Orange-red [Asiatic hybrid] lilies [Fire King] with pink pinks [dianthus] at its feet! [Wish I could send you a picture . . .] I had heard that lilies liked having something to keep their 'feet cool.' Even my HUSBAND said they were hideous!

Pink and red can look good together. Was the problem that you mixed a warm red with a cool pink?

I saw a picture in a magazine where a garden was dominated by chartreuse/yellow with a few icy pinks thrown in. It looked terrible although I'm not sure why.

Thanks for the note!

IMO it's in the eye of the beholder. However, I cannot stand to see the colors hot pink and vivid red near each other in the garden. One combo Ive seen that was very bad was gaillardia and dianthus.

Pink and warm colors are, in my opinion, a disaster. Orange, Yellow, and yellow-based red with pink...yuck. A cool red with pink (with blue tones, rather than yellow) can work very well...especially if you add purple as well.

If you want to really highlight color, go with highly contrasting hot and cold colors...deep blue with bright yellow or orange.

Sunset Magazine had a good article in their April issue re: color palettes in the yard.

Wandane - I think that Sunset article is what got me thinking. Everyone tells you what looks *good*, but it can also help to imagine the flipside.. what looks *bad*.

Thanks for the note. I can definitely see your point about pink and warm colors. I have mostly cool colors.. way too much purple .. hoping to diversify this year without any major color clashes.

Thank you everyone!

What a great question. I had a lot of trouble finding an answer to this. I finally learned that the color with the highest value should be the lighest in a combination. For example, light yellow and dark purple look good together, while dark yellow and light purple look awful. Of course, color is just one aspect of design.

Flowers that are too close on the color wheel are often a no no for me...... like magenta and red...... purple and pink can be okay but too much is boring....... I think colors opposite each other often compliment each other well...... also remember to add some interesting foliage...... red is my favorite color in the garden for blossoms and flowers it's opposite green so it looks nice with just about everything...... that's green that is...... which is alot!!!!!!..... I also think red looks nice with white or blue or yellow...... Also very antiquey looking plants with more modern favorite like some of the sedums...... autumn joy and the likes don't look nice....... Be sure not to mix too much architectural with old fashioned...... no yuccas in an old fashioned rose or cottage garden...... the wrong kind of garden structure can also really detract....... no white picket fences surrounding a modern garden....... no rustic broken down or log fences surrounding a knot or formal victorian garden....... etc. ....... Have fun!!!! ......... :) .......

Shelley- your message was very helpful, especially after I figured out what you meant by "value". I found a webpage that explained color value as the amount of light reflected - white (80), yellow (55), green (35), red (25), blue (20), black (0).

This also helped answer my earlier query about why a picture of a garden mixing chartreuse and icy pink looked so odd. Chartreuse (high value) combined with pink (which is a tint of red, a low value) according to your logic should only be done with a pale chartreuse and a deep (not pale) pink. Aha! This also explains why good ol' Martha Stewart recommended Envy zinnia with a deep purple zinnia, i.e. not a light lavender-purple.

Flowersandthings - you make some good points about mixing plant styles and garden structures. I'll definitely keep style in mind, but there's no danger of taking things too seriously - did I mention we have an old 16' boat set in the middle of the vegetable garden?! tee hee.

i don't think i'd agree about "good" or "bad" combinations - i think it's all in the eye of the beholder/gardener. this chartreuse and pink combo i like very much.

:)
Friz

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:588482}}

Indigoferra (blooms are a soft bluish pink - beautiful) next to black-eyed Stella daylilies (awful ditch-lily orange color - imagine Dreamsickles). I know how bad this combination is because it's planted in my front yard, and they bloom at the same time. Stops me in my tracks every time I come out the front door. Awful!!!! This year I got caught up in how I could make it worse, so I put Japanese bloodgrass, Margarita sweet-potato vine, and a red geranium with chartruese and maroon variagated leaves next to it. It kind of improved it because the eye doesn't know where to light, so it detracts from the indigoferra/daylily clash. This is not a planting I recommend.

Actually, two colors that do not seem to contrast well, can be harmonized by the addition of a third color. If you look at the color wheel, and start from scratch, you can try using colors that are 90 degrees away from each other, at least two of them, the other being the green. If anything, the problem is lack of contrast, not the opposite. Sometimes two colors (plus foliage) have a tendency to remind people of flags, and thus look out of place. A third (fourth considering the leaves) color can fix this.

coreopsis Moonbeam and rudbeckia hirta...two different yellows that look awful together

Funny you asked that..I was looking at a flower bed I put together earlier this year and noticed a had some different shades of purple that set off a eye twitching frenzy when I stepped back to take it all in. I have Vitex (Hemp tree), purple cone flower, and Liatris (gayfeather) crammed together, and the 3 diff shades of purple are a little much, so I'm gonna throw in some white cone flowers to contrast a little.

I have some Moonbeam and Irish Eyes Black-eye Susan that clashes too with different yellows. I guess what I'm saying is.....contrast is key. Anything grouped too close with similar colors is a no no.

Thanks for making me more self-conscious and insecure with my beds.

haha

Don't be self consious.... if you like them that's fine and that's what I love about perennials....... you can move them...... I saw this year that I had some coreopsis moonbeam by some stella d'oro lilies by accident and moved the moonbeam near some adenophora....... much better...... that's probably one of the best rules....... don't plant plants that clash...... don't dress your garden like you wouldn't dress yourself...... in a pink shirt and red skirt or pants!!!! :)

I plant what I like and am constantly moving things around to try different combo's. I could care less about what anyone else thinks (good thing since I am partially colorblind!) I dont plant red w/o a lighter color behind it because for me it blends right in with the green leaves if I dont have a contrast.

Now I am realliy depressed - with great difficuly - I planted some tickseed coreopsis near some bcle campanula - so a dark yellow with a light purple - here I was thinking that might look good, even further on the hill - on the other side of the tickseed - I planted red painted daisies with a yellow center - NOW WHAT - please tell me I can add some white in between all this to make it better? I thought all different yellows could be mixed together? I can't face any more moving of plants this year.

I'm not a fan of bi-color combinations in general, but the things I hate most are red and white, or red and yellow...all by themselves with nothing but foliage. think those big striped mass plantings of tulips and petunias.

since I inherited a garden that had nothing BUT yellow and red tulips in the spring, I nearly tore them out...but felt sorry for them (all my mom's tulips are pink, so she wouldn't like them either) so instead- I added just a few orange ones, and would like to find either another orange, or a darker red to drag the disply through the color wheel a bit.

Madsun- in fact, most yellows CAN be mixed...and since you have two warm yellows in there...the tickseed and the painted daisy...I'd run with it, and leave the blues to provide contrast...daylillies aren't expensive, and work well with the painted daisies...

I'd even consider underplanting the whole group with lobelia... it's so much richer a blue than the camp's, it might surprise you.

chinacat sunflower - thanks for your lobelia recommendation - I am going to try it - as I still have lots of space!

Frizzle z6 PA (My Page) on Mon, May 17, 04 at 15:04

i don't think I'd agree about "good" or "bad" combinations - i think it's all in the eye of the beholder/gardener.

yes, sometimes you just have to see them side by side in the real world. and as some noted later in this thread, adding more can 'fix' the clash.

this chartreuse and pink combo ..
: Dianthus and Spiraea

Nice enough. I guess the dianthus flower has about the same light (value) as the Spiraea foliage. And the Dianthus color tone ties the Spiraea bloom color in. the Dianthus has "saved" the Spiraea flowers. imo, Spiraea blooms are scungey looking (like Lobularia) unless white. And the white ones aren't terribly impressive either (imo!)

In some cases the type of garden you are trying for can make a difference, a color combination that would look icky in a formal Victorian garden may look ok in a Cottage or other Wildflower/Herb setting. The style and texture of the leaves/petals can alter how things blend and flow or contrast.

Just my 2 cents

Julie

I have this (probably weird) problem with bright red flowers with other colours like yellows or blues (ew!) -- it makes for a very "jolting" and uncomfortable feel, in my opinion. In fact, the combination of hot red with green foliage even feels uncomfortable for me.

I usually find vibrant colours with pastels yucky, although I must say, a "happy accident" happened in my back yard: my 'Heavenly Blue' morning glory grew up around some bright yellow sunflowers, and it looks just gorgeous.

It really does come down to the eye of the beholder. My husband, for example, seems to find everything just fine -- he has no colour peeves whatsoever (and he's therefore constantly picking out reds in catalogues to go near something blue... ohhhh boy).

I can think of a few plants I really like but have had a hard time finding a combination that works. One is dwarf yellow and red gallardia and purple cone flower. I finally said to heck with it and planted them both in a smaller bed. They don't make a good combination but the cone flower is so much taller that there is a lot of green between the plants. I can live with it but if anyone has some better suggestions I'd appreciate it.

One rule for color composition is to use colors from opposite sides of the color wheel, called complimentary colors. Another common color composition is to use color "triads" based on 3 equidistant colors on the color wheel. One problem I have when trying to do this with flower arrangements is that there are always other colors around that make life more complicated, the blue sky, brown bark, green leaves... So while such rules can give you an abstract concept to shoot for, it's very difficult to be a purist. A "real" artist seems to be able to work with a whole palate of colors, carefully selected, and produce a pleasing composition. I suspect that a spectacular garden might involve choosing the palate in such a manner. But the complications boggle the mind. Different things have different colors at different seasons, in and out of bloom, for example, and low growing things aren't usually seen in the same "composition" with the tops of trees. The ability to integrate all of this into a total whole seems unimaginably complex to plan. Which is why I hope for dumb luck, happy accidents, and such.

mla2ofus-- what about trying some moonbeam coreopsis with your purple coneflower. Not sure about the other one..nothing occurs to me at the moment. I saw some of that combination in a bed that our city put together and it was really very pretty-- the airy looking clumps of green with pale yellow flowers highlighted the darker reddish purple coneflowers and really made them pop.
Tulip combos- also I once saw a bed of bright orange, dark purple, and bright fushia red-pink at our local zoo. In a large bed it was very pretty and bright--probably not for those that prefer more subtle combinations but trust me it was gorgeous!!

Here is an example from my...err...a "friend's" garden of the bright yellow next to soft purple. Sorry, the lighting in the picture is so bad. The two plants are Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise' and Phlox 'Franz Shubert'. The Phlox is not doing especially well in this spot, so I am thinking about swapping in some Daises to echo the yellow of the Coreopsis. We shall see. I figured that the Coreopsis would be done blooming by the time that the Sedum 'Autumn Joy' started to bloom but they may both be in bloom.

{{gwi:588484}}

- Brent