A group of my favourite plants.

[ideasguy]

The little white flowered plant (Gypsophila repens) is supposed to be prostrate, but it legged its way up through the neighbouring pink Azalea. I was afraid of it kiling the Azalea, but it looked do good, that I decided to take the risk (it survived OK, but I cut the Gyp back a bit after the riot of flowers had subsided.)

I placed my Acer 'Osakazuki' in the frame. Its still in a pot, so can be placed anywhere where it will look pleasing. It pleases me no matter where it goes!

The yellow Erysimum helveticum is a colour contrast, but that plant grew as  a volunteer (stray seed) so I very gratefully let it grow. Its a great plant and I thought it had died out in my garden. Very relieved to see it self propagating itself again.

Theres two other purple leaved Acer cultivars in the back centre and back right, but not showing up too good in this photo.

[ideasguy]

This is a close up of the Gypsophila repens and the Azalea

[Pixydish]

Beautiful color combinations, George! Those maples, especially the one in the second photo with the almost salmon colored leaves, are lovely! I have been focusing more on color combinations this year. One of the ones I just put in which I look forward to next year is Hydrangea m. 'Amethyst' alongside Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight', both planted in front of a large Sambucus 'Madonna'. I will have to find a way to get webspace for some photos so that I can post some here for you. A picture is worth a thousand words!

[GardenChick]

Hey George.  That gypsophila looks a lot like Ceranthus or snow in summer.  Does it have silver foliage?   If not, and you know how I like silver foliage, it may be a good combo with the Acer.  I have it under all of my burgundy Barberry

[ideasguy]

Hooray! The cavalry has arrived.

Youve done it before Laura! I could not have got our first ideasforgardens forum working without your help. Here we go again!

You are very welcome here, I can assure you, so chill out after driving 3500 miles in a mere 3 weeks, take those snow boots off and make yourself comfortable. You are now on a computer housed in mild (relative to Michigan) London, England!

That little prostrate Gyp does not have silver foliage, Chick. Unlike the "Snow-in-summer" It goes a bit ragged in winter, but it is a real assett in summer. Lovely with that pink Azalea (in the photo) , and yes, great with our beloved Acers.

Have you tried Diascia with your burgundy plants? I absolutely adore them. I have two... a pink and a salmon, and plan to get some more. I have the pink in a pot with my Acer tamukeyama

Heres a photo to drool over:
http://www.worldplants.com/tamukeyama.htm

I note that it says:
The reason is that 'Tamukeyama' is able to hold its burgundy color through hot, humid summers
A good one for you?

[NightHawk]

I know this is a very OLD topic, but I've just come across it and thought it would be interesting to revive it.

George, you had some wonderful combinations at the start of this topic.  Do you still have those growing or have you planted something else?

It would be nice to hear from our members what group/s of plants they have in their gardens that present a marvellous display, and work really well together.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

The Gyp died away Laurie, unfortunately. The Azalea is in full bloom right now and looking brilliant.
I have another white plant which survives better in other parts of the garden and will platn one there soon. (Name escapes me, will edit later)

The Erysimum helveticum continues  even though it has had to content with a number of other plants which encroached e.g. Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) proved to spread a lot. I took to that bed recently, and will restore it to its former glory (if it stops raining!)

The Acers are going great, in their glorious spring foliage right now. The talking point of visitors to our house yesterday.

 

[NightHawk]

........ The Acers are going great, in their glorious spring foliage right now. The talking point of visitors to our house yesterday.

Ohhhh George, do I sense a garden tour coming on. 

Only kidding.  You have enough on your plate at the moment with all your software development.

If at some stage when you have an extremely quiet period, that would be a real treat and talking point to have your garden open to the public - maybe only once.  You have a wonderful garden, and would be a great feature on the Forum. 

Anyway, I know your schedule is tight, so it's just a pipe-dream really. Ho-hum. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

I'd love to have it looking like it did at the turn of the century again, then I wouldnt mind inviting guests to have a look.
However, as for opening to the public, Ive never even given that a single thought, Laurie.
My agenda is to get it looking at its best for taking photos for my web sites.
I think thats my ultimate objective. Who knows, one day I might have time to sit on one of those seats and enjoy it, without getting agitated spotting things which need done!
I love having personal friends and family look around the garden, especially folk who appreciate plants.

That white plant I mentioned earlier is Arenaria montana. It does really well in my garden.

[Trevor Ellis]

A combination that I always liked in my previous garden was Rosa 'Sally Holmes' underplanted with 'Diascia rigescens'. The pink of the diascia responded with the slight pink flush in Sally Holmes. Any trained painter knows that using even the smallest amount of a colour that occurs in larger areas elswhere in an image sets up a reaction, a kind of sympathetic response which the eye detects. All of us react to this phenomenon but most people aren't aware of what's going on. Painters use this technique, amongst many others, to create both unities and tensions in paintings. Some gardeners, as do some painters, designers etc, just do this instinctively. Some have the knowledge. Gertrude Jekyll was a gardener who was very conscious of this.

[ideasguy]

Since my last posting in this topic, I'm an even bigger fan of the Diascias, and visitors and friends are full of praise of a salmon coloured one which has survived outdoor over winter and doing really well. I took a few little root divisions and now my son has a splendid specimen in a pot in his garden. My sister has one looking real good in her border and Ive a few in pots around the house.

I like your posting explaining what the eye detects, Trevor. That is a subject well worthy of a separate topic

[Trevor Ellis]

Since my last posting in this topic, I'm an even bigger fan of the Diascias, and visitors and friends are full of praise of a salmon coloured one which has survived outdoor over winter and doing really well.

Is the salmon coloured one Diascia rigescens, the one I mentioned in an earlier reply George or one of the smaller varieties? The ones I have are about three feet in diameter and have been perfectly hardy in exposed situations over the past six or seven years. They root very easily from cuttings too which is a bonus.

Trevor

[ideasguy]

Just checked.
Its Diascia Flying Colors Apricot    (1)

The pink one I have is Diascia cordata      (2)

I also have a White variety (3)

and this year I grew Diascia barberae 'Apricot Queen' from Chiltern Seeds.
Got 2 plants from the packet, but they are good plants - paler apricot than (1)

From the Master Database (and by the way I haven't forgotten about your Flash database) I click on Who has this plant and see that there are two locations entered
Chrissie Harten (member name The Gardener on our forum)
and Glenarm Castle - a very scenic place where I visited last year, here in Ireland.
I'll add your name to that list!
There may be others to follow as I haven't finished processing the photos Malcolm and Eric (palustris) sent.
This new Bank Genie has been time consuming

[Trevor Ellis]

I've just checked out Diascia rigescens on a few sites and most of them give the spread as 30-50cms. I've just measured mine and it's about 100cms+. But mine are allowed to flop about so that the flowering stems poke up through the fronds of a fern (Dryopteris erythrosora). It seems to be the nature of the plant to do this as it did through the Rosa 'Sally Holmes' in my previous garden. So how does one measure the 'spread' of a plant of this nature? I simply take it to mean the measurement that the plant as a whole covers, but this makes my specimens about twice the size that most of the sites give it as. Also, some sites give it as frost tender and warn against leaving it unprotected in winter. Mine certainly have come easily through some pretty heavy frosts. Three are also in a border on the north side of the house and are in the shade of the house (in North Nottinghamshire close to the South Yorkshire border) for almost all of the day and they thrive. It seems that the only way to know how plants behave is to 'suck 'em and see' and not rely too much on the experience of others. Reminds me of when, many years ago, I asked the advice of a 90 year old bee keeper who'd been keeping bees since he was seven years old about some swarms that I had from my hives. He gave me the advice and also lent me a book saying that it was a very good book. Then, just as  as I turned to close his garden gate behind me, he called out "By the way, don't take any notice of it!".

[ideasguy]

Was that the Budgie man again? 

Interesting question you have posed about Spread, Trevor.
I take spread to mean the area covered by the clump, or the base area.
But, what if it fans out?
If it flops all over the place then I would not measure end to end as that would be more like top to bottom (before it flopped) twice, but then... 
In reality, its probably the area you should allow it to reach after establishing over a few years (if it survives )
Over to the panel...