When I met my wife I knew we were a match, but when I found her amazing flower combinations in the yard, I was sure of it!  How excited I was to discover that we both love gardening.  But I soon found out that I wasn’t a gardener.  I found that out from her.  I had formal training in professional landscaping and irrigation systems and my wife is self-taught from hours and hours of reading books, magazines and plant tags at the nursery.  Her studies plus her years of what she calls “experimental gardening,” sometimes trumps my training and experience.  Her experiments have resulted in several beautiful amazing flower combinations that we’d like to share with you.  

My wife likes to differentiate between gardening and yard work.  “Gardening,” she says, “is planting a plant, sitting back to look at it while sipping your coffee, and then deciding to dig it up and move it a few inches backward, forward, left of right, or to a different section of the garden entirely.”  I must admit, that is not what I did before I met her, but I’ve caught onto her slower and more enjoyable pace in the garden and I love it.  Of course on days we actually have to accomplish real “yard work,” we both pick up the pace and get it done.

What do you do?  Gardening or Yard Work?

Here are several of her most astonishing flower combinations guaranteed to make you smile.  

Delicate amazing flower combinations

Pink Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and Margaritas faithfully return year after year in our Birmingham garden.  Yarrow has an amazing ability to deep mine minerals from the soil and are used for cleaning lead-contaminated soil.

Unique amazing flower combinations

Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum) and Charmed Wine Shamrock (Oxalis Triangularis) return and are slow spreaders in the perennial garden.  The fern is 18 inches high and 18 – 24 inches wide.  Both prefer shade and accept dappled sun as long as they get plenty of water.  The fern is deer and bunny resistant, the purple clover is a bunny delicacy, but if you have enough of it, the plant can outgrow the nibbling.

 

Amazing purple flower combinations

May Night Salvia (Salvia x sylvestnis) and Cranesbill (Geranium dissect) grow beautifully together in the perennial garden.  Both slow spreading and not invasive.  Cranesbill with its low profile makes it an interesting pair with the taller Salvia.

More Purple amazing flower combinations

‘Concord Grape’ Spiderwort (Tradescantia) with Margaritas, both are part shade summer bloomers.  Spiderwort is interesting, because the blooms close in the late afternoon.  They also require no dividing and are not invasive, but can be divided for propagating.  The lovely little margaritas are like mini daisies and can be easily thinned out and transplanted.  They are not too invasive, but if left unattended for several years, they may take over a small perennial flower bed.  

 

Amazing flower combinations from Hydrangeas

Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Fuji Waterfall’ and Nikko Blue Hydrangea are beautiful garden neighbors on our back foundation.  Both love shade and lots of water and both benefit from being near the house and getting tiny droplets splashed all day from a nearby wall fountain.  Of course, everything in our yard is properly irrigated.

 

Amazing flower combinations with perennial flowers and trees

Baptista (False or Wild Indigo) the yellow variety pops against the newer Japanese Maple, Acer Palmatum – ‘Orangeola’.  The Baptista and Maple both require full sun.  The tree is deciduous and the perennial starts over pruned to the ground in the winter.

 

I love I love pink guara, a native Alabama flowering perennial, because it is airy and has lots of movement in the summer breeze and when the bees enjoy the flowers they keep the stems on the move.  Paired here with Salvia microphylla ‘Pink’.

 

Since Salvias can be a slightly trickier perennial, some varieties are planted as annuals.  A tip to getting your Salvias to return each year is to not tidy up too fast in the fall.  Let them over winter with the old wood and you stand a much better chance of a happy returning flowering plant in the spring.  In the spring when you see the new growth starting to appear, you will be oh so tempted to snip out the brown, but don’t do it.  Wait until May.  Don’t rush the pruning and you will have happy returning salvias for many years.

Tall Bearded Iris:  IRIS GERMANICA ‘APRICOT SILK’ and Purple Alaskan Iris.

If you try these amazing flower combinations or come up wth new ones, one thing is for sure, they will put a smile on your face.  Scientific studies proved that the presence of flowers led to increased contact with family and friends.  Gardening causes cells to release adrenaline giving you more energy and a positive outlook.  Call your Landscaper, head to your local nursery and plant a new variety of amazing flower combinations and perennials that you’ve never grown before.  One more way to: Love Being Home.