What to plant with iris for summer long color?

[ColtsFan]

I'll be replanting iris soon and I want to put other perennials with them so when the iris die off I'll still have something blooming but what do I use? I'm thinking about delphinium, hollyhocks, phlox and I have some daisies coming. I already have (in separate beds) purple coneflowers, peonies, hardy geraniums, bee balm, astilbe, Yellow Loosestrife, a God awful amount of lily of the valley (that I never planted but they took over a bed somehow), sedum (live forever) and yucca plants. I love begonias but hate having to replant every year, but something like that at the front of a row would be such a nice color. I just want something blooming for as much of the year as I can get but I need height to compete with iris that are up to 3 feet tall many years. If I cut them back I want the cut stems to be hidden by whatever I plant in front of them so I'm looking to go from the tall iris in the back to shorter plants or flowers stepping down toward the front. I'll try to post pics tomorrow of the area I'm dealing with so there is some idea of how I want it to look. Hopefully I can get some ideas here as to what will work and achieve the look I'm aiming for.

[MaineDesigner]

What kind of iris are we talking about? Different types of iris have different cultural demands.

Edit: I just looked at your second post and it appears that you have German/bearded iris. Nepeta would be a good choice for a long blooming companion plant. Try to avoid plants that have high water demands in mid to late summer as the bearded iris like it fairly dry after flowering. Delphiniums are not a good companion IMO.

[ColtsFan]

I truthfully don't know what kind they are, pics below for ID. I love the suggestion you made, they look like some sort of sage we had a few years ago, plus I see it repels mosquitoes. Now I have to see if I can find any around here

[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/ElvisFan/DSCI1442.jpg[/img]

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[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/ElvisFan/DSCN1235.jpg[/img]

[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/ElvisFan/DSCN7448.jpg[/img]

[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/ElvisFan/DSCN7453.jpg[/img]

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[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/ElvisFan/DSCN1242.jpg[/img]

[bullthistle]

Begonia grandis or hardy begonia is a perennial which can be propagated by division. You might want to try them.

https://propagatingperennials.blogspot.com/begoniagrandis