BloominLooney

Why not block the view... a bit?

The view is so very horizontal and vast, I'd love to see some shrubs poking up into that blue swath as if Cookie Monster munched along the lower edge. Standing in the spot where you most often take in the view, figure out how tall a shrub you would need to cut into the band of water to which degree (just, third, half, three quarters) then group the shrubs of different heights to make interesting shapes. You might have a few taller plants that actually cut all way through the line of water and up into the sky at the edges of your view to frame, but a few cutting up into the main part would also add somewhere for your eye to hold on. It is so very bright out over the water that the silhouettes of the plants you chose will be as important as the flowers particularly in the afternoon, if I understand you correctly. Go for some open airy shrubs you can see the water glinting through such as tree peonies.

Actually I don't want to make any real recommendations about specific plants, because I live in California. Unless you are a plant-aholic, I think the individual plant choices are not that important. I think you should decide what colors you want and sizes you want, and then do what others have already suggested such as talking to your county's Master Gardeners, people at local nurseries, looking at websites of local natives and also, very important, looking at what is thriving in other gardens near by. Choosing from plants proven to be happy in your micro-area will be more rewarding in the long run.

I would choose big areas of each color to match the garden bed's scale to the distance it is going to be viewed from most often. I like the idea of blue flowers and also plants with blueish foliage to echo the blues of the water and make a gentle transition from water to land. Perhaps areas of white flowers could do the same thing by echoing the sparkles of light on the water. Yellow would be a traditional addition to that palette which would have the optical power to stand out from a distance, but I see that you (like me) like red. The heart is a better director toward happiness than the brain. If red makes you happy, go with red. I once heard you should decorate your house in the colors you like to wear. That goes for the garden too, as far as I'm concerned.

Finally, I would further break up the heavy horizontal-ness (?!) of the view by making a more natural, curving edge to the bed. In a way the undulating cuts "down" into the grass would be a reflection of those "Cookie Monster" cuts the taller shrubs would make up into the line of water.

There are my two cents.

Good luck.

How fun.

-- Pamela

Looking out at my melted winter garden, I think a bit of Dr. Seuss is just what I need. O.K. maybe not quite the Lorax's Truffula tree, but an artfully trimmed hedge or topiary can give the garden much need structure and focus -- especially in the winter when so much is gone. Formal European and Japanese gardens do so traditionally, but also wonderful modern gardens. These "bad taste" people have just strayed slightly from a very well-worn path of messing with nature with wonderful results. When I saw the "Jetson's" tree (or launching pad tree as the previous commenter called it) in your yuck-list, I thought immediately of Piet Oudolf and his wavy stacks of hedges or giant spheres balancing the mess of old grasses and perennials in his winter landscapes. There is a magic to his landscapes which could never be achieved without the delicate dance of nature and man's radical interference.

Here is a link to the NY Times article on "Artfully Planned Decay."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/garden/31piet.html?pagewanted=all

As a plant lover, it is easy to have a collection garden, and there is nothing wrong with that; it can look great with some limiting parameters or an artist's eye. But I find that, as my garden matures, I have been simplifying and simplifying. It has to do with scale and visual impact of larger swaths of color. I think the six-plant idea has merit.

And I think I am bloomin' looney?! That is a lot of work, but I totally love it. The colors, the forms... the insanity! Gorgeous!

This is gorgeous. Sophisticated and lovely, but also very practical since it will maintain it's interest as it is the foliage which really carries it.