Hi. I have been tweaking a part-sun border for a while. For me nepeta walkers low flops all over the place in part sun and looks messy and spawling.

none of my Phlox have bloomed yet in zone 6. I have David, blue paradise and nora. They do fine in part sun, but are much showier in full sun.. yarrow flops for me in part sun.
One thing you could do is focus on contrasting folliage. For exaqmple, daylillies have thin strappy folliage, so you could add some large leaved plants like hostas, or what about lady's mantle( my current favorite edger)
Also if daylillies are along the back, then I guess your looking for a rather short perennial for in front?
What about a few geranium rozannes? blueish purple flowers look great with yellow.
Just a few thoughts... i'm sure you'll get lots of advise. ;) jody

about the hostas, which would normally be ideal, just four letters that I forgot to mention: d e e r

I've never heard of geranium rozannes. Looking them up now! Thanks jody!

Depending on the look you could add Sedums of different varieties. Low ones and tall...but to warn you deer love those also. The low varieties will spread nicely and weave infront of the daylilies. Also the geraniums can texture weaving in and out. Even though some people think deadnettle is for the shade I use it also in full sun with no problem and it weaves also in and out of plants.

You could use low grasses in spots for movement and winter interest.

With a long border I would also repeat planting of anchor plants ten feet apart to have your eye move down the garden. Like a medium grasses, coneflowers, black eye susans and other daylily of strong color depending on what you have.

The deer are a handful and when they are hungry nothing really stops them.

You might be a bit impatient. One of the agastaches I bought this year is only beginning to flower and the second one is still growing and I'm not expecting flowers right now. Some of the plants I bought last year haven't flowered at all yet. You might want to try some foxglove as the deer won't eat it and it does well in part shade.

Remember, if you don't like the daylilies you can always get rid of them and plant something else. It's your garden now.

Throw some nice Daffodils in with the Daylilys. They'll shoot their foliage and bloom earlier, and the Daylilys will hide their declining foliage.

Ditto Hostared's suggestion of medium grasses staggered down the length. Lots of nice shade loving cool-season grasses to choose from. Snowy Woodruff and Tufted Hairgrass are two good ones. Hakone's are another good eyecatcher, both the green and golden variegated cultivars.

Dwarf Shasta Daisies, like 'Snow Lady' for the front, and 'Silver Princess' for the middle would work well.

I love Perilla with the orange daylilies -

Carrie

All good ideas! Thanks so much.

What about ferns? There are some that like dry part sun, aren't there? Just thinking of deer resistance.

I like the ornamental grass idea, as well as the daisies. So many good ideas I am going to want a longer border to try them all. Actually, I will have another area with much the same conditions next year. We will be clearing out a section of brush, so if some plants don't work out in the border, I can always use them there.

Carrie, I've never heard of Perilla, just found it on google images. Is there a particular variety you like?

Gosh, I don't know the exact name of the Perilla but it's deep purple - but for that matter anything deep purple (I think) looks terrific with orange, but of course, it's a matter of preference.

Let us know what you decided

Carrie

I'll chime in on Perilla. I love it in my pots.
I use the Magilla Gorilla variety. Some are totally black and some have a pink center that looks like Coleus. But it is not Coleus. This plant can take the harsh Sun and heat. It thrives. One of my favorite plantings (every year) is one goes in the middle of a large wash tub. I add two varieties of sweet potatoe vine, green and black, five plants in all and wow it takes off.

There is also another plant similar to perilla. This was a friendship plant years ago. It's almost black looks like perilla or basil and reseeds. I only keep what I need for planters and in my beds. Loves the sun and heat also. Maybe someone has it and can tell me the name of it.
It's been a good staple.

One other thought, if you have dapple shade, is to add some flowering shrubs. Limelight hydrangea (fall interest), Wine & Roses Weigilia (full sun) also a good perennial for the fall is Cimicifugia (bugbane),Rudbeckia, Shasta Daisy and cone flowers.

Use your imagination that's what gardening is all about.

My east side bed is a part shade bed, get's sun from sunup til early afternoon then the house shades it. I have a variety of things that are doing really well. I've linked a picture, it's looking up a bit of a slope, I have more moisture lovers at the bottom of the slope then drier lovers at the top. What I grow in here besides the hostas that you can see, all of which are doing great in the light conditions here, are (though I'm sure I'll forget something):

- rudbeckia Goldsturm
- Annabelle hydrangea
- sidalacea Party Girl
- penstemon, some orange cultivar
- daisy, it's a mini grows to 12" high but can't remember the name
- Happy Returns daylily
- pholox paniculata - Blue Paradise, Nicky, Orange Perfection, Starfire and a few others I can't remember the names of
- campanula Blue Clips and White Clips
- geraniums, Splish Splash, Johnson's Blue, x magnificum, and some pink ones I also can't remember the name of
- alchemila mollis
- oriental and asiatic lillies
- alliums
- potentilla Miss Wilmott
- some other daylillies
- monarda, Jacob Kline and Petite Delight
- sedum Autumn Fire
- salvia May Night
- nepeta Dropmore Blue
- liatris Kobold
- a couple of Austin roses
- and that's a clematis viticella on the trellis

I don't really have a colour theme for this bed, the roses are yellow and white, and everthing else is a jumble of blues, purples, orange, red, pinks, with green as the unifier.
tess

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:241953}}

I don't know if you have enough sun and it isn't a perennial but I like to plant nasturiums in front of my orange daylilies. If you like blue with orange, you could try some of the salvias - both annual and perennial. The deer don't like them in my yard.
Nancy