05/31/2026
Great gardens are all about layering plants with different textures, bloom times, and forms to create continuous interest through the season. We put together a few perennial planting palettes to inspire your personal garden style. Swipe through to explore combinations!
Some Like It Hot ☀️
Got a hot spot in your yard? That doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice diversity. Oriental poppies love hot, dry conditions, and just as they finish blooming, catmint and calamint begin their show. Yarrow and stonecrop are standout picks for the heat, while sea holly stuns with its sculptural, otherworldly blooms.
Shady Splash of Color 💚
Yellow tones from Japanese forest grass and ‘Sun King’ Japanese spikenard brighten darker areas of the garden. ‘Black Stockings’ meadow rue adds height without blocking views, while astilbe, pulmonaria, and bergenia round out the design with rich complementary textures.
Native Knockouts 🌱
Some of the best native plants don’t put on their flower show right away, but they’re well worth the wait. For a naturalistic design, mimic Mother Nature by planting drifts of shorter plants like prairie dropseed and purple prairie clover, then stagger multiples of taller plants like blazing star, pale purple coneflower, and rattlesnake master to create movement and interest without feeling messy.
Cottagecore 🪻
Cottagecore may be so 2022 in interiors, but it’s never gone out of style in the garden. Long-lasting pink and purple blooms from speedwell, betony, and evening primrose complement the punchy yellows of false indigo and variegated iris. ‘Garden Ghost’ wormwood acts as a beautiful matrix plant, weaving between the others and providing the perfect backdrop for blooms.
