Took advantage of a late-season sale to snap up another rhododendron and a candelabra primrose. Two shrubby things also caught my eye - kind of surprisingly, usually I am not a big fan of junipers:

Blue Star


Japanese Dwarf Garden Juniper


The second one is low-growing but spreads up to 6', which is way bigger than I have any use for. Alas. I might be able to pop a Blue Star into the sun bed, though, since it's a slow grower and eventually maxes out at about 3' across and 2'-3' high. It could be a nice "structural" addition to that bed, especially with its lovely colour and texture, but I'm not totally sure whether it fits in my wild and crazy palette.

Some thoughts on the intarwebs:

Try to plant 'wild' plants or their relatives that associate well with junipers, such as heather (Erica and Calluna), phylodoce, Gaultheria, Pernettya, dwarf rhododendrons, Vaccinium, ferns and a whole range of creeping, herbaceous and shrubby alpine plants. Creeping thymes in particular associate well with junipers, as do sedums. Large rocks strategically placed can be very effective in this kind of garden, as can old logs for a more 'woodlandy' feel.

Well, ferns, thyme and sedum I can definitely do. Here's somebody else's rather lovely sedum/juniper combination, with some ornamental grass thrown in for good measure:


Elsewhere I see a suggestion that the foliage looks good next to peonies. That I could do; in fact I'm going to have to move the peony on the east wall over to the sun bed come fall. Fine Gardening puts it with roses, and likewise I have a rose I'm going to have to transplant. Hmmmm! This begins to sound promising.

The sun bed is actually starting to fill up, I think. I want to leave some space for the few annuals I have any patience for, after all. Next year I will have to concentrate on the part-sun beds, which are much barer, and will be more so once I move all the stuff that's stupidly sited there.