I am a baby gardener so please forgive the naivety. I was told at some point to choose which colours I wanted to focus on for my garden, I have been working mostly with purple, yellow and white. Then blues crept in, then peach, and burgundy and well…whilst I know I can ‘technically’ do want I want in my own garden, I am wanting to learn more about what the principals of colour are. Do they all get lost if there is too much colour? I don’t have a ‘type’ of garden, I just choose the plants I like however I want to bring an overall cohesive feeling, not just mixmatched chaos. Can zones of colours work? Or what are the general colour principles? (Brown boronia is my fave smell in the world hence the image)
Colour “rules” are a minefield! Complementary colour schemes work on using colours that are opposite to each other on the colour wheel e.g. red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange – they are all complementary pairs. By using them together they tend to intensify each other eg a bit of yellow will make the purples “pop”. (If you stare at a square of red paint you will then get an afterimage of green in your vision and vice versa, stare at blue and see an afterimage of orange etc. – not sure why but it does work. ) Harmonious colour schemes work on colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel e.g. yellow, yellow-orange, orange etc. They tend to be more gentle on the eye! Gets back to personal choice – one person’s “bright and cheerful” is another person’s “gaudy”. One person sees “peaceful and harmonious”, another sees “bland and boring”!
Another “rule” relates to temperature – warm colours tend to appear closer while cool colours tend to recede – relative to what colour is nearby e.g. red-violet will appear warmer than blue-violet but next to red-orange it will appear cool. Having said all that probably the easiest method for a gardener to apply colour schemes to your own liking is to hold a piece of plant/flower next to another one and if it pleases your eye , plant it there – and if you change your mind – let’s face it sometimes the vision doesn’t match the reality , move it the following year ! Hope this helps – I am regurgitating what I learnt in art classes years ago! Some things have stuck in my memory but the application of them – well that’s the challenge!
I love what Irene has written above!
I’ve largely found that the biggest challenge is producing enough colour at all to bother with carefully coordinated garden schemes. That’s step 1. Not only do you need a critical mass of colour before colour scheming is relevant, it has be colour in close proximity.
But be all that as it may, one of the best books on colour in gardens that has ever been produced was Penelope Hobhouse’s. I picked up a second hand copy (don’t know what happened to my original) a couple of years back, and while it now looks a bit dated, the advice stands the test of time. Photographer Andrew Lawson also did a book on Colour, and Christopher Lloyd wrote one too. They were all good, but I think PH’s is probably the most thorough on colour theory
Thank you very much for your responses, gives me plenty to think about. I have waited a long time to have my own garden and I am trying to remember to enjoy the journey and not try to reach an invisible finish line. When we purchased the house a few months back, the garden was predominantly native tussock grasses (which I am not a fan of). I am slowly adding in the plants I love, experimenting with others, adding colour and working with the bones of what was here. Loving all the inspiration and wisdom I have found here. I look forward to learning more as I go. Thanks again.
Loving Irene’s reply also. Great advice, explained beautifully.
I also often find people can overlook the importance of foliage colour when they start out. For a lot of the time it’s not all about flower colour and I reckon that’s just as important. Silvers and downy foliage look great as highlights or to break up masses of bright greens, burgundy foliage looks electric beside lime greens.
And also, if you like a plant for either its foliage or flower colour, plant 20 instead of 2.
I love this! I have always been drawn to foliage and only recently extended my attention to flowers, which is the opposite of most people I talk to. The idea of planting many of one plant is probably my biggest takeaway from my recent research, I don’t know it hadn’t really occurred to me previously…..off to learn how to take cuttings 🙈
Claus Darby recently did a YouTube on colour in his cottage border which I found very helpful. Trying to find physocarpus opulifolius and Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’ for colour but to no avail. When out of lock down I am taking a leave pass from home, abandoning husband and children for an entire day and taking myself to nursery after nursery! Heaven!
Hi Dominique, which Physocarpus are you after? Both the gold leaf form and various dark leafed forms (including ‘Diablo’) are around. And I introduced Anthriscus ‘Raven’s Wing’ into Australia in 1991, from seed given me by Nori Pope, then gardening at Hadspen House. I don’t have it any more myself, but I laid eyes on it as recently as Monday, on a visit to Antique Perennials. Enjoy that wild nursery day! Sure sounds like heaven to me!