a gardener’s colour guide

By Shauna Dobbie

A jumble of colours.

When you’re new to ornamental gardening, you probably don’t think about what colours you’re putting together in a garden. Flowers all go together, right?

But after you’ve been at it for a few years you begin to sense that some flowers look just a little more magical when placed side by side. They may go together softly, like a quiet evening whisper, or hit you between the eyes in the most exciting way.

Getting everything just so takes some trial and error; two plants that bloom at the same time in the catalogues may not bloom at the same time in your garden. You can have a lot of fun trying to get it right and you may make some beautiful discoveries along the way.

Neutrals

White, black, grey and brown are neutrals in your wardrobe. In your garden, add green. These colours calm other colours. They can be used to separate others, to lighten the effect of contrast.

In addition, white has special properties because it is so highly reflective. It is absolutely necessary in the night garden, where it shines like a beautiful beacon. Think about it in the classic red rose bouquet; it may be old fashioned, but a spray of baby’s breath still lifts an arrangement of red long-stems from meh to marvelous.

Black and brown are less useful in this regard when you think of flowers and foliage. While there are certainly examples of both, they prove more useful in furniture and hardscaping. A brown fence virtually disappears. A black wall is a gorgeous backdrop for brightly coloured flowers.

Grey is striking when it comes across as silver in plants. And green… in a garden, it is almost always there. It is the familiar hue, comforting in its ubiquity.

Knowing the colour wheel will help you understand how colours work together.

Monochrome

The simplest colour scheme to achieve is monochrome. You can have a garden where all the flowers are blue, or all pink or orange or whatever. The favourite type of monochrome garden is white, following on the famous example set by Vita Sackville-West at her home in Sissinghurst Castle.

While planning a white garden is simple, it isn’t easy. Many “white” flowers are ever-so-slightly tinged with pink, peach or yellow. If you are the least bit particular, it can take a couple of years to erase the colour from your garden.

For any colour, of course, your flowers will be variations of the colour you’re thinking of. Yellow, for instance, ranges from the delicate butter-yellow of a snapdragon to the more intense tone of a sunflower.

Purple and pink are analogous.

Analogous colours

To discuss anything else, we’ll need a colour wheel.

We’ll use a very simple wheel with six colours, with red, blue and yellow as the primary colours.

Between the primary colours are purple, green and orange, which are the secondary colours you get when you mix two.

To follow an analogous design scheme, choose flowers from any two colours on the wheel that appear side by side.

Using colours that are related in likeness produces a harmonious look. It calms the mind and enables you to focus.

The complementary colours of purple and yellow.

Complements

If you haven’t delved into colour theory this much, complementary colours may confuse you; it sounds like complimentary colours, which would be colours that say nice things about each other. A complement, with an e, is an opposite.

Complementary colours are opposites on the colour wheel. Purple and yellow are complements, as are orange and blue. Red and green are complements, too, but because green is used as a neutral colour in gardening, you don’t see a red-green scheme used very often.

Complementary colours almost vibrate when they’re together. It excites the mind and thrills the heart.

Analgous foliage colour.

Tints, shades, tones and values

So, where does pink fit into the colour wheel? Or burgundy? They don’t. Not into the simple colour wheel, anyhow, because they are a tint and shade of red. A tint is when you mix a primary or secondary colour with white and a shade is when you mix in a little black. When you mix in both white and black, you get a tone.

Another point of colour is saturation or value. Think of a lipstick versus a lip gloss. The hue may be the same, but the value for the lip gloss would be less saturated. A saturated hue is stronger.

You can play with these aspects as you garden. They are particularly useful in staging a monochrome garden.

Objects and foliage

Colour can come from anything in the garden, not just flowers. You need to consider the walls of your house and your fence when working out a colour scheme. Think

Eryngeum. Analagous foliage colour. about new pots you can buy or paint. There are various objects in the garden that can add to your dream, from arbours and trellises to objects of art.

And of course, there are the non-flower parts of plants. Foliage is not always green, and certainly not always emerald. There are limey hues and deep purple tones and silvery leaves. Some change with the seasons.

Fruit at certain times of year brings interest, sometimes putting colour at the forefront. Think of the blue berries of certain viburnum or porcelain vine, the red berries of holly and the striking purple of callicarpa for those at the higher zones.

Eryngeum.

Borage.

Blue

True blues are not common in the plant world; look at purples for more plants you tend to think of as blue. But those that are pure blue are showstoppers. In addition to the following, there are forget-me-nots.

Meconopsis, the Himalayan blue poppy, is difficult to grow unless you are in a region it particularly loves. It requires well draining, slightly acidic clay loam and dappled shade. Success is limited in areas with hot summers. If you manage to grow them, get a perennial type. M. betonicifolia ‘Lingholm’ is one you can find a lot of seeds for. You are unlikely to find it as a bedding plant because it doesn’t transplant well. Good luck!

Eryngium planum, or sea holly, is not too fussy and it is very hardy. It is a perennial that loves a dry, hot, sunny space. ‘Blue Glitter’ is an improvement over earlier cultivars, being more floriferous, but any you find at a nursery are recommendable.

Centaurea cyanus, bachelor buttons or cornflowers, are annuals that self sow reliably. They also come in pink, lavender and dark purple. If you’re fussy about blue, look for the word in the cultivar name, like ‘Blue Boy’ or ‘Blue Diadem’.

Borago officinalis, better known as borage, has the most lovely blue flowers if you get the species plant or some of the many cultivars. It is an annual that grows in partial or full sun, reaching heights of 1 to 3 feet.

Hydrangea macrophylla and Hydrangea serrata can be blue, depending on the variety you get and the acidity of the soil. You cannot change the colours of other types of hydrangeas, and these hydrangeas are not the super hardy ones, H. paniculata, that you find on the prairies. There are no blue H. paniculata.

Bells of Ireland.

Green

Moluccella laevis, better known as bells of Ireland, are one of the few truly green flowers grown by gardeners. They are annuals and mostly grown by seed.

There are a few other particular varieties of hydrangeas, hellebores and amaranth with green blooms, but by and large, your greens will come from foliage.

Heliopsis.

Pale yellow yarrow.

Ligularia ‘The Rocket’.

Yellow

So many yellow flowers! Here are a few of our favourites, the ones we think of when we think “yellow flowers”.

Ligularia, many species and hybrids. They range from the varieties of L. dentata, which are daisy-shaped blooms, to the others, which are tall spires of sunshine in the shade. Hardiness varies. There are a few tall types that are hardy to Zone 3b, while the L. dentata are typically hardy to Zone 2.

Achillea, or yarrow. Sun-loving and carefree yarrow comes in various colours, but the yellows are spectacular. From the light, creamy ‘Anthera’ to the sulphuric ‘Moonshine’, it’s an old-fashioned perennial that fills in a garden beautifully.

Thunbergia is the annual (for most of us) black-eyed Susan vine. It grows in sun or part sun and climbs up any kind of support.

Heliopsis is well-known by its Latin name and by its common name, false sunflower. With numerous cultivars, many of them hardy to Zone 3, it is native from the south of Saskatchewan and east.

Helianthus annuus, the sunflower. There are so many of this annual to choose from, how do we begin to suggest one or two? Sunflowers need a sunny area and they will grow fairly fast. They range in height from 1 to 10 feet tall.

Hemerocallis ‘Frans Hals’.

Tagetes.

Tagetes.

Orange

Coming somewhere between the yellows and the reds, we’ve made our few suggestions that are a true and even mixture of the two.

Hemerocallis is known for the ubiquitous orange ditch lily, the daylily that has overtaken country lanes so prolifically. Those invasive ones have been supplanted by betterbehaved orange daylilies, such as ‘Bright Sunset’, ‘Primal Scream’ and ‘Rocket City’. A favourite is ‘Siloam Peony Display’, which is a double in soft orange. Daylilies thrive across the country, take very little care and at least a little sun.

Avens, commonly called geums, are an underused perennial that are typically listed as hardy to Zone 4 or 5 in Canada. The colour ranges to fiery reds, but a favourite is ‘Totally Tangerine’.

Tagetes, or marigolds, are making a comeback in garden favour. The shorter French marigolds (T. patula) and taller African marigolds (T. erecta) are the annual that speaks of late summer and hangs on through to frost. Yes, they come in yellow and with red bands, but the orange varieties like ‘Savannah Sun’ truly warm the cockles of our hearts.

Asclepias tuberosa is known as butterfly weed or orange milkweed. If you are in an area where monarch butterflies spend the summer, this is an important flower to have in your garden. It is a carefree perennial that some people call invasive, though it is native through much of the prairies, and how can a native plant also be considered invasive? Keep it in the sun.

Salvia splendens.

Red

In addition to the roses, poppies, tulips and snapdragons that come in red, here are some less-known flowers.

Lobelia cardinalis, or cardinal flower, is a native perennial in southern Saskatchewan and east through New Brunswick. It isn’t particular about sun or shade but it will not tolerate drought. This plant often grows on riverbanks and may survive in standing water. And if you can grow it where you are, it will reward you with blooms from spring through fall in the most beautiful, clear red colour.

Salvia splendens is also known as scarlet salvia. It is a shorter spike used as an annual in Canada. It isn’t too fussy about where you put it or what you do with it. Not too long ago, it was everywhere in public plantings, but now, it’s harder to find.

Amaranthus caudatus. Its old-fashioned name, love lies bleeding, is positively Victorian. Growing this annual will get some oohs and aahs from visitors, with its dreadlockstyle tassels of flowers. It grows from part shade to full sun and is drought tolerant.

Liatris.

Heliotrope.

Purple

Lilac. Lavender. Many clematis. Most bellflowers. Alliums, iris, veronica, nepeta. So many flowers start out as purple or have shades and tints of purple among their cultivars. Here are a few we don’t see often enough today:

Heliotropium arborescens, commonly shortened to heliotrope. The heavenly scent of cherry pie wafting from these annuals on a hot evening makes them well worth growing! They are perennial in the deep south, but here we grow them happily as annuals. It likes full sun, full-draining water, and plenty of food.

Liatris spicata or blazing star is native to Ontario and Quebec and is hardy across Canada. It favours sun and moist, sandy loam. Drought tolerant!

Agastache or anise hyssop. Another sun-loving perennial spike hardy across the country, but this one will do almost as well in part shade. If you have soil that tends toward the alkaline, this is a plant that will do well for you.

Callicarpa, or beauty berry, is limited to the very southern areas of Ontario and the coast of BC. The flowers aren’t much to look at, but the berries cluster around the branches in the most stunning and clear tone of purple you can imagine. Think of Thrills gum.

Penstemon.

Monarda.

Bleeding heart.

Pink

Softer than red but you cannot deny its punch. Think of echinacea, cherry blossoms, and so many varieties of dianthus, commonly called pinks, that the flower gave the colour its name. Spirea, magnolia, rose of Sharon, phlox, and herbaceous peonies that aren’t white or red.

Monarda or bergamot. This yummy-smelling ragamuffin flower comes in tones of pink, purple and red, and in every height from 1 to 4 feet tall. It isn’t fussy about soil type, as long as it’s not too acidic, or water, and it does well in every kind of light from full sun to part shade.

Penstemon, sometimes known as beardtongue. Comes in many colours, but the ones we’re thinking of are the diminutive P. barbatus ‘Elfin Pink’, which is less than a foot tall, and great for hot, dry sites to at least Zone 4. ‘Dark Towers’ has darker pink blooms with burgundy foliage and is taller, but also good to at least Zone 4.

Dicentra or bleeding heart. Some of the bleeding hearts formerly known as Dicentra are now Lamprocapnos, but they have a similar look and require similar care. They like a bit of shade, and the old-fashioned ones will thrill at the beginning of summer. Most grow from 1 to 3 feet high.

Cimicifuga.

Anemone canadensis.

Lily of the valley.

White

Think of any flower that has been very popular in the last 40 years and chances are, there is a white variety. There are a few that come only in white, like candytuft and edelweiss. Just about every plant species listed above has a commercially available white variant, except for heliopsis, ligularia and bells of Ireland. (And the actual flowers of bells of Ireland are white; the green part we tend to think of as flowers are the calyces.) Even sunflowers and monarda come in white.