Gardeners love to garden for many reasons. One of the most common is the desire "to grow pretty flowers." When questioned further, gardeners often confess that it's really all about the colors of flowers and plants.
It's color–too much of it used with too little grace and a stunning lack of artistry… ~ Graham Rice, Discovering Annuals
A color wheel is a useful tool for gardeners. I bought my first one while studying landscape design many years ago. To a neophyte designer, it provided key information about primary, secondary and tertiary colors and their relationships. That wheel was rudimentary in comparison to The Gardener's Color Wheel.
Sydney Eddison, nationally renowned garden writer and lecturer, developed this wheel in collaboration with The Color Wheel Company in 2006. The wheel is more complete and extensive than my little art store model–as 18 colors and 12 gradations of those colors are represented. It shows complementary, split complement, triad, monochromatic, analogous and analogous-complementary colors in a clear, graphical manner.
Why, really, is color important in garden design? Color is one of the elements of design. All artistic expressions utilize an underlying structure of design principles and elements.
Design principles are the abstract, intangible characteristics of the composition such as balance, emphasis, scale and sequence. Design elements are the physical aspects of the components in the composition. There are five. • color • form • line • mass • texture According to Eddison, color theory can be simple: "There are only two ways to use color in the garden, contrast and harmony."
I like Thomas Hobbs' approach. Hobbs is another famous gardener with a erudite, irreverent, passionate and compelling manner. Somewhat unwittingly, he paid homage to color relationships in his book, The Jewel Box Garden.
"I am a sucker for color and am ready to hop into bed (the garden bed…) with anything silver, celadon green or violet purple. I also require massive doses of rust, apricot and chartreuse. Interestingly, these colors all look good together in virtually any combination. Celadon green and silver are neutral. Purple is a standout, the alpha wolf of the garden. It dominates but allows rusty and apricot shades to play second fiddle."
Is it just me or is anyone else tired of the bright magenta/lime green combination in container gardens, window boxes and garden beds? What was once fresh and vibrant is now boring. And when the plantings around MacDonald's are magenta and lime green, it's really over.
Now I'm liking orange. Orange is a bright and happy color and is so casual, so plebian.
Orange tuberous begonias (Begonia x tuberhbrida) are growing cheerfully on my covered porch. Orange impatiens (Impatiens 'Super Elfin Mix') are part of a bright hanging basket on a rusty iron hanger. A goldfish plant (Nematanthus gregarious) is blooming away with cute, orange fish-shaped flowers on the screen porch. I'm even choosing an orange coffee mug these days.
Orange facts • Orange is a secondary color made by mixing the primary colors yellow and red. • The complementary color to orange is blue. • Violet and green are split complementary colors to orange. • Analogous colors which are next to orange on a color wheel are red-orange and yellow-orange. • Orange is a warm color and foreshortens spaces with advancing qualities. • Orange is an evergreen tree of the genus Citrus, native to subtopical regions. • Orange is the fruit of an orange tree. • A popular Citrus hybrid is Calamondin Orange (. X Citrofortunella mitis), sold extensively as an indoor container plant. • Plants with orange in their names include Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) due to its fruit and Mock Orange (Philadelphus spp.) due to the fragrance of its flowers.
Designing with orange Let the color wheel be your guide. Be careful, though, as orange can look harsh and vulgar. Always consider the color of the background whether brick (red brick and orange can be ghastly!), stone, walls or fences.
Orange looks rich and deep when paired with its complementary colors. Imagine a daylily border of reds, yellows and oranges. Orange flowers are perfect foils when combined with their complement, blue, or their split complement colors of violet and green.
Penelope Hobhouse, the quintessential English garden designer, described one of her borders: "At Hidcote, scarlet dahlias, red fuchsias and orange-buff hemeorcallis (daylily) blend together, while the dark leaves of Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens' and Heuchera micrantha 'Palace Purple' in the front…serve as catalysts. Grassy miscanthus contributes more airy effects."
Orange flowers and fruits Many flowers are available in orange: tulips, poppies, nasturtiums, zinnias, lantanas, begonias, impatiens including the vibrant cultivar 'Bonfire', lilies of all kinds, butterfly weed, dahlias, cannas and glads. Orange fruits add pizzaz to the landscape: bittersweet, mountain ash, some crabapples.
Finally… Just as orange is a nice foil in garden design, orange food looks wonderful on a plate as do orange drinks in a glass. I often top a green salad with thin slices of orange bell peppers. A perfect autumn meal combines roast turkey and orange sweet potatoes or orange squash. And a sparkling flute of orange juice and champagne is divine for a celebratory brunch.
I like the color pink. Viewing something pink is an instant day-brightener and mood-lifter. While perhaps considered a feminine color by some, a pink tie or pink polo shirt on a handsome guy looks good to me.
Even though we're on the right side of the vernal equinox, our part of the country has been hit with some rather harsh weather and it feels especially wearisome after an early tease of bright sunshine and temperatures in the 60s. The skies have been leaden, the biting winds have barely abated and temperatures have remained about 20 degrees below the average.
Let's cheer ourselves up with some pink.
Pink facts. • Pink is a tint of red, meaning white is added to red to make pink. • Pink is a warm color and will foreshorten distances. • Other tints, tones (red + gray) and shades (red + black) of red include rose, magenta, fuchsia, maroon, burgundy and cranberry. • Pink is the common name for plants in the genus Dianthus. • Another definition for pink is to be in excellent physical health and condition. • Pink is also a verb. To pink is "to decorate with a perforated pattern." Thus, pinking shears.
Get pink. Try pink jammies, pink socks, a pink tee-shirt. I have a pair of bright pink leather gloves which never fail to cheer me up. Maybe pink lipstick? The color of my Bobbi Brown lip gloss is 'Baby Pink'. In the office, buy a pink highlighter and pink Post-it notes.
Ever thought of pink home furnishings? While a pink couch would not be my style, I once transformed a boring bedside wicker table by spray-painting it a bright rose pink. A pair of pink candles would be fun, although my mom would disapprove (only white or ivory candles are proper). Maybe something as simple as a pink coffee mug or pink Kleenex would suffice.
Eat and drink pink. How about pink in the kitchen? Muffins with pink rhubarb. A nice slice of prime rib with a pink center. Pink salmon. Pink shrimp. Pink 'Rio Star' grapefruit from Texas. Pink rose wine. Although this idea will be delayed a bit because strict adherence to a house rule: No rose until it's warm enough to open the screen porch and have cocktail hour facing the setting sun. Pink Cosmopolitans. Not a problem. Friday evening is Cosmo Night at our house.
Pink flowers. Because one cannot live on food and beverages alone… Pink tulips. Pink peonies. Pink pulmonaria. Pink roses. Pink lilies. Pink petunias. Pink cosmos. Pink dahlias. Pink poinsettias.
Finally… When in doubt, wear pink and buy pink flowers.
While I'm not a big devotee, I couldn't help but notice lots of yellow in several fashion and home design publications lately. I've seen yellow clothes, shoes, bathing suits and purses ranging in size from chic evening clutches to big totes. I've seen yellow-painted walls, upholstered pieces and pillows.
Yellow flowers are featured on garden magazine covers and one forecasted, "Yes, we've always wanted a little sunlight in the garden, but the craving for bright hits of yellow is heating up even more." The editors continued, "…add a sunny twist to your garden via painted furniture, citrusy containers, or even seat cushions or an umbrella in zesty yellow outdoor fabric."
Yellow is the It color.
Yellow facts. • Yellow is a primary color. • Violet is the complementary color to yellow. • Split complementary colors to yellow are red-violet and blue-violet. • Analogous colors to yellow are yellow-orange and orange on one side and yellow-green and green on the other. • Yellow is considered a warm color along with orange and red. • Yellow will foreshorten distances which is in contrast to cool colors such as green and blue which are receding.
A color wheel is a fascinating tool and very useful for all sorts of design projects. If you don't own a color wheel, pick one up at an office or art supply store. They're cheap.
Using yellow in the garden. Yellow can be a difficult color to incorporate into garden designs. A little can sometimes go a long way. Be careful of unfortunate combinations using jarring tints (yellow + white), tones (yellow + gray) and shades (yellow + black).
However, a splash of yellow in a garden can bring light and warmth to the area. Penelope Hobhouse, the world-renown British gardener, wrote in Flower Gardens, "…yellow flowers gently draw the eye and seem to give a feeling of airy lightness."
My favorite color schemes that incorporate yellow flowers are simple ones.
• Yellow flowers provide an element of spark when mixed with pastel flowers in whites, creams and pinks.
• At the other end of the spectrum, yellow flowers can be combined with other hot colors like orange and red for a bold design. Think of a planting of vivid, spring tulips or a bright daylily border.
• Yellow is soothing when used with complimentary colors, as Penelope Hobhouse stated, "The early yellows are often paired with flattering carpets of blue, violet and mauve flowers."
• Gertrude Jekyll is an English garden designer famous for her magnificent borders (one is 200 feet long and 14 feet wide!) who favored using yellow in monochromatic designs which combined plants with different tints, tones and shades of yellow and plants with gray or green flowers and foliage.
Finally… Don't mix yellow and red. All I can think of is ketchup and mustard which is perfect on a hot dog but ghastly in the garden.
Thomas Hobbs agrees. In The Jewel Box Gardens, he wrote: "If you thrive on red and yellow combinations, you are reading the wrong book. Red and orange is exciting, orange and yellow is tolerable but limited, but red and yellow is artless and screams 'Gas Station.' There are too many other beautiful combinations out there to every plant red and yellow together."
Photo: Yellow forsythia and May, the black Labrador.
