June features mixed borders where pale pink clematis and Max Graf roses—like crushed tissue paper—pop through drifts of Hidcote blue lavender and purple sage, campanula, blue Veronica spicata, tiny geraniums and day lilies that might be filled in
Maine Gardener: Garish, chancy, new ... bring it on, Avent says
Tony Avent, founder and owner of Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina, loves bright and gaudy plants, loves to push the hardiness zones -- the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture revision backs him up on that -- and likes to bring new plants to the market.
He is also using more native plants, he told a packed room at New England Grows in Boston earlier this month during his lecture, "100 Perennials I Wouldn't Garden Without."
"We have to celebrate native plants not because they are native, but because they are great plants," he said. "Other plants are good too. I mean, what would they say if someone said only native people could come into your garden?"
Avent really likes bush clematis, as opposed to the vine clematis that are more popular.
"There is a whole series of native bush clematis than no one even knows," he said.
One of them is Clematis ochroleuca, which blooms in late spring with pendulous, fuzzy creamy white bells, and then has a wonderful ochre-colored seed heads in the fall. It grows to about 15 inches tall.
Alda 39s fragrant cascading peacock feather Bridal bouquet contained lilies: wedding suits gold coastmarine blue... 
Flowers - Glory: Come home to this classic mix of fragrant white asiatic lilies, white alstromeria and deep blue...