Ideas Please

I have a gravel garden, which is part of the back garden. This morning I scraped back some of the gravel and have now made two planting areas. One is in between two Blue Centaura and a pink Aqualegia and has the wall at the back. The larger area has beech hedging at the back and a purple Aqualegia to the one side ( there is also a small clump of orange Crocosmia, but not easily seen at the moment ). The gravel garden gets sun un the morning and is then in shade and dappled shade rest of the day. The pic is not the best due to time of day. I'll take a better one later on. I was thinking of planting my newly bought Coreopsis here but wondering if something else might work better??

 

I hadn't considered Iris. Thought they liked dampish conditions and the gravel garden is not particularly damp. I bought a yellow Geum and a pink Astilbe today, but that's not to say I am going to plant them there. But I might

 

Lucius
Ceratostigma wilmottianum or Griffithi are superb blue flowered perennial subshrubs...nice red autumn foliage too. Or, a caryopteris ....aside from the usual ones there are 2 nice ones; Sterling Silver which has silver grey foliage and Summer Sorbet which has yellow serrated foliage.
Euryops pectinata is an evergreen perennial almost permanently covered in yellow flowers. Superb contrast to the blues mentioned above
Achillea Terracotta is another to consider......terracotta orange flowers all summer. Goes well with yellows and blues
Have to mention grasses dont I? Helictotrichon ....in flower here now....and elymus magellanicus would look good in gravel garden

 

@Verdun . Funnily enough I was thinking whether a grass might work. I'll take some better pics tomorrow to show all of the gravel garden. The other side of the Buddleia and the Willow there are Ferns and more Aqualegias. There are Hellebores and Phlox there too - but these are not necessarily going to stay where they are though and can be moved.

 

If I get time...if I remember to...I will take a picture of my helictotricon and elymus. They are both blue grasses....the former a much taller version of festucas

 

This gives an idea of my space. Couldn't decide whether to add gravel to the bit where the Hellebores and others are growing, so thought best not as pain to remove if I don't like. Like the woodland feel anyway and definitely not adding anymore gravel to the area where the hedgehog houses are sited. Always open to suggestions as regards the rest .

 

Only time to grab a quick snap of helictotrichon sempervirens lucius. A video would show its graceful movement

 

Next time I go into a garden centre I'll have a look for some Iris. I saw spring flowering Iris awhile ago but not noticed any summer ones so far. I'll have a look for some of Verduns suggestions too.

I turned out one of the pots by the bench yesterday and discovered the snakes head frittallaries have been busy making baby bulbs . Planted them into the gravel garden and along new border. Back planted the pot with a blue scabious. For the time being and because I have nothing else to hand and no where else to to put them I've planted my Coreopsis in the gravel garden. The Aqualegias will be going over soon and the blue centaurea won't last all summer but might be persuaded to flower again in autumn, so the coreopsis will add a splash of colour. Might look good with blue iris too. Maybe a sun loving fern ?? I do like ferns .