When I build a bed I don't always fill it up right away with plants. I want to decide what will work. I use mostly plants that I already have, I just dig some up from other beds where they have spread and transfer them to the new bed. But I always add something I have never grown. This bed is just coming out of dormancy after the winter, so it looks a little bare right now. In the front are Excelsior Spanish Bluebells. Just behind that are purple Columbine plants that I transferred from paths where they randomly seed. On the right are old fashioned purple bearded irises that I rescued from an old house. In the middle (you can't see it because it has not leafed out, and it is small) is a double pink Althea that my neighbor rooted and gave to me. They get very big, like a small tree or large shrub. That is my centerpiece plant in this bed, but it will be several years before it is impressive. To the left, just coming out of dormancy, are my Philippine Violets. This is a ground cover plant that likes shade, and has little purple and while flowers throughout most of the summer. I also have a perennial wild flower of some sort that sprang up on its own. It blooms purple flowers, and it is very pretty. It is just peeking out of the earth now after the long winter. At the far end are Chicherees and Paperwhites. It took several years to fill this bed. It goes through several periods of beauty - the paper whites bloom first while it is still winter. The bearded irises bloom in the very early spring. Then the Bluebells. The columbines bloom after that. The wild flowers bloom next, and finally the althea blooms in the middle of summer.
