Color and the Perennial Placement Chess Game

Balloon Flower

I would like to be able to say that after standing for ten, fifteen minuets at a time weighing all the relevant factors, that I always place new perennials in the perfect spot. It would be wonderful if this time spent was rewarded with success!

But if I am being honest, I get placement wrong more times than I get it right. Often, I feel discouraged and think that I simply waste time standing in front of one of my flower borders carefully considering plant size and height, while weighing leaf color, shape and texture and calculating into the equation bloom time and color, only to come up an answer that I live to regret.

And I can't tell you how often I have looked at an overcrowded border and thought, "What was I thinking???"

If I simply tossed my trowel into a bed, and planted the new recruit wherever it landed I might be just as successful!

Needless to say, I shift perennials around a fair bit. I am out in the garden as soon as the weather permits playing, what I have come to call, placement chess in the garden. I simply move plants around until I am happy with the results.

I worked for years in the art department of a wallpaper company and that experience has given me a fearless love of color.

Bring it on! 

Bright colors are so happy, what's not to love.

My June garden is all pinks ands soft purples. My July garden is, on the contrary, bright oranges, yellow, pink and hot purple with a dash of warm blue thrown in.

There is no color I dislike- well maybe soft peach-

but then, peach worked into a complimentary color combination can be wonderful!

Peach lilies and grey Artemisia with purple and yellow as background melody.

Equally appealing to me are soft shades in the right setting. I've mixed these salmon colored daylilies with a dark maroon daylily with a yellow throat.

One look at my garden and you realize that I don't believe in color rules. Its more fun to push the envelope and mix colors together that may not seem obviously suited to one another.

Most people might think that yellow and purple are a bit whacky together, but I love the odd combination.

I think its even fun to play it safe and repeat a single color in variations.

So tell me, what are your favorite garden color combinations?