There was a time when I feared vibrant color. Although I painted during college, I worried about adding color accents to my garden. So many rules about what goes with what. No fuchsia. No orange. No school bus yellow. No fun.
I have an English-styled country garden, but it is in rural Oklahoma. As a young gardener, I read a lot of English gardening advice. I cut my horticultural teeth on the works of Vita Sackville-West and Gertrude Jekyll. I now know much of their ideas formed from experience in a maritime climate with moderate weather compared to ours. Cloudy skies change how we see color. I’m not saying England doesn’t have sunny days. It does. They seem to fall in June and July between showers. In Oklahoma, we are sunny much of the year. It is rarely cloudy unless a storm is on the horizon. You might not realize this from the tornadic weather we’ve had this spring, but it’s true. Storms blow in, and then move on south or east. February is our cloudiest month, and it’s nearly too much for me. I could never live in Seattle or Portland.
Clear blue skies, almost white in summer, call for bright and bold measures. Our sun twists out subtle pastels like a wringer washer. I have a section of the garden with pastel flowers like light pink Rosa ‘Radyod’ (Blushing Knockout), but by July, it is white instead of light pink. I sometimes envy the serenity of a garden full of subtle hues, but then I remember my climate and accept where I’m planted.
Several years ago, I discovered Christopher Lloyd’s book, Colour for Adventurous Gardeners
A lot of my garden became fixed as it matured over the years. Some of the beds are twenty years or older now. Others were dug only a few years ago. I also changed as I’ve matured. I now tend to like red . . . a lot, so I’m using more red and yellow roses in the lower garden these days. My love of red started when I couldn’t find the blue pot I wanted for a fountain. I found red instead, and it changed my life.
I’ve removed a few roses, and that changed the way the garden looks too. Some of the older roses succumbed to Rose Rosette Disease. Since I can’t plant a rose in the same hole due to diseased root fragments, I replaced two ‘New Dawn’ roses at the end of the lower garden with Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’ last summer. These are dwarf oakleaf hydrangeas, but they will still fill the space. To enhance their red stems and aging blooms–starting out white and aging to a lovely rosy red–I planted four Berberis thunbergii ‘Orange Rocket’ nearby. There is nothing subtle about these colors, but they work with the glass art, shown above, I added to the garden a couple of seasons ago. I placed it to highlight Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’ growing in the shady section of the garden. Red for its hot pink stems in winter, and green to echo green leaves and bark in summer. You should see it in fall when the leaves change to golden amber. This September, I’ll take a photo and show you.
Changing these colors in the garden made me realize that beneath a shy exterior–I am truly shy–I promise–I have a vibrant interior life.
I’m in the process of painting all of the arbors light green to help them blend into the space, but I left the chairs in the lower garden French blue because of the blue pots on the back deck. I painted the lattice surrounding the deck a darker blue. It helps the lattice-work to fade into the shadows in the afternoon and is a lovely backdrop to Lycoris radiata every fall. Purple and lemon yellow daylilies are also beautiful against this blue.
Recently, at Mary Ann Newcomer’s suggestion, I read Making Gardens Works of Art: Creating Your Own Personal Paradise
After six years of blogging, I find the blog category, color, is one I often highlight. My garden is my palette and my canvas. I work hard to bring all of it life every spring. In winter, I say goodbye to vivid expression, but then I see the garden in sepia tones. It is an old photograph which will come to life again the following spring.
Wake up to color. If you like pastels, great. There are wonderful choices in pastel colorations too. However, as I’ve gotten over my inherent shyness, I now express myself in bold strokes, and that’s a wonderful thing. Color, like blogging, changed my life. Perhaps, it will change yours too.
Love all of your color. I am starting fresh with flower gardens at this farm and plan to have a great deal of fresh, vibrant color. Thank you for all the inspiration. 🙂
Hi, Dee, I adore this post. It’s one of my alltime favorites, as it’s truly illuminating parts of you we might not have known (shy?) and inspiring others to reach for color, a wonderful message.
Happy to hear you are coming to San Francisco. Still hoping there might be a way to see some of you in spite of not being able to make such a big commitment at the moment. I do hope you will cross the Golden Gate Bridge and come north. I was disappointed that was not on the agenda, but it’s a LOT of territory you will be covering. Enjoy every day. I know you will. And if there’s any way to connect in person, I’ll be there.
Great post about color. I am not exactly timid about color – I do have brilliant gaillardias – but I am not exactly bold either. I appreciate the book suggestions! You make an important point about how our climate affects, can affect – the colors we use in the garden. I’m in the higher elevations of western Massachusetts.
Can someone with vibrant red hair really be shy? 🙂 I loved this post because, as you know (and thanks for the link love), I adore color too, especially red and orange! I love that new barberry. I saw it in an Austin nursery recently and was tempted to try it but wasn’t sure if I had room. I think I will await a report from you on how it does in hot, dry summers. Like you, I can’t WAIT to see Keeyla’s garden at the San Fran Fling.
When I was buying my annuals, I picked up a container of wild flower mix. I plan to broadcast the seeds by the back fence and can’t wait to see what pops up!
Love this Dee…I have colors popping all over the garden and it brings me joy. I have a whole red garden and another that is white…it lights up the shade.
Still a work in progress here in my garden. Now that I have a little more time, things are really coming together (and other things are falling apart). I tend to have garden rooms. Some are bold, colorful and vibrant; while others are demure, understated, and pastel. That way, I can express the different aspects of my personality (and match the sunlight and microclimates). Great post!
Amen! Well said Dee and wowzer on the ‘Rocket Orange’ barberry. That is a dazzling combo. The Middle South summer sun is searingly bright and pretty pastels get washed out, we need the dynamic colors of gaillardia, rudbeckias, butterflyweed and dayliles. I have recently added a ninebark cultivar ‘Little Devil’ that has fantastic burgundy color, stays shorter and plays well with yellow wildflowers and species phlox. Thank you for the linkage. I do like color and occasionally it’s a “clown pants” show in the garden. xoxo gail
Dee, you are the vibrant colorful person that may feel shy but you exude the beautiful colors of your garden. It is wonderful to see color come crashing through the garden. Bringing the exciting to consciousness.
Great info and oh, another book to read. I do more with colors than I used to, but I could do a lot more out in my garden.
I live in a much cooler and cloudier climate, but I don’t limit myself to a pastel palette,either. I agree with both you and Frances that as we mature as gardeners, we get more adventurous with color. With me it started when I was mistakenly sent Heliopsis when I had ordered Heuchera. I wasn’t about to throw out free plants, so I had to figure out what to do with that bright golden yellow, and thus the Purple-and-Gold bed was born. Now, when combining plants for vignettes and beds, I try to pay attention to what my inner artist is saying.
So true, and well-said! The blue, blue summer skies in Colorado just beg for pops of bright color – orange and yellow, reds and intense shades. Like you, I morphed away from my English garden phase long ago and have never looked back. Great post!
Oh goodness, lovely to see you. Even though we love the English garden style, we need a bit more cayenne in our climates.
Great post, Dee, not only for the advice, but also for your way with words. “Our sun twists out subtle pastels like a wringer washer”–what a fabulous image! Of course, that depends on someone remembering how a wringer washer works…which I definitely do:) In fact, I once got my arm stuck in the wringer helping Mom with the laundry.
I’ve always been a pastel kind of person, but more and more bright yellows and reds and even orange have been creeping into my garden. I think they’re energizing as well. Will have to check out some of these books!
Hi Rose, I linked to a wringer washer because I was afraid no one would remember. My grandmother had one, and I used to help her with the laundry. I found it fascinating. Your poor arm! Ouch. I love pastels, and if I lived where the sunlight was softer, I’d be all over them.~~Dee
What is a garden without color? I went on 8 garden tours last weekend and only one had any color and that was 5 red geraniums. Our February is also dreary and I love when the daffodils appear and bring me yellow. that makes me feel so much better! Another way I have been adding color is spray painting my containers. I love all the different colors available.
Brenda
Brenda, that’s not a lot of color. Those gardens needed some daylilies to spice things up.~~Dee
Soooo true! color makes the world come alive. My gardens in the back are shaded by a big old oak tree and I use subtler colors there but the front is all sun and I use lots of orange, yellow and red… Va va voom!
I never thought about the sun bleaching pastels in your climate but of course that would happen. Sounds like you’ve solved the problem!
Deanne, it’s taken a lot of thought, but I think I have. Thanks for stopping by.
I do so love reading about your garden journey and seeing your beautiful pictures. When I think about not being in town for the garden tour, it’s February in my heart.
Theresa, you can just come by honey. You don’t have to come on the tour. Give me a call on my cell.
Absolutely spot on, Dee! As we mature as gardeners, and people, we understand that all colors are beautiful and all colors go together in nature. Our strong and unrelenting summer sun requires strong color that doesn’t get washed out. I too started out with the pink, blue and white garden shades, like what was shown in magazines and garden books. That is beautiful, but why be limited?
You gotta have yellow and orange. Also blue and red. I like to have a lot of color as well. Subtlety is so overrated.
Love your color gardens and the art too. I too used too little color and now nothing if forbidden but cannas and large things like that. Don’t know why. I thought indian paintbrush was our wildflower, so I’m glad to know. Now, it has stopped raining so I need to go out and beautify my gardens. In fact, I better go to the plant store.
I don’t see it literally changing my life, but it certainly changes the mood. Blooming where one is planted involves first figuring out what makes us happy given what plants are happy at our place.
Is it too hot and windy to finish the greenhouse? I’ve been anxiously waiting to hear that things are okay there.
Hi Nell Jean, no, it’s pretty much finished. We are leveling up the benches and then skirting it. Otherwise, it’s done. I should show some photos, huh? We need to put a gutter on the outside and fix up the rain barrels, but honestly, it’s been raining almost everyday here. We also went on vacation. I guess that’s why I haven’t written more about it.
Balancing color in the garden is the hardest thing for me. My garden is only 3 yrs old though so I have lots to learn. I see in the background of the barberry picture some cornflower blue wildflowers I think. I don’t know what they are but there are some down the road in the bar ditch of an empty pasture. I think it’s time I go dig a few up and move them. 🙂
Hey Kim, yes, those are cornflowers. Don’t dig up your wildflowers. Just throw out some seed. ‘Blue Boy’ is the bluest one, but there are mixes and some that are burgundy. The seed comes up fast, and the foliage is a lovely silver that catches the light. Hugs.~~Dee