What cool plant combinations do you have that you particularly like in your garden

[hinovak]

With winter temps coming later this week that will nuke the garden until next week, I snapped a couple of pics of plant combinations that looked pretty good. I find myself constantly removing and moving plants around the house all the time and try as much as possible to not look like a plant hoarder, although I am failing…here are this years winners. Please share your garden beds, as it’s winter and im bored. Thanks!

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Fairly basic but I like having cycads close to palms. I have a decent sized sago palm next to my large P. sylvestris. I want to start incorporating agaves and other succelents as well, especially around my sylvester. but there are currently an abundance of wildflowers there that I cant force myself to get rid of because I love feeding pollinators as well. Don’t have pictures currently but I might get some later.

[happypalms]

It would have to be cycas species they just hand in hand with palms 

[hinovak]

14 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Fairly basic but I like having cycads close to palms. I have a decent sized sago palm next to my large P. sylvestris. I want to start incorporating agaves and other succelents as well, especially around my sylvester. but there are currently an abundance of wildflowers there that I cant force myself to get rid of because I love feeding pollinators as well. Don’t have pictures currently but I might get some later.

I def. hear you on the pollinator plants, I am particularly fond of humming birds, and so a lot of my yard caters to them, I have a salvia bed, and a host of other hummer attractors scattered around the yard, and of course the prettiest pollinator plant I try, the hummers want nothing to do with. But it’s hard to balance straight aesthetics with nature friendly, but like you, it’s my own house, so I don’t really care, they all work for me. The salvia garden has been fun, I’ve started getting weird random hybrid salvias popping up

[hinovak]

11 hours ago, happypalms said:

It would have to be cycas species they just hand in hand with palms 

Yeah, your place is amazing. I wish I could incorporate more palms here, we are pretty limited, there are some better ones that we can get away with protection. I just usually end up with too many things to cover, so I’ve personally limited palms, because I honestly don’t have enough time to protect them all. What is the cycad in second to last pic? Very pretty

[thyerr01]

Here are a couple of my combinations - with a focus on things that are actually in flower right now. Whether they are good or not...


Scutellaria longifolia and Justicia candicans. These two play nice together. The phone camera really doesn't capture the colours well.


Justicia ? (looks half way between an upright brandegeeana and fulvicoma), Salvia blepharophylla, and Cuphea oreophila. The Justicia is a bit weedy and constantly needs cutting back. Meh combination.


Mixed Justicias (L to R, aurea, chryostephana, candicans, and fulvicoma) and Cupheas (salvadorensis and oreophila, these look identical). Some Arenga are mixed in as well. Good combination I think - everyone plays nice).


Mixed Heliconia (dwarf latispatha - in flower but out of frame, and x raulinaiana), Cuphea (oreophila and schumannii), and Callistemon vimminalis 'Boyette'. Meh combination - the C. schumannii is aggressive and has an ugly growth habit. Hummingbirds are also unimpressed by it. 

I've paired up a bunch of Salvia x Amistad (purple) and Hamelia patens (orange/red) this year which I think will be a nice combination when they grow in.

[thyerr01]

@hinovak Any pictures of your Salvia bed. I've really struggled with them in Houston.

[happypalms]

9 hours ago, hinovak said:

Yeah, your place is amazing. I wish I could incorporate more palms here, we are pretty limited, there are some better ones that we can get away with protection. I just usually end up with too many things to cover, so I’ve personally limited palms, because I honestly don’t have enough time to protect them all. What is the cycad in second to last pic? Very pretty

Dioon spinolosum second last pic in shade they go more green and look much better. There’s a lot of cold tolerant palms but it takes a lot of research and time acquiring them tracking them down is the hard part. It depends a lot on budget and what is available locally but Mother Nature can be so cruel to palms with cold weather. My garden is around 25 years young you can’t grow a palm garden overnight I know that much. 

[hinovak]

On 1/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, thyerr01 said:

Here are a couple of my combinations - with a focus on things that are actually in flower right now. Whether they are good or not...


Scutellaria longifolia and Justicia candicans. These two play nice together. The phone camera really doesn't capture the colours well.


Justicia ? (looks half way between an upright brandegeeana and fulvicoma), Salvia blepharophylla, and Cuphea oreophila. The Justicia is a bit weedy and constantly needs cutting back. Meh combination.


Mixed Justicias (L to R, aurea, chryostephana, candicans, and fulvicoma) and Cupheas (salvadorensis and oreophila, these look identical). Some Arenga are mixed in as well. Good combination I think - everyone plays nice).


Mixed Heliconia (dwarf latispatha - in flower but out of frame, and x raulinaiana), Cuphea (oreophila and schumannii), and Callistemon vimminalis 'Boyette'. Meh combination - the C. schumannii is aggressive and has an ugly growth habit. Hummingbirds are also unimpressed by it. 

I've paired up a bunch of Salvia x Amistad (purple) and Hamelia patens (orange/red) this year which I think will be a nice combination when they grow in.

Love cupheas, all your stuff is cool. my hummers don’t like them as much as I thought or read online…they are surprisingly picky…I have a few garden beds like yours, do you wack yours way back in winter? I tend to, just because by the end of the season, they get so overgrown and tend to over take others. The beds always look fantastic in early June, but awful by later September. 

[hinovak]

On 1/4/2025 at 5:54 PM, thyerr01 said:

@hinovak Any pictures of your Salvia bed. I've really struggled with them in Houston.

I haven’t take many pictures of the bed; I would take one for you now, but it looks like a giant overgrown mass…are you in shade or sun? And which have you struggled with? I prefer the larger leaf ones, they like a lot more water than others,  and like a little shade, which is what my spot has, so if you get a lot of rainfall, you might be struggling with some of the super drought tolerant ones that are usually for sale in Texas or if you have too much shade. I like the wish series of salvia a lot. Also salvia oxyphora is a stellar sage. I did take a pic of that. Super tropical looking, cold hardy even for me.

[thyerr01]

@hinovak The last few winters have done the whacking for me. I generally try to leave things undisturbed throughout the winter to provide a bit more frost protection and just clean up anything dead in March. My clear winners for hummingbirds are Justicia fulvicoma, Salvia microphylla 'Orange Door', and Bouvardia ternifolia. Cuphea x 'David Verity', Anisacanthus quadrifidus (only the red one), and Salvia x 'Amistad' also do ok. 

When I moved to Houston I put in a lot of Salvias, mostly winter flowering ones. They all failed and I've tried a few new ones each year without much success. They all seem to be pest magnets for me, but I think I also gave some of them too much sun (elegans and cinnabarina). I'm kinda embarrassed to list the number I have managed to kill. 

These three are the only ones I have managed to grow successfully.
S. blepharophylla - I've killed 2/3rds of them. Needs just the right amount of sun I think. Too much and they slowly wither and die, too little they also die, but randomly overnight. This is my favourite Salvia and I'm determined to figure it out.
S. microphylla 'Orange Door' - Outgrows the leafhoppers. No losses and several new plants from cuttings.
S. x 'Amistad' - Outgrows the leafhoppers, no losses and several new plants from cuttings. I'm going to try x 'Amante' this year which is similar.

The following all died, and I've tried 2-3 plants in different locations of each: cinnabarina, disjuncta, elegans, guaranitica 'Black and Blue' and 'Rhythm and Blues', fulgens, gesneriiflora 'Tequila' and 'Mole Poblano', holwayii, microphylla 'San Carlos' and 'La Trinidad', regla, wagneriana 'Red' and 'White', and x 'Mr Jules'. 

The main problem I have is sage leafhoppers. The internet says these are only meant to cause cosmetic damage, but they utterly destroyed most of my plants leaving the leaves basically white - then the heat finishes them off. Only S. blepharophylla seems to resist them, I think due to the thick leaves, and 'Orange Door' and x 'Amistad' just seem to grow fast enough to keep ahead of the damage. S. gesneriiflora also attracted mealybugs like no other plant I have grown. I don't know why the other S. microphylla cultivars failed while 'Orange Door' grows so well. 

I'll have to add oxyphora to the list (either one). Good to know it needs shade.

[Xenon]

17 minutes ago, thyerr01 said:

@hinovak 
 

These three are the only ones I have managed to grow successfully.
S. blepharophylla - I've killed 2/3rds of them. Needs just the right amount of sun I think. Too much and they slowly wither and die, too little they also die, but randomly overnight. This is my favourite Salvia and I'm determined to figure it out.
S. microphylla 'Orange Door' - Outgrows the leafhoppers. No losses and several new plants from cuttings.
S. x 'Amistad' - Outgrows the leafhoppers, no losses and several new plants from cuttings. I'm going to try x 'Amante' this year which is similar.

The following all died, and I've tried 2-3 plants in different locations of each: cinnabarina, disjuncta, elegans, guaranitica 'Black and Blue' and 'Rhythm and Blues', fulgens, gesneriiflora 'Tequila' and 'Mole Poblano', holwayii, microphylla 'San Carlos' and 'La Trinidad', regla, wagneriana 'Red' and 'White', and x 'Mr Jules'. 
 

That's strange... Black and Blue has been growing great for me for years in west Houston. I've used it as random vertical filler, very easy to divide and pop it in wherever (it's semi-invasive). Requires too much deadheading to look its best though. 

Salvia blepharophylla does fine for a season or two but seems to peter out and not come back randomly. Same with S. sinaloensis which has striking almost pure blue flowers. Salvia coccinea grows fine but it's not long lived. 

[thyerr01]

@Xenon I guess I should add a third category. I actually removed 'Black and Blue' because it was blighted with leafhoppers to the point that it looked awful (completely white) and wasn't flowering. I would say it was treading water, rather than outgrowing the damage like 'Orange Door' or 'Amistad'. Everything else on the list actually died and I switched into Justicias and Cupheas to go along with my palms and Aus natives.

Perhaps my experience with S. blepharophylla is the same as yours - I had a few in shade that grew rapidly into proper bushes and then seemingly died overnight. Starters are dirt cheap though.

I don't want to hijack the thread with my Salvia problems, but they are such a diverse group of plants that can be used to make some stunning combinations in terms of colour and form factor. I would love to see some more of everyone's plant pairings - I think this a great topic that I wish I had put a bit more thought into at the beginning.

[Xenon]

RIP the flamethrower but I was really trying to go for a neon/electric/outer space look with the gold crownshaft, silver Philodendron hastatum, and Monstera 'Thai Constellation'. There was once an attempt at an Alocasia maccrorhiza 'Lutea' in there too. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

On 1/4/2025 at 3:30 PM, hinovak said:

I def. hear you on the pollinator plants, I am particularly fond of humming birds, and so a lot of my yard caters to them, I have a salvia bed, and a host of other hummer attractors scattered around the yard, and of course the prettiest pollinator plant I try, the hummers want nothing to do with. But it’s hard to balance straight aesthetics with nature friendly, but like you, it’s my own house, so I don’t really care, they all work for me. The salvia garden has been fun, I’ve started getting weird random hybrid salvias popping up

Being honest I got into flower gardening long before I got interested with palms and such 😅. So I still incorporate a variety of flower plants and trees in my garden. Milkweeds, lantana, sunflowers, pentas, bottlebrush, jatropha, duranta. etc. Also probably my most prolific plant is scarlet sage, I believe a species of Salvia, that butterflies and hummingbirds love. It grows very fast, has beautiful red flowers, and pops up everywhere like a weed. Of course, with all this said I still do like to have some order in my garden and allow space for non flowering plants that I myself can enjoy.

[happypalms]

Bromeliads another fairly tough plant and somewhat cool tolerant, not a blinding white frost but definitely cool tolerant.

[ChrisA]

On 1/6/2025 at 12:57 PM, thyerr01 said:

@Xenon I guess I should add a third category. I actually removed 'Black and Blue' because it was blighted with leafhoppers to the point that it looked awful (completely white) and wasn't flowering. I would say it was treading water, rather than outgrowing the damage like 'Orange Door' or 'Amistad'. Everything else on the list actually died and I switched into Justicias and Cupheas to go along with my palms and Aus natives.

Perhaps my experience with S. blepharophylla is the same as yours - I had a few in shade that grew rapidly into proper bushes and then seemingly died overnight. Starters are dirt cheap though.

I don't want to hijack the thread with my Salvia problems, but they are such a diverse group of plants that can be used to make some stunning combinations in terms of colour and form factor. I would love to see some more of everyone's plant pairings - I think this a great topic that I wish I had put a bit more thought into at the beginning.

Have you tried Mealy Blue Sage? It’s native to the hill country region and performs well here. As of the other day their are still many in flower, but will probably be taken by a freeze forecasted for tomorrow night.

Also as @Xenon says, tropical salvia (Salvia coccinea) thrives in the heat and humidity.  It is short lived but seeds in readily. The photo below with the Washie has reseeded S. coccinea mixes with Calliandra eriophylla.  It’s a bit of a wild look, but I like it.

Not sure how it does in your climate but Salvia darcyi is a wonderful showstopper here and attracts lots of hummers!

 

 

[hinovak]

On 1/7/2025 at 1:55 AM, happypalms said:

Bromeliads another fairly tough plant and somewhat cool tolerant, not a blinding white frost but definitely cool tolerant.

Bromeliads are awesome, I have 4 that have survived in my climate. I would totally be addicted to them if I had more options.

[happypalms]

1 hour ago, hinovak said:

Bromeliads are awesome, I have 4 that have survived in my climate. I would totally be addicted to them if I had more options.

As a collector myself of plants the rarer the better. You will find most plants you wish for if you do some research. You can practically buy any plant online if you keep on looking and then get it mail order. 

[thyerr01]

@ChrisA I haven't tried Salvia darcyi or farinacea, although the latter is very common in public and commercial landscapes in Houston. I was just given a free pot of Salvia coccinea last week and put it in the ground, we'll see if survives the winter and can reseed itself.

@hinovak What bromeliads have you had success with in DFW? I think Aechmea gamosepala is the only cold hardy one I have seen locally.

[hinovak]

4 hours ago, thyerr01 said:

@ChrisA I haven't tried Salvia darcyi or farinacea, although the latter is very common in public and commercial landscapes in Houston. I was just given a free pot of Salvia coccinea last week and put it in the ground, we'll see if survives the winter and can reseed itself.

@hinovak What bromeliads have you had success with in DFW? I think Aechmea gamosepala is the only cold hardy one I have seen locally.

So gamosepala, as you said, and here are pictures of them in the snow tonight actually, thought it was fitting for the topic. Lol!

 

Aechmea distichantha, pictures of it flowering last year.

 

[hinovak]

all snowed in and unprotected tonight

Puya mirabilis
Billbergia nutans

Aechmea recurvata

and bigger red one that I forgot the name, will have to look it up. 
 

 

 

[happypalms]

Here’s a few tough cool tolerant ones 

kangaroo paw flowers 

Cordyline 

gerberias 

clivias 

azaleas 

and the echium plant 

especially the azaleas tough as 

[thyerr01]

@hinovak They look awesome. Its kinda surreal to see them in the snow. I guess they see low 20s/high teens every winter up there?

Seeing those thriving in DFW makes we want to get back into growing bromeliads.

[iDesign]

Great topic! I think about “combinations” often. This one might be my all-time favorite - Purpke King paired with “limelight” dracanea. Picks up the secondary color so well!

[hinovak]

3 hours ago, thyerr01 said:

@hinovak They look awesome. Its kinda surreal to see them in the snow. I guess they see low 20s/high teens every winter up there?

Seeing those thriving in DFW makes we want to get back into growing bromeliads.

I suspect they could make it to 15 degrees or tad less depending if they have overhead canopy or planted next to a house. They survived 8 degrees with just freeze cloth laid on top of them, so they are pretty resilient. I never expected them to do as well as they have. The one that I showed flowering is a champ. And it’s decent size, whereas the others are pretty small. The red one is nice sized too, but I’ve only had that a couple seasons, so don’t really know if it can go as low as the ones that took 8 degrees with freeze cloth. But they are next to my house under canopy which def. Helps, but if you are in Houston, they should sail right through anything you guys get unprotected. 

[hinovak]

1 hour ago, iDesign said:

Great topic! I think about “combinations” often. This one might be my all-time favorite - Purpke King paired with “limelight” dracanea. Picks up the secondary color so well!

I think good combinations make such a better look over all, and it def. takes time to get it right. I started just throwing a bunch of different rare larger plants I like anywhere, and it just didn’t look quite right. And then I started playing around with smaller companion plants and it made all the difference. Most are common companion plants. But I think they highlight the specimen plants so well. What other companion plants do you like?

[iDesign]

39 minutes ago, hinovak said:

What other companion plants do you like?

There's one area of my yard with a limited color palette of Green, Burgundy & Purple.

Here's one corner of the "limited color" area from last summer (showing the burgundy Ti's & Aechmea bromeliads)...

And since this photo was taken, I added some burgundy "Black Dragon" hibiscus to this area...

The limited color palette (of just those three colors) works wonderfully for this area.

[iDesign]

19 minutes ago, iDesign said:

The limited color palette (of just those three colors) works wonderfully for this area.

In contrast, there are also some "anything goes" areas in my yard, where I'm allowed to use any color I want, and the only "rule" is that nothing can be the same color as the plant next to it (lol). Here's a photo I just took of one of these "anything goes" areas...

And a close-up of an understory grouping from another area...

I'm pretty eclectic in my companion plants...

- Toplevel is mostly palms, although I mix it up a bit with bananas, larger hibiscus & brugmansia (angel trumpets).

- Midlevel mostly has Ti's (Burgundy & Purple), Dracaena (a yellow Ti-like alternative), Climbing plants (like the one in the above photo) & Tropical Hibiscus.

- Understory is mostly Bromeliads (my first love)... though I'm always testing out other tropicals.

Goal for my yard is to have color at every level, and a lot of variety in leaf shape and texture. Once in a while I find a particularly attractive pairing (like the purple king + limelight dracaena - or compatible "burgundy" plants for my "limited palette" area)... and I love when those types of pairings are discovered.

I LOVE the look of your yard! Is that Queen Emma I see? The Farfugium is a great addition that I use as well. Such a nice contrast in shape... you should definitely try the "spotted" variation if you haven't (I love both types).