A Beginner's Guide to Great Plant Combinations

Hi friends, welcome back to Harmony Hills.  Today we're talking about how a beginner gardener can learn to make great plant combinations.


As a beginner gardener, it can be so hard to figure out what to plant together in the flower garden - there are so many choices out there, it can be overwhelming!   I'm not an expert at all - I'll throw in my usual warning that what I'm going to share here is just based on my own 25+ year experience of owning homes and working in the yard to make our home pretty and comfortable and welcoming.    Maybe some of what I've learned will be helpful to you!

Last weekend, my husband and I traveled to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN to visit our son and daughter-in-law for a long weekend.   While there, we visited the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on a beautiful Saturday morning and afternoon.  With over 1,200 acres of cultivated gardens and tree specimens on display, this was an amazing morning and afternoon.  We were so impressed with this beautiful place! So much to see and learn about!

Purple garden - all of these plants have purple flowers, purple foliage, or both.

One of the best things about these spectacular gardens for me was that the plantings were all very easy to imagine in a home garden situation.  Everywhere I looked, I could see plants that looked great together, and looked like they could easily be planted in my own yard.   I took hundreds of photos on this visit, capturing groupings of plants that I loved and also capturing individual "portraits" of single plants with their labels so I could refer to them for future planning.

Plant markers are so helpful!

This brings me to my first and most important tip in learning how to choose plants for great plant combinations.

Tip 1:  Visit other gardens to find great examples

Whether you're just starting out as a gardener, or you've been at it for a lifetime, you should find places where you can go to look at gardens in your area - public display gardens, neighbors' gardens,  community gardens, even municipal parks and office buildings.  There's nothing quite like going out to a garden and seeing the plants in person, up close, in their full glory.   You can see how tall they get, what the color looks like, what the leaf structure and texture are, what the fragrance is, etc.

Take photos - lots of photos - of plant combinations.    Take photos of combinations that you like and combinations that you don't like.    Flood yourself with examples of plant combinations of all kinds, so you can sift through them and hone in on what you like and don't like.

Love this combo - pink, purple, grey, white, and green of various sizes and shapes

Not my favorite - too "hot" with too many bright warm colors

Tip 2:   Create a Pinterest board of your favorite plant combinations

Put your favorite photos up on a dedicated Pinterest board, labeled as thoroughly as you can with what plants are included in the photo (here's mine). These can be the photos you've taken yourself in the gardens you've visited, or they can be photos you found online in other places.    Make a big, gorgeous board full of plants you admire.  

Look at this board often as you are mulling over your plans.   Look for patterns - do you tend to love one particular pairing of color?  Do you usually like combos that include a least one evergreen element?   Do you tend to avoid or lean toward a certain leaf shape?    Really study your collection of photos to get a good sense of your own personal tastes.

Tip 3:    Make a wish list of plants in your favorite plant combinations

Now that you know what groupings you're drawn to, start jotting down lists of plants that are in those combos.    You might find that the same plants start showing up over and over in the pictures that you like.  This is good!  It will help you narrow down the choices when it comes time to decide what to buy.

I write my wish list in my garden journal and refer to it often when I'm out shopping for plants.   You also use another Pinterest board to keep track of your plant wish list. Or, go old-school like I used to do back in the day, and cut out photos out of plant catalogs and glue them onto pages of a cheap spiral bound notebook.

Tip 4: Use plant identifier apps on your smartphone

Did you find a photo of a plant combo that really speaks to you, but you don't know what the plant is?  You might be able to identify the plant using one of several apps on your smart phone.   I've used the app called "Garden Answers", and I know there are several other apps out there that you can try.      Here's an article that lists several options for your needs.

Tip 5: Copy a great plant combination in your own garden

Ok, you've got great inspiration photos, and you've got your list of favorite plants... now what?  Time to make our own first plant combo in your own garden.  But, maybe you're feeling a bit overwhelmed still?  What if you choose things that just don't look right together?   Well, just find your favorite plant combo inspiration picture, and copy it!   Find out what those plants are, and buy them and plant them in your yard.  There's no shame in doing it this way - after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

I'll definitely be putting pink phlox, purple Russian sage, common thyme and 'Roxanne' geraniums together in my garden!

Just a word of caution - if you're going to try to create the same look and feel in your own garden, you need to make sure your conditions are similar to the inspiration photo.   Do you garden in the same or similar climate as the photo?  Do you have the same type of sunlight available in your chosen spot?    Do you have similar size/space available for your planting?   It's important to match these things up as closely as possible, or your version probably won't grow as well as the one in the photo.

Tip 6:   Find substitute plants for your particular needs

If a plant in the inspiration photo is not  ideally suited to your garden conditions, you can sometimes find a substitute that will lend the same look and feel but that will grow well for you.  You can ask garden center folks to help you, if a quick google search doesn't give you some substitution ideas.

The photos in this post were all taken in Minneapolis, MN (Zone 4), but I live in Baltimore, MD (Zone 7b).  So I'll be doing some research on the plants I see here before choosing them for my garden.

Tip 7:  Choose contrasting sizes and shapes of foliage and flowers

Mix up your sizes and shapes of plant foliage and flowers... too many of the same size will be chaotic to look at.    You may have heard of the "Thriller, Spiller, Filler" formula for garden containers - you can follow that advice in the garden bed, too.   Mix a tall attention-grabbing plant (the "Thriller") with a low spreading plant (the "Spiller") and a medium sized lush green plant (the "Filler") to create a quick and easy combo in your garden.

Some other ideas:    Mix a small leaved plant with a spiky leaved plant with a large leaved plant.

Contrasting leaf shapes separate these similar-colored plants from each other

Or, mix a spiky flower shape with a large round flower shape with a small round flower shape.

Spiky purple speedwell contrasts with the daisy-shaped white coneflowers and round pink geraniums

Or mix two or more flower shapes in the same color family.

Pink garden phlox and pink coneflowers echo similar colors using vastly different flower shapes

Tip 8:   Just plant something!

Even with all the advice I offered up above, I want to end this post by encouraging you to just go out and try something!   Find a few square feet of space in your garden, and go to the garden center, and find a few plants to put there.   Hold the candidates up to each other in their pots, see if they look good together.    Check their tags, make sure they need the same amount of sunlight and the same amount of water.   If you like how they look, and they're compatible for sun and water, then go for it!   Chances are, if you think they look good together in their pots, then they'll be ok together in the ground.  

I don't think you should go crazy and buy 20 different plants using this (non-)method, but buying two or three plants to try out can't hurt too much, right?   You really just need to get some dirt under your fingernails and try things out.   Gardening is a participation sport, a trial-and-error learning activity.   What's the worst thing that will happen if you choose a "bad" combination?  You dig one of them up and move it!   That's not so bad, right?


So, what do you think, are you ready to give it a try in your own garden?    Stop by the comments section to tell me about your favorite plant combinations that you've created in your garden!   Or, do you have more tips and suggestions to offer to the brand-new gardener?  I'd love to hear about them!  Let's meet in the comments section to chat about it!

Here at Harmony Hills we're always out in the yard and garden doing something or other... Did you see this post on How to Divide Hostas?   Come take a look!

Getting a clean edge on the flowerbed makes the yard look great... check out these easy steps:

And here's a quick and easy lesson on how to take care of your hard clay soil:

Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest to get more tips and information about caring for your yard and garden. 

  

____________________________________________________________

Linking to:

Metamorphosis Monday - Between Naps on the Porch

Make it Pretty Monday - The Dedicated House

The Scoop - StoneGable

Inspire Me Tuesday - A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday - Savvy Southern Style

Creative Muster Party - Fluster Buster

Home and Garden Thursday - A Delightsome Life

Thoughts of Home - Poofing the Pillows

SaveSave
SaveSave