The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

This is the one, this is the plant combination that broke the camel's back, this is the one that has made me officially soften my stance on my strictly colour-coded gardens.

Sea Holly and Liatris make for a fantastic combination in both color and form.

I have been headed in this direction since reading Piet Oudolf's absolutely fantastic book this winter, 
Planting: A New Perspective. After he proclaimed that understanding why anyone would rely primarily on color as the foundation of their garden design was beyond him, given how many attributes there are to consider with every combination, it got me thinking.
Quite a bit. After all I think the man is genius. 

There were other signs that this change was coming:

Last week when I extended my gardens to beside our new fence, I combined yellow Heliopsis with an underlay of purple Lamium. While these purple Liatris were originally moved from the Monet Garden because of lack of sun, I could not be more happy with the improvement they have made to the Sun Garden - and I will be moving the scraggly Sea Holly there to join them! 

My gardens will probably always carry their color-coded heritage with them, but a world of possibility has just been opened and I am certain that the inclusion of more variety will only improve them.

Come back next year and see for yourself! 
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