Does this color make my garden look fat?
I ran across an interesting article on a Cornell University site about the use of color in gardens. www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scenee40a.html While it says there are no right or wrong choices about color in the garden, it does explain complementary colors, and gets into the technical aspects of analogous and adjacent colors.
I can't pretend my garden's color scheme was planned with such care, or even really planned at all. A neighbor once identified an underlying color theme that had sort of evolved: lots of blues and shades of pink, with doses of white. That palette wasn't anything I chose intentionally, but a flip through any garden catalog in my house will show a trail of dog-eared pages with blooms of deep blue, soft pink and crisp white.
The blue selections are no surprise, a favorite reflected in my kitchen and wardrobe. And the pink and blue theme may be a subconscious selection: Cool colors are not only soothing, but they can make small spaces like my garden seem bigger because they recede into the landscape, the Cornell site says. Conversely, yellows, reds and oranges add energy to the garden, and can make big spaces seem smaller. But while an armful of red roses would delight me, I don't seem to select them for the landscape.
How then, to explain those shocking yellow lilies in my yard? For one thing, they were there first, and I'm not going to dig them out just because they don't fit a theme I didn't even know I had until someone else pointed it out. Plus, they thrive in the hottest days of summer, when they seem to echo the strong sun.
I became vaguely self-conscious about my few random spots of yellow when a friend scoffed at any photo showing yellow or orange flowers mixed in a riot of color. That prejudice might be due to a yellow invasive spreader that got loose in her yard, but it made me start paying more attention to my own color selection. Is that deeply yellow lily out of place? Possibly. I introduced a tall tiger lily (free at this year's plant swap!) on the corresponding site on the other side of the yard to make it seem more intentional. Design-wise, it's probably more balanced now. But I'm still not sure I care, because it's hard to begrudge those reliable bright bursts of yellow that to me mean the peak of summer.
So, what's your garden's temperature? A riot of color or a peaceful vista of coordinated colors? Do you have any favorite garden color misfits? And did you plan your color scheme, or did your garden bring its own agenda?
