Designing a colour scheme

JudyN

I've just had some massive out of control shrubs drastically cut back, and all of a sudden what used to be the back of the border is now the front of the border, so I need to make plans!

My most recent idea was for a romantic restful blue/purple & white scheme, despite the fact there's a large clump of bright orange heleniums which do far too well to consider sacrificing... I was loving the combination of aquilegia Black Barlow and a lime green aquilegia, but then I noticed the colour combination of the free seeds in the next issue of GW - dark crimson with orange and fell in love with that too. Not sure that would work with the purple/white...

I also fancy some snapdragons and am growing some white ones from seeds but would love a more intense colour and can't find one that would fit in with my plans... And I do like a bargain so if I find cheap/free plants or seeds I have to give them a go...

So how do you do it? Do you plan your borders based on a set colour scheme, flowering periods, and so on, or do you fall in love with a plant and then just find somewhere to put it, regardless of its neighbours? And are you happy with the results?

Obelixx

I have a friend with a huge 1 hectare/2.5 acre garden who does water colours and flower arranging and she and her OH bung plants in where they think they will grow.  They do have one pastel bed for late spring/early summer and one hot bed for late summer but for everything else they reckon nature doesn't colour co-ordinate so why should they.   It works for them.

On the other hand, I have other arty friends who do colour themes and it tends to be more effective in smaller spaces where bold blocks of colour or tone work better.

For my new garden, I will be colour theming and trying hotter stronger colours as there will be stronger light and sun and fewer grey days than we had in Belgium.    However, it's important to take into account the colour, texture and form of foliage which is there far longer than the flowers.   I will be sowing many of my own plants too so a lot will depend on what grows.

Lyn

I started off very much like you, but now mine's array of colour like the explosion in a paint factory look, my garden is quite hard to tame but seems to take on its own colours with the seasons.

in the late Spring there are pale colours, pinks, lilac and blues.  That is from Foxgloves, giant Echiums and Delphiniums.Then later the hot colours. That's from Helenium, rudbeckia, sea holly, and some bright annuals to fill in spaces,

I never plan a colour scheme but I know lots of people do.  If it grows for me, then that's the plant for me. It's a battle to grow anything up here so I'm grateful for any, and I just love love a bright gawdy pink next to a bright orange! 

This is June.

These are end of September 

raisingirl

Lyn says:

If it grows for me, then that's the plant for me. It's a battle to grow anything up here so I'm grateful for any, and I just love love a bright gawdy pink next to a bright orange! 

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Completely with you there Lyn. 

The closest I've come to colour theming was in one area where I tried NOT to have pink. (It started out as aiming for just blue and yellow - failed). And I haven't managed that either. Things that are described as white turn out to be pale pink, and 'purple' or 'mauve' often turns out to be magenta. But if they thrive, it would be churlish to get rid of them, so I'm another one with a lot of pink and orange together 

Last edited: 02 March 2017 09:09:11

punkdoc

A clash can be just as effective as a complementary scheme [ purples and oranges can look great together ]

Probably best in small doses though.

Obelixx

RG - in may last garden I planted a blue and yellow border with a blue clem, a yellow clem, blue clamassias, yellow tulips, blue hyacinths, yellow hemerocallis and so on and so forth.   The tulips and hyacinths came up PINK.  The blue clematis went underground, only to re-appear 3 years later and the yellow clem got upset and died after I did the normal spring prune.

The yellow Molyneux rose didn't like winter but the Teasing Georgia on the other side of the arch positively thrived after I planted some protection from northerly winds.   Colour theming can be fraught with surprises.

Busy-Lizzie

I have a large garden and I try to plant where I think would be the best place for the plant, damp, dry, shade sun, heavy or lighter soil. But one bed I try to keep more pastel and another for hotter colours. But I find, like Lyn, that there are different colours for different times of year, usually pastels early summer and reds and yellows later summer.

punkdoc

I agree BL. I think hotter colours tend to work better, later in the season. I think it is all to do with changes in light.

Papi Jo

"de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum"

However associating flower/plant colours is a tradition of the art of gardening (if you consider gardening as an art, but that's another story).

raisingirl writes "Things that are described as white turn out to be pale pink, and 'purple' or 'mauve' often turns out to be magenta. But if they thrive, it would be churlish to get rid of them, [...]"

I beg to disagree, being a gardener for whom colour scheme is of paramount importance. I have in the past pulled out plants whose colours jarred with the colours of other plants and were an eyesore. It is easier to have an "anything goes" attitude than to stick to a colour scheme, and that if perfectly acceptable, see the quotation at the top of my post.

Obelix "Colour theming can be fraught with surprises." Totally agree, and those surprises are for me an incentive to persevere with a colour theme.

@Lyn, I love your June border!

Some examples of colour associations on my garden site at http://www.rezeau.org/wp-garden/en/colour-associations/

punkdoc

Christopher Lloyd wrote a fantastic book, Colour for Adventurous Gardeners, which is well worth a read.