Down to Earth Garden Club

It is difficult to plant a bed that flowers all season without using annuals. How do you handle it?
Most of my beds are big enough to have at least a couple of perennials blooming all the time. Another thing I have discovered is that colored leafed and variegated plants help when little is flowering. What other tricks do you use?

Keep in mind, this is luck and not knowledge. I have spring bulbs, next comes lavender, pincushion and some unidentified which blooms spring, summer. I also have a combination of lilies which bloom in sequence until late summer. I throw some inpulse buy annuals and leftover annuals from my containers between everything. The annuals usually last until the frost.

It does take 3 or 4 years before you get a perennial bed blooming all season. I find it kind of hit or miss since things don't always bloom when you think they should.
The new wave petunias are a great filler.