I whent a little crazy with ornamental grasses (couldn't resist a good deal) when rebuilding the front planting beds. My goal was to create a more naturalistic planting area, but I need a little help.

First, the two planting beds are seperated by a walkway and are out in the open in the front yard. I've been having trouble finding the right "something" to add height to the rather open flat planting area.

I didn't do all that bad in the first bed mixing Pennisetum orientale (Karley Rose), Japanese Blood Grass, mixing in a few Coreopis. With the Eastern Redbud planted nearby and the Karley Rose, I was able to acheive a bit of interest and texture to the bed.

My problem started when moving to the other side of the walk to work on that bed. I had a bunch of grasses on hand and whent about placing them in the bed according to the eventual heights and widths. I thought it looked ok, but after a month or so of looking at it, I'm beginning to think that it's just too heavy on grasses. Morning Light Mithcanthus, Karl Forester Reed grass, and a few Dwarf Fountain grasses toward the font. I know these grasses will fill out, but I was wondering what I could add to the area that might add that something that seems to be missing.

Any help much appreciated!!
Shannon

I also have liked planting some of my larger blue stemmed grasses such as bluestem or Heavy Metal with roses. Yup. roses. I use some of the David Austin shrub roses, and the place I just bought here has some of the low growing knock out varieties. Also, one of the species roses is a creeper with red new growth. Rosa glauca I believe is the old name for it....

Yarrow is another compliment....as well as pearly everlasting. Watch the variety of yarrow, I've found that some of the new cultivars are not as invaisive as the others. Pearly everlasting is a leaper and bounder, so beware.

Asters: frikarti as well as the New England asters. These have a variety of colors as well as heights. The shortest is about 18".

St. Johns wort....lots of new colors here, Aubrey's purple has a dusky purplish leaf/stem, I saw another this year which has three different color blotches on one leaf, as well as the golden variety and the plain jane ones.

spurge (Euphorbia): again, a variety of leaf colors and habits. A mounding purple one is "Chameleon". It seeds in all over the place but is easy to rip out.

Another tall one which has a bluish color and is stiff is Boltonia Asteroides...covered with white baby's breath type flowers in the fall.

Centaureas (Mountain bluet or Perennial Batchelor's button): a variety of leaf colors here too....Keep them deadheaded and they will bloom longer for you. Gold Bullion is a new one with yellow leaves.

For larger leaves put in some rhubarb. Yup. Rhubarb. You can use the regular garden variety (and thus be able to eat it....) or you can use some of the ornamentals....Brave Heart I believe is one...lovely cut leaves. I've got a couple, but off the top of my head I can't remember WHICH names are which. Anyway, moundy and lower growing.....

Heleniums: various heights and colors.

Coreopsis. same as a above.

Siberian or German iris. The blue thicker leaves are a wonderful compliment and gives you some spring color.

Peonies. Again, spring color, but the wonderful structure and mass of peonies when they aren't in bloom give great substance when you use it with grasses.

You'll notice that many of my suggestions are natives, or have native varieties.....I've got to go eat breakfast, but I'll come back with some more suggestions later....'cause I use it all! :)

Shannon, one thing that I like to do when I'm stuck without a book is to google the name of the plant for which I need a neighbor. If you type the name in, and then click "Images" you'll get a whole host of pictures.

Some of them are just close-ups of the plant, a la a garden center website, but others show them in context. It's easy to tell them apart from the thumbnails most of the time, so you can easily scroll through the pages of results and just click on the garden shots.

Be careful, though... it's addictive... :)