Great Companion Plants for Lilies

Lilies make perfect partners with other plants and help create strikingly beautiful combinations in the garden. Since Lilies appreciate some shade around their roots while keeping their foliage and ravishing blossoms in the air and sunshine, they welcome the company of neighboring plants such as annuals, perennials, bulbs, grasses, or shrubs. However, a few rules must be respected to ensure your Lilies will thrive.

• Choose shallow-rooted companions: Lilies do very well in the company of shallow-rooted plants, which also help to keep their roots cool. Most annuals have shallow roots. On the perennial side, Peonies, Irises, and Columbines are shallow-rooted plants that look lovely with your Lilies.
• Choose low-growing companions: Do not plant tall plants next to your lilies, as they will shade the plants and reduce the production of Lily blooms.
• Underplanting your Lilies with a succession of flowers will reinforce the beauty of their spectacular blooms and extend the flowering season of your mixed border. Start with low-growing spring bulbs such as snowdrops, crocus, grape hyacinths, scillas, anemones, and daffodils. They will color your borders when your Lilies are not at their best. Many shrubs are exciting in spring, especially before most of the Lilies come into flower. These Lilies will ensure a new revival in these garden locations later in the season. Chrysanthemums and Asters will provide late-season color and hide the base of your Lily stalks as they decay.
• Lilies do not like too much competition and need a lot of space to mature properly. Surrounding them with plants that are not too aggressive or invasive is recommended. Don’t crowd them too close to these plants.
• Ensure you maintain good air circulation to prevent fungus diseases such as botrytis.
• A wide range of companion plants will bring out the best qualities of your Lilies and share their space with a serene balance. Select any ornamental grasses, perennials, annuals, or shrubs with the same growing requirements as your Lilies. Most Lilies do best in full sun and well-drained soil, but some varieties prefer partial shade. Most Lilies do well in slightly acidic soil; very alkaline soils would preclude some of them.
• Texture, color, and form are also important in selecting companion plants. Because of the colors Lilies generally possess (yellow, pink, orange, red, and white, with all the possible colors in between), blue and purple-flowering perennial plants make favorite neighbors (Salvia, Echinops, etc.). Plants with gray foliage (Artemisia, Stachys byzantina, etc.) or deep green ferns can effectively accent LiLies’ beauty.
  Lilies always provide an effective contrast against brown-leaved shrubs (Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’, Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’) or blue-flowering shrubs (Caryopteris clandonensis, Hibiscus syriacus ‘Coelestis’ and Ceanothus ‘Gloire de Versailles’).

With many companion plants to pair your Lilies with, you will surely find several combinations that will enhance your landscape and please your eye!