When I first started my garden at this house I wanted pinks, blues and purples. Very nice but in the hot midwest sun they looked washed out in the summer. A couple of years back I got interested in daylilies. I had a border on the west side of the house and I put in several different ones of all different colors and threw in lots of perennials in bright colors without paying much attention to color scheming. When they bloomed that summer it was such a marvelous riot of color that I fell in love and decided that I was going to use more bright colors all over the garden and mix them as opposed to sticking with a "theme". This is working well for me and I am currently in the middle of re-doing another border this way. In the spring I still have a lot of soft pinks and blues when my peonies bloom with the Baptisia. I enjoy this in the Spring as the light seems softer to me. As we move toward summer my color scheme gets a lot "hotter".

I'm afraid I'm a collector. I generally buy whatever catches my eye at the time, and hope I can shoehorn it in somewhere, but I hate orange and usually steer away from hot colors like that, so overall, I think my gardens look somewhat "together". Lots of blues and pinks, with some yellows and whites, and the occasional splash of red (mostly to attract hummingbirds).

As with many issues in garden design, it really IS a matter of taste. Color theory and selection is a pretty hotly debated topic with professional designers and with no real consensus on what is "right" or "wrong". But there are some guidelines that can help you make choices. More than any other aspect of garden design, color can evoke emotional responses - we respond to different colors with different emotions, the same way we respond to interior paint colors on our walls. Pale or pastel colors tend to be very calming and soothing; intense, saturated or hot colors tend to be stimulating. And various colors read differently depending on light intensity - lighter colors pop out in lower light situations while bright colors carry better in bright light or sunny situations. And one last thing most designers agree on......using too many different colors in a single area creates a chaotic visual impression. There is no single color to focus on so one's eye jumps from plant to plant or area to area, similar to using too many different plants or following the "one-of" practice of planting one of everything you like. The eye needs a focal point to draw your attention and then move rhythmically and with a somewhat orderly progression throughout the garden. This is in direct contradiction to what is generally termed the "cottage garden style", which again many designers avoid as being overly chaotic and somewhat messy or untidy in appearance. And again, it is a matter of personal taste, especially if YOU are the garden designer and not some professional :-))

Personally, I dislike combining vines of different colors together for this reason - I think they all lose some visual impact. I do often combine vines of related colors together - in this case they seem better to compliment each other. But primarily my choice of clematis color is determined by what I intend to grow it on or in combination with, since most of mine are grown on or through trees and shrubs. I want the supporting or adjacent plants to enhance, compliment and emphasize the clematis blooms so that all are shown off to their best effect. In my garden I have clematis of all colors but their different, carefully selected placements and bloomtimes hopefully allow each to shine independently.

Like Ophelia, I am a clematis collector and love combinations of all colors. A single color of anything to me is boring but others seems to like repeating the same color. To me colors pop when they are planted next to contrasting colors. All this being said, I have gotten to the point that I purchase what visually appeals to me and plant it where I have the room for it--that makes me end up with some strange color combinations, but I take the Mother Nature approach--she doesn't discriminate on what colors grow together naturally so I don't either. LOL

Interesting perspectives, and I agree with all of them to a certain degree.

I have seen yards, when properly landscaped, where there is a theme of one color - say reds. If done right, it looks fabulous. Likewise, I've seen cottage gardens that I thought were fabulous, while others just didn't appeal to me. I guess from my take it's really about whether everything flows together.

I do like the way certain clems pop when they are next to contrasting colors. I tried to arrange mine accordingly on my fenceline - but I'll probably have to wait a few years for the end result.

How's this for a beginners mistake - I planted small boxwood in a planter in front of my arborvitae last year. DUH. There is absolutely no color contrast. LOL

My Gardens reflect my changing colour taste..last year I was really into Peach ...so I planted Peachy coloured Roses and combined purple clematis with them...then Red was my flavour the year before and I started combining climbing red roses and white clematis and red climbing roses with Purple Clematis ..I love all colours and they are reflected in my gardens today

I like a combination of colors, regardless of the plants they may be, but I do think more than three different colors looks better when mediated with white or a soft creamy yellow. I'm one of those "cottage" gardeners that like a lot of color mixed in together but I don't like it to be very chaotic so white plants take the edge off in my gardens.

One more thing, the color pink isn't necessarily a pastel. A soft, light tone of pink would be considered pastel. But a bright pink like the shade of Lady Elsie May shrub rose would not be a pastel. The same goes for all other colors.

Diana

I'm more fond of pinks, purples and blues than reds, yellows and oranges and I like them bright not pastel most of the time. I love magenta. I have very little orange.

I don't have a lot of white. I prefer bold contrasting foliage colors and flower colors and don't like to break them up.

I was a florist for over twenty years and had to use so much babies breath because people adore it and I see a lot of white in the garden as living babies breath.

I am a collector and have too many onesies mostly because of space issues not because I don't know better.

I have too many plants with variegated, purple, yellow or blue foliage too but I don't care. It's my garden.

I really like Paul James from HGTV's Gardening By The Yard's garden though I'd add more flowers and less lawn. His goofy camera shots up the nose irritate me but I sure wish I had that big yard and all those trees and shrubs. Love all those rocks too.

You're right, Buyorsell, they are our gardens. I have a neighbor who comes to look at mine every so often and I sometimes cringe because it's weedy, or I'm letting something stay in the wrong place until it blooms, and then I'll rip it out or move it, but it really IS my garden, for MY pleasure, not hers. If I want just one of 40 different clematis, it's my business, and no one else's.

Hello everyone,

I'm mostly a lurker here, usually hang out in the hosta and daylily forums. But I wanted to speak up as a gardener who loves orange and who is a dye artist. I work with color everyday in my craft and have learned a couple of things I'd like to share.

Color theory tells us that contrast is important (so forget the all pink garden) for our psychological health. Since I like orange in my garden, the best way to achieve contrast is with the opposite color on the color wheel-- blue. Of course blue is difficult to achieve much of the time, but we can get close with hostas, forget me nots, and especially clematis. So a nice blue clematis looks great backing up my orange lilies.

Another principle is to add one color that is adjacent to orange on the color wheel. This would be red or yellow. I tried them both and like the way red works with orange. Not a lot of red, but just a bit really makes the orange pop, but yellow is good too. Then just add a bit of white to mellow things out and it results in a beautiful color scheme.

So if you like pink- the opposite on the color wheel is chartreuse. Then add either lavender or peach to make it pop.

One of the things I really like about clematis is that they come in so many colors (except orange, I guess.) And they provide such a great vertical backdrop, even when they just have leaves and no flowers.

Thanks for letting me drop in. You seem like a very nice group.

Lainey

Lainey, you read my mind. It must be all that art training. I keep thinking as I add new plants to my gardens "is this making my eye travel throughout the yard? Are my colors complimenting each other?" It is all about complimentary colors, texture and movement. In the past I have gotten stuck in the pastels and found myself a bit stagnant. There should be some type of contrast wether it be with foliage or blooms.

One person may love the blues and hate the oranges and yellows but the same complimentary color wheel affect can be achieved by adding a white blooming flower for contrast or the bright foliage of a bright yellow and green varigated hosta. A Caramel heuchera may contrast beautifully with a Multi-Blue clematis or Blue Cadet hosta. Add some Zebra Iris in a bed full of dark foliage. Space these textures and contrasting plants repeatedly throughout the garden to help maintain movement.

This can all be achieved in a color themed bed by just adding contrasting foliage as well. I have seen some beautiful flower beds that were done so well by just adding foliage that made you look over into the next part of the garden by repeating it in another nearby bed.

I am finally moving forward in my gardening as my old art teacher used to push me forward in my projects. Stand back, take a hard look, see what is missing or what there is too much of and fix it. Please yourself, please your eye and make sure that there is something else to make your eye move on to the next beautiful thing.

Thanks Tracy,

It sounds like you've done a lot of thinking about this.
Don't get me wrong, pastels are needed, as you point out, to soften what would otherwise be a color riot. But our brains love color and we need to feed them. Another combination I like is
yellow, main color
violet, opposite color
chartreuse, ajdacent color

I have seen a lot of spring gardens done with these colors, sometimes not purposefully, but they are very refreshing colors.

All the best,

Lainey