Built for full sun and low water, this planting scheme delivers year-round structure and, with top-performing perennials, a long season of color in PNW gardens. An evergreen frame of Yucca ‘Color Guard’, Calluna vulgaris ‘Winter Chocolate’, and Brachyglottis greyi (syn. Senecio greyi) anchors the scene with bold form, fine texture, and luminous silver foliage. From summer into fall, perennials in a harmonious palette—Agastache ‘Rainbow Sorbet’, Echinacea ‘Green Twister’, Hemerocallis ‘Black Arrowhead’, and Penstemon ‘Enor’—layer in varied flower shapes and continuous bloom.

Yucca ‘Color Guard’ supplies the drama: strong architecture, striking variegation, and tall towers of ivory flowers that draw hummingbirds. Remove spent flower stalks by cutting to the base. Watch for any reversion to solid green and cut those rosettes out at the base.

Calluna ‘Winter Chocolate’ forms a fine-textured, evergreen, ground-hugging mass with acid-yellow foliage that shifts to rich bronzy tones in colder months. Shear lightly after flowering to keep it compact and tidy.

Brachyglottis greyi contributes larger, felt-backed silver leaves that play beautifully against the heather’s fine texture and the yucca’s variegation. Yellow, daisy-like blooms in late spring to early summer are a bonus; the foliage is the main show. After flowering, cut back firmly (not to the ground) to prevent splaying and maintain a dense, attractive mound.

Culture and care: Provide full sun and well-drained soil. This combination is drought tolerant and relatively low-water once established, but in hot, dry PNW summers it will look and perform best with occasional deep supplemental watering. Most components are commonly available in the greater Portland area; the exact daylily (‘Black Arrowhead’) can be harder to source—if needed, substitute a similar, deep burgundy daylily with comparable height and bloom time. Inspired by vignettes from my ffront yard garden in NE Portland, Oregon (Zone 8b/9a).