Favorite Plant Combinations: May

May 18th, 2007 by Kathy Purdy · 9 Comments

This looked spectacular earlier in May, but the narcissus were already done by the time Gardeners Bloom Day came around.

Those orange-cup daffodils were blooming at my neighbor’s, between her house and the brook, but too far away from the house to be noticed. I marked them and dug them up and got half for myself for the labor of digging and replanting her half. The hellebore came from Seneca Hill Perennials. I didn’t plan this combination. The daffodils were already there; the hellebore was an unexpected gift that I had to “put somewhere,” and that’s where I thought the hellebore would be happy.

I’ve since surrounded these two with some grape hyacinths that bloomed somewhat after the peak of these two, and there weren’t enough of them to make an impact this year.

What do you think?

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Categories: Design

Keywords: daffodils · hellebores · narcissus · plant combinations

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9 responses so far ↓

1 Piana Nanna // May 18, 2007 at 3:12 pm

I’d like to add your site to my blogroll, I hope you don’t mind.
2 Kathy Purdy // May 18, 2007 at 5:26 pm

I have no problem being added to a person’s blogroll unless they are selling illegal or pornographic material, or if they are a spam farm of some type. For everyone else, I take it that you are recommending me to your friends. It’s quite the compliment.
3 Kim // May 20, 2007 at 6:04 pm

I like it a lot, Kathy–especially backlit like it is in the first picture. The deep rose of the hellebore adds some nice warmth to the whole scene. What do you put around the hellebore once the daffs die off?
4 Ted B // May 20, 2007 at 9:23 pm

Purple and orange are always a great combination. How about adding a little purple foliage - ajuga, heuchera or the like?
5 Kathy Purdy // May 22, 2007 at 9:36 am

Kim–my first response, only half-joking, was: weeds. But actually, just beyond the narcissus are some daylilies. The daylilies were there first, and I can’t remember now if they coordinate with the hellebore foliage or not. The hellebore blossoms are history by the time the daylily blooms.

Ted–I’ve got enough ajuga other places, but I really like your idea of a purple-leafed heuchera of some sort. Do you know of any that have spectacular foliage and prominent flowers, like ‘Raspberry Regal’ does?
6 Carolyngail // May 24, 2007 at 9:20 pm

What do I think? I think that your combination is wonderful. I would add Bergenia, which has bold evergreen foilage and a great stalk of pink flowers.
7 Carolyngail // May 24, 2007 at 9:21 pm

I like your combination, Kathy. If anything, I’d add something like Bergenia Cordifolia , an evergreen with bold leaves and a nice pink flower.
8 Kathy Purdy // May 25, 2007 at 11:22 am

Bergenia sounds like another good choice, but I am not sure if it is evergreen in my climate. Not that it matters too much if it’s buried in snow, which is the usual case in winter.
9 cyndy // Jun 12, 2007 at 7:56 pm

Wow! I love that combination, Kathy! It is spectacular! (i’m one for lots of contrast~)