot but I really think it is going to stand out!

I love all your choices...don't forget the perennial geraniums...and maybe some Astrantia...great for cottage-style gardens! Also, some Eupatorium and Ornamental Grasses would give you some good height and structure. Also, there are so many Agastache that work well in cottage-y situations.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog

I think you need some blue delphiniums and also some nice large alliums.

Ianna

Oh my, is that a breathtaking place? Never been there but if all the homes look like that, I'd love to visit there. Can you tell us what those flowers are? I love those soft colors against that white picket fence.

Hey all. I managed to plant all my stuff out in front of the fence!

Back row: each side has a tall beareded iris with siberian in front, in light blues and purples. Then each side has two varieties of purple coneflowers (magus and bright star), a becky shasta daisy, a taller variety of astilbe, an aster, and a sedum. One side has a pink balloon flower and one side has a dwarf bee balm. Then in the center are three pink astilbe and there is one montauk daisy in front of that.
Front row: three layers of annuals, pink and purple snapdragon, pink white and purple impatiens, then white and purple alyssum.

Any tips for helping get the max potential from these annuals?

Also I am now struggling with behind the fence. I flanked each side with a hollyhock. I have three feet of area between the sidewalk up to the house and the fence. I have red geraniums on the house so I would like to do some pink and red geraniums somehow to fuse the two areas. I do not like geraniums in the ground so I'm not sure to do planters somehow or or baskets or what. Any ideas?

Here's some pics. Doesn't the viburnum look great? It's huge! Over 70 years old.
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Here are the pictures from the above post.

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