A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 color schemes ...help !!

I am trying to design my backyard , and I am killing myself trying to decide upon a color scheme ... I like so many different things , but I want to keep it disciplined and not chaotic .

I want to use lots of roses in the landscape , and use warmish colors ..... yet I love an all green garden room too !!

I am thinking of corals , scarlett , light apricot pink , a buttery yellow , and deep purple for contrast .

I am TOTALLY open for correction and opinions . I am not experienced with use of color in the garden ..... but I am in decorating .... and I usually have a good eye for things . I would so value any of your thoughts

Welcome to The Garden Helper, trenna!

Since I am more of a chaotic gardener, I will let someone else answer your question, but I did want to make sure to welcome you...

Dianna

Thank you Dianna ! Oh don't get me wrong ... I appreciate a "chaotic" garden as well .... I would love to hear your thoughts on colors .

I love your little doggie !! We have three dogs that we LOVE .

Trenna

I could not pick just a few colors. I love 'em all. We moved here in 2003 and bush-hogged everything down except for one lonely, little pin oak tree. I am still trying to design everything the way I would like it to look.

My Angel is a Jack Russel. What kind of canines do you have?

Dianna

I love all colors too. But I have a special love for the hot bright colors. So I've compromised so far. I have two containers out front that are 3 foot sections of concrete pipe standing up on their ends. One of these gets the pastels pale pinks, purples and light blues, very cool. And it gives me a place to put some of my trade seeds that I just couldn't give up even though they aren't in my color scheme. Then the other container has a burgandy shrub in it with thorns (I'll think of the name he in a moment or two or three) and behind it a put in some pink Hollyhocks that should be in their bloom cycle this year. And beside the burgandy plant I have a clump of blackberry lilies. The front of the planter will have a cluster of petunias of different colors. I'm more about height than about color this year for the containers. That and learning which plants will play well with others lol.

Last year I had canna, nastrium and marigolds in the same container and they got into a turf war. I have to say the container was very full but that wasn't really what I wanted. Even though they were all in the red to yellow color group. With the canna being mostly of the burgandy stemed color rather than the green.

What I would suggest is that the green be your backdrop complementary color and then you can do your warm colors to your hearts content. roses can be finicky from what I hear so I wish you the best of luck. Other full sun moderate plants that come in your colors are the celosia. I like the one that looks like a feather but the others are very interesting too. They can be used as dried or cut flowers also which is nice. And they come in very vibrant yellows, golds, oranges and yellows. And of course marigolds also come in the colors you like. And they have a very nice shape in the garden and I always think that is important to making a garden look tidy. Mums for fall color also come in your colors and again have a shape that is very nice for keeping the garden looking well maintained. The miniature snapdragons if you plant them in groupings of four and let them fall down will also create little mounds of color in the spring and they also come in the colors that you are looking for. So far mine have handled part shade although they are suppose to be full sun plants. Anyway there are a few you might want to look at.

Are you going to put climbing roses along your back fence as a backdrop for your other flowers?

Dear tkhooper , Thanks so much for all of the great suggestions ! Yes , I am going to put climbing roses on the wall , and some shrub roses en mass in the beds (I think!) . Trenna

Dear Dianna ,
I have a soft coated wheaton terrier , a white westie , and a five pound black (with a little white) shipoo !!

They LOVE to be with me in the yard (and everywhere else too I guess ).

Trenna

Trenna, I hope you get around to posting pics in the Pet Forum. We love our little furred, feathered, finned and scaled kids around here!

Dianna

TREENA,

THAT IS A STRANGE QUESTION ON HERE..HA HA ..YOU KNOW I NEVER THOUGHT OF WHAT COLORS GO WHERE, I WAS ALWAYS TOO BUSY TRYING TO GET THE SHORTIES IN FRONT AND TALLIES IN BACK..
NOW YOU HAVE ME THINKING...........
I DO HAVE ONE BED OF RED HOT SALVIA, ALWAYS WITH SOMETHING SHORTER IN FRONT.....
THE HUMMERS GO NUTS OVER THE REDDIES.....
THIS YEAR I WAS CONSIDERING RE,WHITE AND BLUE.
PATRIOTIC.

DODGE

OMG, you should all see my garden...colors splashed everywhere with no rhyme or reason....I like it like that...less formal that way. But it does look nice when you plant a lot of the same color in masses...

Hi trenna!

Welcome to the Forum! Most of my garden beds are a mixture of assorted colors, with a lot of pink since that's my favorite color. I kind of favor the chaotic look because it seem more natural to me. Trenna, if your good at decorating indoors, you should be just as good outdoors, it's just a bigger room!

patches

I'm setting out a yellow iris border around my small grass panel in the back with "Ola Kala" this year:

to complement a lilac bush, violet irises,and some pink peonies. Together with the green color of the lawn and shrubbery they should make a showy Kodak Moment for the backyard,I hope, since I'm counting on them to bloom all at the same time (the first half of June).
There's a small butterfly garden of asters,goldenrods, & rudbeckias off to the right which will come into bloom when these flowers have faded away. Not exactly chaotic, but more on the order of a pleasing floral arrangement.


Happy gardening, trenna, and welcome to the forum !

I just bought "The Well-Designed Mixed Garden" by Tracy Disabato-Aust and I love it. It's $40 at Barnes & Noble, but I got mine on eBay for half that. The book really helped me because I also love a wide range of plants, too, and this book helps "control" it a little. I struggle with what goes with what, and making it look interesting throughout the season. The book has actual plans, with lists of all the plant materials used, of gardens that she has designed and installed. The last 1/3 of the book has SEVERAL lists of plants, their light requirements, color, flowering season, etc., etc.

One of the gardens was planned according to the color wheel. It is a long border garden that starts out on one end with plants that are all one color, I think blue, graduates into purple, then reds, yellow, etc., then back again. Other gardens in the book use plants of all different colors together, but she discusses at length how the they play off each other, along with texture, plant height, etc.

Good luck!