fleeting plant combinations, accidental and planned

Sometimes I have a plan to combine particular shapes and colours in the ongoing search for perfection - whatever that means. But usually it doesn't work out  because plants have their own minds, or their own designs. They might comply with me for a season or two, but then they do their own thing. And sometimes I adore that thing ... while it lasts ...

Lychnis, a perennial, disappears for a bit then pops up in unexpected places. The wallflowers are in flower in winter and spring. When they flower together and next to each other, the colour combination is wonderful. There was a time when bright pink and orange combination didn't appeal. Now I love it, especially next to the lacy santolina leaves (bottom left).

In this picture there are five plants to be seen. On the whole they are fairly ordinary, common plants. Overseen by a rabbit security guard, together they combine to make a very pretty picture. Starting to the right of Rabbit, going clockwise, rosemary is the backdrop, dark blue echium, euphorbia Silver Swan with flowers the colour of cauliflour, bottom left the edge of a group of white salvia Greggii, and in the middle some hot pink Lychnis.

Here's another view of Rabbit. Big bush to left of Rabbit is not-yet-flowering Teucrium Betonicum. When it does flower it will have bright pink spires. Going round clockwise: low grey plant is a small wormwood - I think it's 'Powis Castle'. Then the big distinctive leaves of the echium. You can glimpse the dark blue flower spike at the edge of the photo. Underneath salvia greggii white form, orange wallflower, pink lychnis and grey leaved santolina.

Moving along, you can see similar plants, with the addition of the grassy liriopes on the right, grown mainly for their punctuation and contrasting capacities rather than their tiny mauve flowers.

So -  different shaped and sized foliage, lots of grey and green, with a few bright coloured highlights, all combine to make a pleasing picture in the front garden. It's temporary of course. Already we're starting to experience hot weather, a few days over 30 degrees. The picture will change. It's not a good idea to be too attached to the way the garden looks at any given moment in time.

There'll be another picture, but until I see it I only have a vague idea what that picture might be. The only element of the picture that I can depend on and that is predictable is the Rabbit.