Color Planting
JTill10610
Planting by Color
Planning a garden is both an art form
and a game requiring knowledge and
artistic talent. To add another challenge to
the annual undertaking, try limiting your
color scheme to a single hue. . .
Many gardeners survive the cold, dreary winter months in the comfort of their
own sunny garden daydreams-warm, and weed and insect free, these fantastic
places are the stuff beginning garden plans are made of. With pencil and paper
in hand, and a few favored garden supply catalogs and picture books, these
delicate souls begin the annual process of planning next year's landscape.
Even those hardy folks who actually enjoy the cold season and the activities it
brings will eventually sit down to plan a garden plot, complete with tried and
true favorites as well as a few new items to try.
Next time you sit down to plan a new garden bed, instead of using only the
standard set of guidelines for your map, try making your highest priority the
colors in your bed. It takes some real thought to put together a garden with
flowers from a single color family. The results can often be even better than
the imagination. A limited color palette creates an air of sophistocation that
multicolor gardens can't attain.
Use a vine to vary plant habits in your design. Also try some two-tones within
the same color family.
Using colored foliage means you won't be limited by bloom times.
Flowering shrubs will add another growth habit to your design, and shrubs are
usually larger than other flowering plants, and can therefore be used to give
the garden design structure.
Varying the types of flowers will add texture and variety to the design,
which is even more important to maintain in the monotone garden.
Grasses can add texture and color, depending on variety.
Because flowers are difficult to catagorize by exact color, it is a good idea
to allow for a certain degree of overlap - true blues are very hard to come by,
so you'll probably want to include purple as well. And you should be aware that
some colors in the same family of hues can be very different - for example,
certain purples are more red, while others are more pink, which can be a
potentially unpleasant combination!
Once you have decided which color family you want to work with, you will need
to make a calendar of bloom periods for each plant that you decide to use. This
will insure a long season of beautiful flowers throughout your landscape.
You should take artistic license when-ever you feel it is warranted by adding,
for example, a patch of bright yellow Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' to a blue/purple
garden. Or add plantings of Baby's Breath (Gyposphila) and Ox-Eye Daisy across
the area to add white background to a red/orange planting. Just be careful to
limit the variations, or else you might end up with a multicolor landscape
after all. Yet another dimension might be using white for a nighttime flower
garden.
To add more interest to a monotone garden, use foliage texture. Try something
with ferny foliage like yarrow, and use something else with spiky leaves, like
chives or iris. Play those against the rounded leaves of impatiens.
Use foliage color to help carry the eye around your bed also. Artemesia has a
nice silvery foliage color, while something like Huechera or ajuga has a lovely
dark reddish leaf color. Use these dramatic foliage plants to add another
dimension to your bed.
You can use perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees and vines-you could be really
daring and even use a vegetable or two if it will add something of value to
your single color garden. Be creative, and above all have fun!
The following Vinland Valley Nursery plant lists are grouped by color and plant
type.
Blue/Purple
Annuals
Lobelia, Petunia, Impatiens, Ageratum, Sweet Alyssum, Pansy, Verbena, Cyclamen
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Perennials
Aster, Blue flax, Blue flag (Iris), Brunnera, Liatris, Campanula, Columbine
(Aquilegia), Delphinium, Globe Thistle (Echinops), Phlox, Geranium, Perennial
Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis), Purple Coneflower, Baptisia (False Indigo), Russian
Sage (Perovskia), Salvia, Scabiosa, Liriope, Lupine, Hesperis (Dame's Rocket),
Veronica, Viola, Vinca,
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Shrubs
Chaste Tree (Vitex), Hydrangea 'Nikko Blue', Butterfly Bush 'Nanho Purple' or
'Black Knight' (Buddleia), Lilac, Hibiscus (Rose of Sharon, Althea), some
formal Roses, Azalea
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Vines
Clematis, Perennial Sweet Pea (Lathyrus)
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Fruits/Vegetables
Eggplant, Grapes, Black Raspberry
White
Annuals
Begonia, Impatiens, Petunia, Sunflower 'Italian White', Hollyhock, Oxalis,
Sweet Alyssum, Nicotiana, Cyclamen
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Perennials
Goatsbeard (Aruncus), White coneflower, White Flax, Ox-Eye Daisy, Shasta Daisy,
Baby's Breath (Gypsophila), False Dragonhead (Physostegia), Hardy mum, Phlox,
Bleeding Heart 'Alba' (Dicentra), Liatris
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Shrubs
many formal Roses, Spiraea vanhoutti, Hydrangea, Butterfly Bush 'Alba'
(Buddleia), Hibiscus (Rose of Sharon, Althea), Peony, Serviceberry, Chokeberry,
Mockorange, Azalea, Lilac, Viburnum
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Flowering Trees
Crabapples, Apple, Cherry, Dogwood
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Vines
Clematis paniculata, Honeysuckle, Sliver Lace vine, Climbing Hydrangea
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Fruits/Vegetables
Grape, Sweet Pea
Yellow
Annuals
Gaillardia, Cosmos, Sunflower, Pansy, Marigold, Verbena 'Peaches and Cream',
Zinnia
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Perennials
Coreopsis 'Moonbeam', 'Hyperion' Daylily, Hardy mum
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Shrubs
Forsythia, many formal Roses, Witch Hazel, Sunburst St. Johnswort (Hypericum),
Azalea
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Vines
Clematis, Honeysuckle
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Fruits/Vegetables
Grapes, Tomato, Pepper, Squash (Acorn and Summer), Okra
Red/Orange
Annuals
Begonia, Dianthus, Geranium, Salvia, Torch Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower),
Celosia, Gaillardia, Marigold, Nicotiana, Pansy, Zinnia
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Perennials
'Apple Tart' Daylily, Yarrow (Achillea), Plume Poppy, Butterfly Weed
(Asclepias), Hardy mum, Sedum, Columbine, Astilbe, Penstemmon, Bleeding Heart
(Dicentra), Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan)
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Shrubs
Hydrangea 'Burning Embers', Peony, Viburnum, many formal Roses, Spiraea
'Goldflame', Holly (Ilex), Azalea
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Flowering Trees
Crabapple
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Vines
Clematis, Honeysuckle 'Scarlet Flava', Trumpet Vine
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Fruits/Vegetables
Pepper, Tomato, Pumpkin, Strawberry, Raspberry
Pink
Annuals
Snapdragon, Begonia, Dianthus, Cosmos, Impatiens, Petunia, Nicotiana, Pansy,
Foxglove, Oxalis, Salvia, Sweet Alyssum, Zinnia, Cyclamen
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Perennials
Ajuga, Astilbe, 'Pink Fairy' Daylily, Geranium, Hollyhock, Yellow Primrose,
Monarda, Penstemmon, Scabiosa, Sedum, Creeping Phlox, Creeping Thyme,
Helleborus, False Dragonhead 'Rose Pink' (Physostegia)
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Shrubs
Spiraea 'Goldmound' or 'Daphne', Hydrangea, Elderberry (Sambucus), Butterfly
Bush 'Pink Delight' (Buddleia), Hibiscus (Rose of Sharon, Althea), Peony, many
formal Roses, Azalea
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Flowering Trees
Crabapples, Cherry, Dogwood, Cotoneaster
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Vines
Clematis, Perennial Sweet Pea (Laythrus)
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Fruits/Vegetables
Chive (Allium)
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