You walk into the nursery looking for a few plants. Then you see hundreds of them. Some are blooming. Some have gorgeous foliage. You find one you love, then another…and suddenly you're wondering whether any of these plants are actually going to look good together once you get them home.
First, you don't have to have your entire yard figured out before you start. Choosing plants that work well together gets much easier when you stop trying to find the “perfect” combination and start thinking about a few basics: size, bloom time, color, texture, growing conditions and what you want your garden to do.
In this episode of The Dirt, Mary talks with Johanna George of Bailey Nurseries about creating plant combinations that are beautiful, functional and good for the environment without taking all the fun out of gardening.
Start With the Biggest Plants First
If you're starting with a blank slate (or reworking a large section of your yard) don't start by trying to decide which perennial should go next to which shrub. Start big. Think about your trees first. Do you need shade? Are you trying to create some privacy? Do you need evergreens for a windbreak or natural fence?
Those larger plants create the basic structure and conditions for the rest of your landscape. A tree may eventually create a new pocket of shade, for example, which affects what you'll be able to grow underneath or around it. (Curious what happens before those trees ever reach the nursery? Learn how nursery trees are grown and just how old they may be by the time you bring one home.)
Once you've figured out the big pieces, move on to shrubs and then perennials. And remember: you don't have to do everything at once. Landscaping your yard in stages can make the process - and the investment - a lot more manageable.
Want more ideas for putting plants together? Watch this episode of The Dirt below, or keep reading for simple ways to use bloom time, color, texture and function in your garden.
Plan for Color From Spring Through Fall
Here's an easy mistake to make when you're plant shopping: You buy everything that's blooming right now.
It makes sense. Those are naturally the plants grabbing your attention as you walk through the nursery. But if every plant you choose blooms in May, you may have a spectacular spring garden…and a whole lot of green by August.
Instead, think about bloom cycles. What will bloom in spring? What takes over in summer? What's going to keep the show going into fall? And what might provide some interest during winter? You can apply that thinking to your entire landscape.
Johanna uses trees as an example: crabapples can provide early spring blooms, followed by lilacs and then Japanese tree lilacs. Depending on the weather, those choices can help stretch flowering interest from April into June.
The same principle applies to shrubs and perennials. Rather than thinking about each plant individually, think about how one can pick up where another leaves off.
Use Color to Create Plant Combinations
Remember the color wheel from school? Turns out it wasn't completely useless. Contrasting colors are an easy starting point when you're trying to decide what looks good together. Purple paired with yellow, for example, gives you contrast between warm and cool colors.
Johanna gives the example of combining salvia with a daylily. Beyond the contrasting colors, their bloom times can overlap and extend the amount of time that area of the garden has something happening.
But contrast isn't the only option. You can also create beautiful combinations using similar tones. Think burgundy foliage paired with other rich, dark foliage. Or combine different plants with shades of sage, silver, blue-gray and soft green. There really isn't one “right” color combination. The better question is: What do you like looking at?
Don't Forget About Foliage and Texture
Flowers tend to get all the attention, but they're only one part of the plant. Foliage color and texture can make a huge difference in how a combination looks, especially when one or both plants aren't blooming. A soft, silvery leaf next to an ornamental grass creates contrast even if their colors are similar. Broad leaves next to something fine and airy can do the same thing.
This is where plant combinations become a little less about following a formula and a lot more about playing. Look at the plants next to each other. Do the colors work for you? Are the leaves too similar? Does adding something with a completely different texture suddenly make the whole combination more interesting?
You don't need a landscape-design degree to have an opinion about what looks good to you.
Think Beyond Looks: Plant for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects
A good plant combination can do more than look pretty. Diversity in the landscape can help create habitat and food sources for pollinators and other beneficial insects.
One way to encourage that diversity is, again, to think about bloom times. Having different plants flowering throughout the growing season can provide resources at different times rather than one big burst of blooms followed by nothing. Those relationships can have other benefits, too.
Johanna talks about seeing two-lined soldier beetles visiting late-season flowering plants in her garden. Those same beneficial insects can also feed on aphids elsewhere in the landscape.
You don't necessarily need to memorize a giant chart of which plant supposedly “likes” which other plant. Instead, think bigger: How can you create a diverse landscape with different plants blooming and providing habitat throughout the season? Sometimes nature is pretty good at figuring out the rest.
Make Sure the Plants Actually Like the Same Place
There's one little catch to all this mixing and matching. The plants still have to grow there.
Before you fall completely in love with a combination, make sure the plants are appropriate for the location you're planning. How much sun does the area get? What's the soil like? Is it consistently moist or fairly dry? How much room will each plant need when it reaches its mature size?
Two plants can look fantastic sitting next to each other at the nursery and still make terrible neighbors if one wants full sun and dry soil while the other prefers shade and moisture. That's where getting some guidance before you buy can save you a lot of frustration later.
Already bringing home a new tree? Learn how to care for a newly planted tree in Iowa, including watering, staking and winter protection.
You Can Change the Landscape You Inherited
Your current yard doesn't have to dictate what your yard will always look like. Maybe you moved into a new development without a tree in sight. Maybe you lost several mature ash trees and suddenly have sun where you've had shade for years. Or maybe the previous homeowner's landscaping simply isn't your thing.
You can create a new environment. Trees can eventually create shade. Evergreens can establish privacy and wind protection. Shrubs can define spaces, and perennials can add layers of color, texture and habitat underneath them. It may take time, and that's okay.
A landscape isn't something you have to finish in a weekend. In fact, giving yourself time to see how things grow and how you actually use your yard can help you make better choices as you go.
Feeling Overwhelmed? Pick One Thing to Work On
If you walk into a nursery thinking you need to redesign your entire yard today, you're probably going to feel overwhelmed. Give yourself a smaller assignment. Maybe today you're looking for two shade trees and that's it.
Walk around. Get your bearings. Notice what catches your eye. Then ask for help narrowing down those choices based on your space and growing conditions.
Once those trees are figured out, you can come back to shrubs. Then perennials. Then that weird little corner you've been ignoring for three years. You don't have to solve the whole yard at once.
Come Play With Plant Combinations at Natural Plus Nursery
Here's one of the easiest ways to figure out what you like: Actually put the plants next to each other.
When you visit Natural Plus Nursery, grab one of our carts and use it to experiment. If a plant catches your eye, put it on the cart. Find another one you like and put them together. Move things around. Try different colors. Compare textures. And don't worry if the combination you love isn't the combination someone else would choose. It's your yard.
Once you have an idea of what you're drawn to, we can help with the practical side. Tell us where you're planting, how much sun you have, what your soil and moisture conditions are like and what you're trying to accomplish.
Then we can help you find trees, shrubs and perennials that don't just look good together at the nursery—they'll have the right conditions to grow together once you get them home.
Because gardening is supposed to be fun! Yes, there's digging involved. And weeding. And occasionally wondering why on earth you thought moving that giant plant was a good idea.
But ultimately, you're creating an outdoor space for yourself, your family, the birds, the bees and whoever else happens to enjoy it.
Natural Plus Nursery has been serving Clear Lake, Mason City and North Iowa since 1978. Stop out, explore the nursery and let us help you put together a landscape that feels like yours.
Want to Hear the Whole Conversation?
This post only scratches the surface of our conversation with Johanna George of Bailey Nurseries.
In Episode 1 of The Dirt, Mary and Johanna talk about the entire process a tree goes through before arriving at Natural Plus, including field growing, container production, grafting, rootstocks and some of the behind-the-scenes work most of us never think about when we're shopping for plants.
Listen to Episode 1: From Seed to Your Yard: The Real Age of Nursery Trees Explained
And if you have a question you've always wanted to ask about trees, shrubs, perennials or life behind the scenes at a nursery, send it our way. It might just become a future episode of The Dirt.