It is an interesting question. There are so many gardening sensibilities. Personally. i don’t think that is such a terrible visual. If your garden is well choreographed then this might be an aberration but if your garden is more spontaneous, it might catch your eye in a positive way. As I have said before, there is no ugly garden if it pleases the gardener.

I am assuming the combination is in some shade for the hydrangea. In my garden, my daylilies bloom more heavily in sun but the colors are more vibrant in some shade. I think this combo is interesting for the vibrancy of the colors.

I would love if you reported back on where your lily ends up and if it pleases you.

I hope you get more posts on this. Good topic...

I actually like it! It’s different and energetic!

I don't think there are really any "bad" color combinations in the garden :-) Mother Nature manages to mix all colors together and it turns out just fine!

Actually, the blue and the red-orange are complementary on the color wheel so combine very pleasantly to my eye.

I must be an orange hater, I prefer red daylilies with a purple undertone. I'm thinking a peach or pale yellow would be nicer with the ES. The daylily in the photo will be moving to the public library garden this fall - the gardener there gladly accepts donations and mixes all colors freely.

I also like this combo, but I see what you mean about mixing cool colors with warm tones. I think they blend better when you see the green background as a unifying element.

Years ago I was waiting for a shrub to fill out but couldn't stand looking at all that naked mulch, so I got a whole bunch of daylilies on clearance and planted them willy nilly, mixing the colors randomly (they were done blooming by then). The following year I was amazed how great it turned out. Colors that might have clashed in pairs, worked great in larger numbers. Mother Nature in action!

I don't think there are really any "bad" color combinations in the garden

Never was a truer statement written in this forum :).

I have one to add... perhaps this one will change your mind Rouge.

ack!

I don't know what you are talking about GardenHo :).

Oh come on lol!

I think this one is worse than the one I posted in the thread I started in ‘what was I thinking?’

Hot + cool = lukewarm.

Most color combos are fine to my eye, though pink and yellow isn’t a favorite any more than warm pink and cool pink together are for me. But adding other colors is one solution, or removing one of the colors is another. I think that color tends to be fairly personal, like the appeal,of certain scents. When I first began gardening, most of my color palette was pastels, pink, cream, and lavender. As I have moved to brighter shades, I find myself less likely to choose pinks with the exception of beds that have red.

I like Cecily’s original color combo, though I would want to see it in a larger context to make a final decision.

I find coral the most difficult color to incorporate! And how do I keep ending up with it? Coral poppies everywhere, a coral drift rose, a coral daylily.. I don't know what coral goes with well. Suggestions welcome!

I think coral looks smashing with teal, navy, gold and gray. So... hmmm... no idea... :)

Mix coral with anything blue or purple. Depends on how much pink there is in the coral as to whether I'd go more with the purple or the blue :-)

Deer came through last night and solved my problem. They're so darned helpful. I once had a large bed of mixed daylilies but they never bloomed (think salad bar) so I gave away a bunch and scattered the others around the yard. Now I get a few blooms :)

Gardenho, your pink asiatics and sundrop combo would bug me. Somebody would have to move and it wouldn't be the lilies.

I have mostly blue and purple flowers 'cause blue is my favorite color. A touch of peach or coral as an accent appeals to me. Just a touch.

Cecily believe me the sun drops do go! They were cut back after that picture was taken.

Luckily they are pretty much spent just as the lilies start to bloom. I just need to take notice a little sooner lol!

This is the unfortunate combo in my garden. This picture is from several years ago as the lilies didn’t flower this year.

This is a picture of my unfortunate colour combo: George Vancouver rose and creeping thyme. I’ll probably give away the rose, it has a lot of insect problems. I only keep low-maintenance plants.

The only unfortunate color combination I ran into this year was an inadvertent repetition of color- a lavender plant in front of a Rozanne geranium that was in front of a lavender monarda. It left me wondering what idiot planted those things, lol. And I don't even like the color lavender.

Fun thread! It’s made me think. :)

My first thought was that I like almost all colors; I couldn’t think of truly awful combos. And I like all the pics posted here, I don’t see any that look bad to me. I once had a Joseph’s Coat rose bush that had three somewhat clashing colors, but loved it, even though I’d never usually mix maroon with orange:

So I googled “bad color combos plants” and these two made me cringe:

So, I’ve changed my mind! And I wonder if textures or combining certain plant types is another factor (for me) in regards to being off-putting ... as well as, in the above examples, doing mass plantings rather than just mixing this and that in smaller doses.

It’s interesting to read other’s thoughts on color combos. I guess I’ve always just kind of subconsciously planted with colors I thought would work well together (hopefully). With interior decor, I’ve always been drawn to neutrals and earthy colors, but outside, I prefer a more vivid look.

Another factor for me, is the house color. My first house was red brick with white trim, and I remember not using many pinks, maroons, or oranges. Second house (in rose pic above) was more neutral brick/stone, so I had more options, and was excited that oranges would look good there. House now is a mix of darker, but earthy, reds and browns/neutral stone, and I’m mainly using reds, purples, and yellows.

Graham Stuart Thomas writes about this in one of his books though I can't remember which.

Cecily is onto something, though I don't think it's as bad as it could be. His theory was that reds tending to orange combined with reds tending to magenta is the problem, and I think he's broadly correct. He said no other color combination produces the same kind of revulsion. The first post's hydrangea, to my color calibrated monitor, is more of a purple/lavender - so not really a problem, but just a few shifts of hue away from being a problem. There's a bit of pink in there but it's not the overall color.

But rules are there to be broken and I'm sure at some point, I've seen magenta deliberately clashing with orange in various "perennial borders of the Commonwealth" haha. Also there is some rare orchid in which those colors clash in the two main flower parts, but, of course, because it's nature, it doesn't look bad lol.

btw what cultivar is "ES"?

ES = Endless Summer Hydrangea macrophylla

This eye-popping combo often doesn't happen because the blooms usually don't overlap with Centaurea dealbata blooming first and Hemerocallis fulva/common daylily, blooming later. Regardless, it can’t be seen by anyone but folks in my house or in the back field, and the plants work to hold soil on a slope, so they will both remain unless one wins the battle for space.