I'm also very fond of the purple smoke tree. I had one in NJ and it stopped traffic, once. It is simply stunning among silver-leafed plants. I think Intrigue might look good with a purple smoke tree. I confess that I would prefer a smoldering orange there, though. The first purple smoke tree I planted here died. Very convincingly, too. It played half dead its first year and never came back its second.
I love the idea of using pots and painted chairs as place-holders. I find that almost nothing makes a garden say "linger" quite so convincingly as an ample supply of great places to sit that are well integrated into the design.
I also like your use of plants with fine textured foliage: grasses, amsonia, and russian sage. Plants with small flowers and fine foliage tend to soften edges in a way that really draws attention to roses. The voles ate all but one of my decorative blue (helicotrichon) grass in the first year. My russian sage never grew at all. I have yet to plant amsonia here. So I depend on artemesia, cerastium, silver leafed salvia (salvia argentea), silver dianthus and a marguerite daisy from Annie's whose name I cannot recall. I am learning to use iris to give texture to a bed. Christopher Lloyd hated iris because it was impossible to keep weeds out of their beds, but I am learning that they can add sculptural interest to rose beds. (He also hated roses.) And when iris are not all bunched together they are not hard to weed.
I'm afraid that I am a little cautious with yellow in the garden. I absolutely love it with dark green foliage. And I love it with true blue flowers. One will find it with certain shades of maroon in nature and I'm happy with that, though I've not learned to use it well. When it comes to mixing yellow with mauve-like colors, though, I tend to run away screaming. I do love mauve mixed with cool reds and pinks, though.
Yellow and pink can be very good together or very bad. I think they look best if their saturation and brightness are comparable: i.e. strong yellows look best with strong pinks. But, of course, every one has their own tastes in colors and there is no right or wrong here. I agree that orange doesn't work with silvers very well with gray foliage. It might explain why I don't have many orange Iris.
I do think that I need a place to plant a bed of six or so Julia Child next year. I wonder if she would consort well with Lady Emma Hamilton? Three, maybe? Then I need a rose with some weight: dark red but not too purple. Perhaps L.D. Braithwaite, quantity two. This might look good anchored with a purple smoke tree. Now to find the right spot in the garden...
