Color in the Garden: Part 2

One of the best sources for color combinations is P. Allen Smith. I still have an article of Mr. Smith’s from a 2003 issue of Woman’s Day that shows some of his favorite color combinations. I have used several of them to great success. Also, by using his combinations as a starting point, I have come up with my own favorite combinations.

I’ve learned from P. Allen Smith the importance of foliage color in combinations (this is where that combining green thing comes in!). For example, one combination he suggests is lavender, burgundy, magenta, gray and cream. Flowers provide the lavender, magenta and cream colors while the foliage provides the burgundy (wandering jew, some wax begonias) and the gray (lamb’s ear, helichrysum).

Foliage colors can be used to tie a combination together, add depth and interest or provide a pop of color on their own. Silvery grays (Artemisia, lamb’s ear, dusty miller) can be used to harmonize color combinations. This color is particularly striking with blues, lavenders, purples and pinks. White or variegated foliage (English ivy, lamium, basket grass) adds sparkle and works well with blues, soft yellows, creamy whites and corals. Use burgundy or dark red plants (wandering jew, wax begonias, blackie sweet potato vine, and purple fountain grass) to add depth and color without competing with the flowers. Chartreuse (marguerite sweet potato vine, creeping jenny, lemon thyme) will supercharge a combination. I love chartreuse with purple, burgundy and blue.

Now armed with all this information where do you start? Go back to your surroundings. What colors will compliment the exterior of your home? What color combinations do you find inside your home? In your wardrobe? Do you want a more serene feeling in your garden? Choose complimentary colors. Are you looking for something bold and dynamic? Use contrasting colors. Again, choose a color theme of 3 to 5 colors and go from there. And whatever you do, don’t forget to use foliage to add color as well.

Color in the Garden, Part 1

If the hardest part of gardening is deciding what plants to use, deciding on color is on the other side of the coin. You have your focal point, your fillers and your trailers but do the colors go? What colors do you use?

Everyone has their favorite color combinations and chances are they appear in our homes and wardrobes. A good place to start is simply by looking around your home. What colors are you drawn to? What combinations emerge in your closet? You can take those combinations and apply it to your gardening as well. There really is no right or wrong. I’ve mentioned before that putting together a container is not much different than putting together an outfit. Plants don’t need to all match, but should compliment each other.

Another thing to consider is the outside of your home and choose colors that compliment the exterior. For example, if you have a white house, a largely white plant scheme is probably not your best bet. A dark colored house probably isn’t going to be best showcased by dark colored plants.

Speaking of white in the garden, white is NOT neutral. White flowers are quite bold in and of themselves. Think of how striking white flowers are against green foliage. When white is put with equally intense colors such as red, blue or purple the result is rather harsh. Green is neutral in the garden. Need something to tie a container together? Use green. Need something to tone down a bright combination? Green. Something to transition from one color to the other? Green.
But green is far from boring. There are several shades of green to work with ranging from gray greens to yellow greens to deep, blackish greens. And, yes, you can use different shades of green together as long as they tie together somehow.

If you’re familiar with the color wheel (basically the colors of the rainbow in a circle), you’ll know that neighboring colors such as red and orange are complimentary colors. Colors on opposite sides of the wheel such as yellow and purple are contrasting colors. One color combination isn’t better than the other. Generally, complimentary color combinations evoke a more serene easy going vibe while contrasting colors schemes are more bold and dynamic. It’s just a matter of taste and what kind of mood you would like to evoke.

Once you decide whether you want a complimentary color scheme or a contrasting one you can choose a theme. A theme is basically 2-5 colors used in combination and repeated throughout the garden. This helps everything tie together and makes decision making much easier. I have one theme for the front of the house and one for the back of my house. The front faces west so it bright and sunny. Because of the climate (hot and sunny), it made sense to choose a color combination that evoked that and also played into my whimsical sense of color. I chose red, fuchsia, purple and chartreuse as my main colors. I get color from flowers as well as foliage. In the back of the house, it’s mainly shady and it’s also where we hang out. I wanted a more serene color scheme and choose burgundy, blue, silver and pink.

Once you choose a theme, choosing plants becomes much easier. Don’t get too caught up in making sure your plants match exactly though. Using darker or lighter shades of a color from your scheme is fine. The most important thing is that you like that way it looks.

Container Gardening Plants: Guara

I love, love, love this plant! It’s unusual, stands up to the high prairie winds here in Minnesota, is heat and drought tolerant and is ever-blooming. And best yet, no need to dead head. What’s not to like about that?

The delicate tendrils keep shooting out flowers to ever higher heights giving the plant just that much more to wave in the wind. Deadheading this plant stunts flowering for a time. I don’t recommend it except at planting time if the plant is spindly. I tried it later in the season and regretted it.

Guara is a Texas native perennial that is grown as a specialty annual in colder climates. The plant is used to much harsher conditions than the summers in Minnesota. It has done very well the last few summers in the hot, dry weather. It may not fare as well in a cooler, wetter summer but as we haven’t had one in a while I can’t say for sure.

The growth habit is tall with delicate tendrils which continue to shoot outward as the season wears on. The plant runs the risk of looking spindly if not planted with good companion plants. Use spreading or mounding plants such as fiber optic grass, brachycome, trailing verbena, or petunias to give the planter a full look. These mounding plants also accentuate the delicate blooms of the guara as they appear to shoot out of the container like fireworks.

Guara comes in shades of pink ranging from bright fuchsia to almost white. Foliage colors range from bright green to dark variegated burgundy. In the variegated varieties the foliage is as gorgeous as the flowers and adds more sizzle to containers.

Plant a couple in of these ever blooming beauties in containers and watch your flowers dance all summer. I promise you won’t be disappointed.