Color Combinations

Every time I come to a garden center or nursery in the spring I'm always dazzled by all those beautiful flowers and varied colors. I find myself wanting to take home each one of them, but that's really not the best approach for the well designed garden.

To help me focus, I let color be my guide. A simple rule of thumb I follow is to choose plants that either have blooms or foliage in the same color family, and there are lots of different color families.

Just take the primary colors. Look at all of the variety just in the color red. And when it comes to blue, it can range from sky blue all the way up to purple. And among the yellows, you can go from chartreuse all the way to orange. And then there are the flowers that bloom white and the plants that have gray foliage, they are the amiable sort of relatives that get along with every color family.

Color can evoke certain moods. Reds and oranges can make you feel hot while pale blues and pale lavenders can evoke a restful, cool feeling.

The other thing these hot and cool colors seem to do is play with our sense of space. You see, hot reds jump forward and make a space seem smaller, where as subtle colors like pale blue make a space feel much more expansive.

Another thing to consider when putting color combinations together is the individual growing requirements for each plant. You can get that off the tags or though the nursery. But when it comes to color, it depends on your own personal taste.

Oh yeah, one other thing. Don't forget. Green is a color, too.

From the garden, I'm Allen Smith.

P. Allen Smith Gardens

© 1997 Hortus, Ltd.