Choosing plants is one of my favourite parts of the design process. It’s where creativity, experience, and a bit of instinct come together.
I’m opening the garden gate and inviting you into my headspace. Let’s explore the plant combinations I reach for time and again, from sun-loving showstoppers to shade-garden favourites. These reliable pairings create striking contrast, long seasons of interest, and gardens that feel effortless.
May Flower Power
- For a stunning shaded May garden, combine flowering hellebores (available in many colours), native ferns, wild ginger, bloodroot, sedges, and emerging hostas. This layered combination offers beautiful texture, fresh foliage, and vibrant spring colour. Long-blooming hellebores are a garden essential, providing elegant blooms when little else is in flower, adding to seasonal interest.
- For a colourful, sun-loving May garden, combine ornamental allium (fall-planted bulbs), creeping phlox or ‘Opening Act®’ phlox, and veronica. Together, they provide layers of colour, texture, and long-lasting blooms while attracting pollinators and creating a vibrant display from spring into early summer.
Contrasting Shapes for June
- For a classic full-sun June garden, pair single or double peonies with dark purple ‘Caradonna’ salvia and the soft chartreuse blooms of lady’s mantle. This timeless combination offers a beautiful contrast in colour and texture, creating an elegant early-summer display.
- This combination for your shaded June garden features shade-loving native foamflower, ‘Jack Frost’ brunnera, and lacey ferns. This woodland-inspired combination thrives beneath mature coniferous evergreens, adding texture, colour, and seasonal interest. Be sure to water regularly while the new planting becomes established.
Easy Breezy in July
- A vibrant, full-sun July garden combination, try ‘Ruby Spider’ daylily with ‘Daisy May’ daisy and ‘Cat’s Pyjamas’ catmint. This colourful trio offers long-lasting blooms, attracts pollinators, and creates a carefree summer display – great planting for a hot, dry location.
- A vibrant, low-maintenance, sunny pairing of ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ coneflower and prairie dropseed. Plant the coneflowers first, then place the prairie dropseed to fill the spaces between them. This creates a graceful, colourful, natural-looking planting.
- Simple yet elegant, pair ‘Sweet Romance’ lavender, ‘Bobo’ hydrangea, and blue oat grass for a beautiful July display. This sun-loving combination offers soft colour, contrasting texture, and low-maintenance appeal—perfect for a French Country-inspired garden.
Winning August Combinations
- Black-eyed susans, russian sage, and ‘Karl Foerster’ grasses create an amazing late-summer garden display. This sun-loving trio offers bold colours and elegant textures, attracts late-summer butterflies, and provides interest in the garden when other perennials have finished for the season.
- Shade gardens shine in late summer with ‘Chocoholic’ cimicifuga, ‘Bowles Gold’ sedge, ‘Fragrant Blue’ hosta, and ‘Honorine Jobert’ anemone. If you haven’t planted anemones, you’re missing out. Their elegant white blooms dance above the foliage on graceful stems, attracting bees and butterflies while adding beauty well into September.
Sunny Prairie – Where Grasses Dance
- A native prairie planting creates a colourful, low-maintenance full-sun garden that requires little watering once established. Combine little bluestem, prairie blazing star (liatris), purple coneflower, Helen’s flower, and blue-stem goldenrod for continuous blooms and seasonal interest from July through September.
- This is an easy yet highly effective sunny prairie combination, perfect for the easy-care, no-fuss gardener. Consider combining prairie dropseed, pink monarda, white veronicastrum, butterfly weed, and pale coneflower together. This combination offers contrasting flower colours and a wonderful mix of foliage, and attracts wildlife to the garden. The butterflies will love you!
- ‘Peach Sky’ yarrow, ‘Magnus’ coneflower, ‘PowWow White’ coneflower, and the silvery foliage of lamb’s ears blend beautifully with the rich burgundy tones of ‘Cheyenne Sky’ switchgrass. This striking full-sun combination offers a beautiful balance of warm colour, soft texture, and bold architectural form from summer into fall. Very easy care combination that attracts butterflies and pollinators.
Cool in the Shade. Go Native!
- Spring-wildflower geranium and bloodroot, with native summer-blooming agastache and woodland sunflower, are wonderful choices for bringing a touch of natural beauty to your shade garden. These plants not only add colour and interesting textures but also create a welcoming environment for local wildlife. Incorporating a few native species into your shade garden can make your outdoor space feel more lively and inviting, reflecting the peaceful charm of woodland habitats.
- Bluestem goldenrod, ‘New England’ aster, oak sedge, and ‘Christmas’ fern create a native woodland planting that offers colour and texture from late summer into fall. This low-maintenance combination supports pollinators, birds, and other wildlife while bringing natural beauty to shaded gardens. Just plant and go. No need to fuss. These plants don’t require regular care or feeding. Just a bit of water to get established and during droughts will keep them happy.
The best gardens don’t just look beautiful—they invite you outside. Experiment with these combinations, make them your own, and create a landscape you’ll love living in.
Happy Gardening!
Lexi Dearborn, CLD 4166, Dipl.B. ODHLD
National Certified Landscape Designer
Creative at Dearborn DESIGNS
Bold landscapes. Beautiful living.
Voice of The Gabby Gardener
Dream. Create. Grow.
July 2026
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