Suggestions for front yard flower bed?

[jenmarquis]

Hello! I am new to this site, desperately seeking advice for planting simple yet beautiful flower beds! I do not have much knowledge about gardening, but I do know that every year I struggle to find the best look but I'm never happy with my choices!

I will start with the front raised semi-circle flower bed. I've had some success with a single hosta I planted a couple of years ago, and have planted annuals behind and around it before but I'm never happy with it. Should I remove the hosta? Or just move it so it is not in the centre and add another? Leave the hosta where it is and just find the right companions for it? What would look good here? I recently picked up three canna lilies because I love that look. I thought I'd plant them behind the hosta against the white pickets but now I'm not so sure that is the right place for them.

Check out the photo - I could really use some ideas!!! Perennials, annuals, grasses, shrubs... this is a pretty clean slate and I'm open to all suggestions. I live in southern Ontario with hot summers and cold winters. I don't have a lot of time so low maintenance is always good and we get a lot of sun in that spot. I also have two hooks for hanging baskets above that space - not sure if I should keep them there.

Help!

[Countryboy]

Cana Lilies?? In my yard anything that has to be dug up in the Fall and brought inside I call 'high-maintenance'. lol

If yr gonna plant them I would plant them exactly as u suggest . . at the back of the bed, up against the pickets of the railing. Lower stuff in front.

[Elena Zimmerman]

Well, what are you going for? A profusion of color all summer long? A single dominant color? Pereanuals that flower one after another? One of the best thing you can do, is go to the library, look at the books with various garden pictures, or to a public garden, and find a bed that you feel you want to emulate. Take pictures of it, and see which plants can be either grown in your zone or replaced with a similar ones that do grow well.

What I would do on this bed is something medium height, pairing 2 or 3 colors. My 2 favorite color schemes are purple-yellow/orange and pink-blue (both will have whites to break it up).

What I would do here, for low-maintenance I would put a groundcover as a border (say a combination of the snow in the summer and maidenpinks and miniature bluebells), a clump of lillies in whatever color and variety you prefer on the right (say white), 3 irises (say blue) and 1 peony (say pink) on the left and a pulmonaria or the hardy white windflowers by the decidious. tree. I'd spread a drift of small bulbs in the bed for early color.

Hope that helps!

[jenmarquis]

Thanks for the tips!