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Headbourne Hybrids Agapanthus (4 of 4)

Armed with your palette of Agapanthus and daylilies, you can begin to plant with a vengeance. All require full or part sun with well-drained soil, although they've been known to do well in less-than-ideal clays, too. Each plant becomes a clump of strap-like leaves over thick fleshy roots, and out of these rise on long wands topped with blooms in a spectacular showing.

The trick to success is to plant lots of them because they are all truly affordable at one gallon or bare root by mail. Try three to five of each color in a mass to compound their visibility. Allow these groups to drift around one another like a soft flowing patchwork. Spot them into your existing beds and borders, which injects powerful seasonal blooms where other plants have proved disappointing.

What's so addicting about these plants is that large clumps can be so easily dug up, divided or moved if you're not happy with the location. This means that you get lots of free plants in future years to spread into new drifts of color. And best of all, you get to make lots of mistakes, and they'll still come back next year.

(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of Weekend Gardening. For more information, visit: www.moplants.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)