Colour Combinations – How to Use Colour in the Garden

I absolutely love it when colour combinations work. You have a vision in your head, wait for the plants to grow, and when they do and everything looks fantastic, you feel like a gardening genius.

But equally, it’s so disappoining when something doesn’t quite turn out as you planned. It still often looks ok, because plants are things of beauty no matter how badly I combine them. But the effect doesn’t look amazing. So, to help avoid such disappointments and maxmise the triumphs, I’ve researched some basic rules of colour and how to use them in the garden. Here’s what I’ve found.

First off I think I should say that I think any colour scheme works. After all it’s your garden, so if you like a combination of colours, and your garden pleases you, well that’s enough in my book. Ignore the fashion police! If we all slavishly follow everyone else’s idea of good taste our gardens will be very samey and not ours!

Having said all that, I think knowing the principles of colour is useful if you have a vision in your head for your garden – you want a cool meditative space, a tropical paradise or a party-ready patio – and you’re not sure how to execute it.

Neutrals

First up it’s perhaps worth identifying the neutrals. These are the colours you can add to your garden and it doesn’t matter what effect you are going for, they will work. These colours are cream, white, grey, silver, browns and greens. These colours will often tone down other colours, so they’re good as buffer plants.

Monochrome Scheme

Even if you know the rules of colour combinations, that doesn’t mean you need to go for different colours. It’s highly possible to design a very effective monochrome garden. I think we’ve all seen some incredibly stylish white gardens. Indeed I shared 12 white plant ideas last year.

According to Alan Titchmarsh, if you are going for the monochrome approach the most effective colours to work with are white or the prime colours – red, blue and yellow. Alan is of course a gardening god, (apparently his waxwork at Madame Tussauds needs to have its head regularly replaced as so many people affectionately touch his cheeks!) However, I’d slightly disagree with Alan on this monochrome point; I think green is also a good monochrome garden colour. I’ve areas of my garden where green really dominates, allowing the gorgeous fronds of ferns, the dramatic leaves of hostas and heuchera lime marmalade do the talking. I think it works really well, with the odd splash of white or cream breaking things up.

Monochrome – Pros and Cons

The benefits of going for a monochrome scheme is that it obviously takes some of the risk out of your colour choices, after all, if you’ve gone for a blue theme, it’s not too hard picking nothing but plants in shades of blue, even I can manage that! It looks really planned out, effective and designed, for minimal colour thinking.

However, the downside of such an approach is that by limiting the colour palette in this way you are limiting the variety of insects your garden will attract and sustain, which is not a good thing. Bees and other pollinators like variety, as I wrote about in my blog how to create a bee-friendly garden. For them variety really is the spice of life!

Also, on a personal level, I think a monochrome scheme is far too restrictive for me. While I have a single shady bed devoted to white, I like too many different coloured plants to contain myself to one colour for my whole garden!

Want Killer Colour Combinations? Call in the Colour Wheel!

So, if you’re like me and monochrome is out, you need to get to grips with the colour wheel. Now, don’t panic, this isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

Essentially, there are three ways to identify good colour combinations using the wheel:

Adjacent Colour Combinations

These are colours which are next to each other on the colour wheel. They work well together as colour combinations because they harmonise and blend. My wisteria and rose Zephirine Drouhin are a combination like this. Though if I’m being hyper critical, I think a rose that’s slightly more of a mauvey pink would work even better.

You don’t have to stick to just two colours when thinking about harmonious colour combinations. For instance, in my hot corner I’ve an orange geum and achillea working well alongside a scarlet potentilla and a yellow rock rose. The orange plants act as a bridge between the yellow and red ones. So I’ve red, orange and yellow plants in a harmonious colour combination.

Complementary Colour Combinations

You can also go for high impact, complementary colour combinations using the colour wheel. Simply choose colours which are opposite each other on the wheel. For instance my mauve pink liatris spicata which is in bloom while my sedum is still green, is a classic complementary colour combination which looks lovely.

You can also of course achieve such colour combinations in your containers. For instance, the purply pink heather and lime green Skimmia Finchy and grass Poa Labillardierei.

In June, my semi-shaded bed is full of allium Purple Sensation . This is another example of a complementary colour scheme. They look lovely against the green of my euphorbia, ferns, and the limey-green Silene Fimbriata, and Tellima Grandiflora. The alliums are meant to be grown in full sun, but mine seem to cope with a bit of shade (lucky for me).

I’ve also acid yellow Achillea Moonshine planted with the purple Geranium Rozanne, they look really effective together.

Looking at the colour chart I seem to be obsessed with purples. I clearly need to spread my complementary colour wings as there are many other colour combinations I could go for. For instance, I’ve never tried blues and reds or blues and orange together. I need to have a think about that one, perhaps for a container.

Colour Combinations – Triads or Contrasting Colours

Apologies now, this final combination of contrasting colours involves triangles! I hated geometry at school, so I’ve a bit more of a mental block with this, but if you persevere with the logic it does work. Essentially you create a colour triad. No this isn’t some form of dangerous gang in a Hollywood blockbuster. The colour triad is created by drawing an equilateral triangle (one with three sides of the same length) connecting 3 colours in the colour wheel. For instance red, yellow and blue are a triad as are purple, orange, and green.

However, if you want to forget triangles, (I can feel us all collectively heaving a sigh of relief) simply look at the colour wheel and choose colours that are at equal distance from each other on the wheel. As the name triad suggests, normally three colours are chosen for contrasting combinations. But I’ve also read that you can go up to five, it’s up to personal taste (yours not anyone elses!) However a word of warning, if you go beyond five it all gets a bit much for the eye to cope with!

Also, if you are going for a contrasting planting scheme with five colours, plan carefully, and make one of your colours the dominant one. Otherwise it will all look a bit bitty!

How to Use Colour in the Garden – Beyond Colour Combinations

Obviously it’s not just colour combinations which are important when thinking about colour in your garden. Colour can profoundly impact on the mood in your garden and the effect. Here are some other helpful tips which I’ve gleaned from experts.

• Bright colours (reds, oranges, and yellows) jump out at you and look best when used in a sunny location
• Pale pastels can look washed out in sunlight
• Cool colours (blues, purples, and greens) are most effective when used in a partially shady location
• Pale colors, yellows, and whites reflect light and brighten shady spots
• Cool colours and pale shades create depth – they’ll make your garden look larger
• Hot colours make a garden look closer, so potentially your space look smaller
• Red colours add heat (obviously) but unless you’re creating a a seriously hot look, use sparingly
• Don’t forget about leaves, they come in many shades and can dramatically impact on an effect
• Repeat a colour in a bed to create continuity and avoid ‘bittiness’
• Colours look different in different light, take that into consideration
• Plants change colour during the year, another thing to consider
• It’s not all down to the plants, think about the colour of your containers, fencing and so forth

I have first hand experience of this last point. For instance my purple-blue container with a contrasting lime yellow grass called Acorus Ogon is a wonderful complementary colour combination.

I’ve also a terracotta container with a little rasberry-reddish daisy type flower, with a golden yellow centre (sorry can’t recall the variety). The pot and plant work brilliantly as an adjacent colour combination.

In terms of cool colours creating depth and brightening shady areas, look no further than my clematis containers which for this year I’ve underplanted with this soft, cream tulips with green markings called Verona.

The tulips provide a lovely burst of light which punctuates the low light of the morning. And stretching away into the distance as they do, I feel they extend the eyeline, creating a sense of calm space. They also chime with the daffodils. I’m really pleased with this effect which is new for this year.

So that’s it. I hope you find this advice on colour combinations helpful. My last tip would be, of course think about all of this but remember, it’s your garden, so choose the colours and combinations which you like and which make you happy. Why do anything else?