A bold, breathtaking combo

By: Garden Gate staff

Mix colorful foliage shapes and long-lasting flowers for a combo that'll stun in any part-shade spot.

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Classic beauty

In a large yard, small plants can get overlooked, no matter how showy they are. Mature trees can make the scale of your borders seem miniature, too.

That’s why it’s best to mix taller perennials and shrubs to provide a more balanced look and attract attention. Use these perennials — several here grow 5 to 8 feet tall — as a backdrop for shorter ones, and you’ll create an interesting screen that blocks a view or adds more privacy.

Sticking an extra-large pot into a garden combo lets you add even more color and makes it easy to slip a smaller pot inside so you can change the look as you like.

To find out more about the plants here, just click ahead!

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Combo recipe

Combining old-fashioned favorites, such as queen of the prairie and monkshood with “hot” must-haves, such as cordyline and cutleaf staghorn sumac makes for a bold, eye-catching design like this one.

You’ll get year-round color with this part-shade combo, too. Snowflake oakleaf hydrangea’s white blooms stand out from a distance, and in fall, the foliage turns deep burgundy and crimson.

A – Queen of the prairie (Filipendula rubra) Perennial; pink to peach flowers in summer; full sun to part shade; 4 to 8 ft. tall, 2 to 4 ft. wide; cold-hardy in USDA zones 3 to 9, heat-tolerant in AHS zones 9 to 1

B – Marsh spurge (Euphorbia palustris) Perennial; green flowers with showy yellow-green bracts in summer; full sun to part shade; 3 to 6 ft. tall, 1 to 2 ft. wide; cold-hardy in USDA zones 5 to 10, heat-tolerant in AHS zones 10 to 1

C – ‘Tall Blue’ monkshood (Aconitum) Perennial; purple-blue flowers in mid- to late summer; poisonous if ingested; full sun to part shade; 6 to 8 ft. tall, 1 to 2 ft. wide; cold-hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8, heat-tolerant in AHS zones 8 to 1

D – Snowflake™ (‘Brido’) oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) Shrub; white flowers in summer; foliage turns deep burgundy and crimson in fall; full sun to part shade; 4 to 6 ft. tall and wide; cold-hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9, heat-tolerant in AHS zones 9 to 1

E – Tiger Eyes® (‘Bailtiger’) cutleaf staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) Shrub; chartreuse foliage turns scarlet-orange in fall; full sun to part shade; 3 to 6 ft. tall and wide; cold-hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8, heat-tolerant in AHS zones 8 to 1

F – ‘Red Star’ cordyline (Cordyline) Tender perennial; burgundy-red foliage; full sun to part shade; 10 to 12 ft. tall, 4 to 5 ft. wide; cold-hardy in USDA zones 9 to 11, heat-tolerant in AHS zones 12 to 1