Color Echoes VI Color Theory in the Garden

LOL Meredith, What you are saying about plant combinations 'echoes' in my ears! I have all the same symptoms~~not being able to murder my self-sowers, buying plants on discount and then not having any good partners for them, not knowing what a plant is really like (some catalogs really lie!), etc. I guess that's why they say it takes years to get a really great garden. (And Meridith I think you ignored some of the other more subtle 'color echoes' in some of those pics!)

I've been looking thru my 'Gardens Illustrated', the British BBC magazine, and lusting after all the great 'color echoes' pictured. But they are in really old gardens and I'm sure it took years to get them right! Trees with shrubs (massive hedges) with perennials with annuals with puppies. They had everything just right!

Some really good examples pictured in the above posts too (Lincolntess and your puppy). I'm glad we got the post going while the Lilies are in bloom. I don't do much with lilies and poppies, but would love to next year. Now I know what to do with them!

Pirl, you seem to have a cache of 'color echo' pics saved up since our last threads in 2006! Thanks for giving all the details. And where did you say I can get such an elegant pink umbrella?? Did you say Big Lots? (sorry, just a joke). (-:

Back to the greens: Here's a nice edging using a multi toned Ajuga (which I am always fearful of being too invasive but I guess it isn't) with astrantia (?) I saw in a neighbor's garden then yesterday promptly went out and bought the same plants for my garden.

Ajuga can spread fast and it did in my path, which is very similar to the photo you posted. The hosta flowers also play nicely with the ajuga colors. Ajuga is so easy to relocate if needed and it does hold back the weeds since it forms such a nice mat.

Those nice glossy photos give us perfection to follow and a dream. They aren't new gardens, as you surmised, and it would take eons to create any of them but they are rich in good ideas so if we can adapt what we have and just add to our own gardens it would be ideal.

'Firelight' and the hosta photos are from last year but all others were taken in the last week, Judy. I'm averaging 200 pictures daily now that it's time for the lilies, Japanese irises and the remaining clematis.

That beach umbrella kept me sane for the big $2.00 yard sale purchase. I could never have lasted seven hours in that heat, clearing the path through the rose garden, without it.

Pamela Harper has an entire chapter on Meredith's dark foliage plants, often termed purple but to me it's more like burgundy/maroon/dark wine. In any case, I just love it.

Hakonechloa matches the small flowers of the sedum and edge of these hostas so beautifully. I love this plant, a gift, and have divided it four times so far - this is just a division of the mother plant! I would encourage everyone to own at least one. It's so easy to take a piece from the edge in early spring. Try it!

Nice ones tabasco and pirl. The Hakonechloa is striking.

Here's Cathedral Windows lily with Ceil D'or daylily. The daylily is a little more orange than it shows up in photos.

Firestar lily goes well with most of the daylilies in this bed. The gold one is Bill Norris. The bed also has Wild One and Primal Scream blooming now. The orange lily is First Class.

Here's the daylily Nyiragongo which is one the other side of the Firestar lily.

Coneflowers in front of Royal Sunset and Samur lilies.

Susan - lovely photos and color echoes.

I can see the tea staining of the daylily really goes so well with Cathedral Windows.

Firestar goes so perfectly with all the other blossoms in that photo!

What a glorious match that makes with Nyiragongo and Firestar! Perfect.

The last one is dreamlike.

Great together,just so subtle use of the purples and peaches.

I am swooning with your hot color combos! I love that DL and it is perfect with the lily. (Now where did I hide that credit card?)

Yes, Lincolntess, the color blending in your daylily garden is lovely, and your photography is too!

Here's some color echoing from our garden at home. The original landscapers planted many Oak Leaf Hydrangeas around the front of the house and after the shrubs are in bloom for a few days they start to turn from ivory to a dusky shade of pink tinged with green. They planted these hydrangeas along with other pink/purple leaved plants, to 'echo' the shades of dusky pink in the brickwork on the house which I thought was very clever. So I added some other dusky pink daylilies, heucheras, hardy geraniums etc. to carry thru the theme.

Can't sleep tonight so fooled around with my Picasa collage maker. I can't quite seem to get clear pics of the actual combinations in the garden so you will just have to use your imagination...I tried to show the brick to give you an idea of the basic colors.

And here are some bright yellows from our sunny garden. Nothing subtle about these but they sure are cheery on a dull grey day! (And I don't even like yellow!)

I am an early riser Tabasco.
I am anticipating Iris delivery.Here are the expected combos for spring '12
https://picasaweb.google.com/jgentle4/Vibrations?authkey=Gv1sRgCOO4-cyg-rWj4QE

https://picasaweb.google.com/jgentle4/Collages03?authkey=Gv1sRgCIqGsZXcv9j55QE

Fingers crossed for 10 months tee hee

Great combos tabasco, I can see how they would be great with the bricks.

Hope your Springs echoes work out Jo Ann. It's always hard to know exactly when things are going to bloom. I'm hoping when I retire I will still have the energy to get out and move things around. Then I'd like to redo almost all my beds. I'll have to admit, I have more so-so or bad combos then good ones.

Pam ...Pfg...visited my gardens today & suggested this thread....it's perfect for you, Jo, you have such a great sense of color. I've enjoyed all the echoes of color....most of mine....well, really, all of mine, are happy accidents. These poppies were supposed to be mixed, but all are pink, echoing the pink lily.....that's clem Ruutel in the background....

This message was edited Jul 2, 2011 3:25 PM

Happy accidents are such nice surprises. That's a beautiful scene, Marilyn.

Another color scheme that I like is called "Analogous/Complimentary" from my art school days. Several hues that are next to each other on the color wheel - like red, red-orange, orange - with the compliment (opposite on the color wheel) of the middle one red-orange/blue green. Or red-violet, violet, blue violet/ compliment yellow.

Following this thread made me realize I have an unplanned color echo.

Last year I planted the area next to the hydrangea with a mix of snow angel and citronelle heucheras, now that I'm looking at it I realize that the mixed patch matches perfectly with the gold standard hostas on the border

accidental coordination :-)

Gorgeous pics of gorgeous gardens. I love them.
Meredith, what is the tall evergreen to the far right in your first pic?

Love your accidental combination, jx. The hostas go well with the heuchera and the lavenders always seem to add that dreamy look to a garden.

The hosta here matches the edges of the Gingerland caladium and the red splotches match the heuchera. It's fun to play with colors.

I love that combo, Pirl! The caladium is a beauty....Jxmas, that's a very pretty grouping of plants....I have Snow Angel & love it.......

A planter.....

Huechera and Hosta

Planter on a garden tour

Both are pretty, Paul....love that maroon coleus.....

Very chic combo, Pirl!

Robindog, thanks for joining in. I think the pinks are fun to work with too. And it seems like there are so many flowers available in that color.

ge, it looks like you have shopped for some great echoes in your garden for next spring~~I'm wondering if the bearded iris and the salvias will bloom together or will it be sequential? (My salvias here have not yet come into bloom.)

It's kind of fun to take a careful look at the garden and combinations...sometimes we miss beauty that is right there. It's interesting about your combinations of the heucheras with the hosta, jxmas. It really adds texture and depth to that planting.

Caitlin brings up the color wheel and how to combine colors for best effect. Analagous color schemes are some of my favorites for other people, but not for myself! I can't restrain myself to stay within three or four contiguous hues on the wheel!

I had to google The Color Wheel and see if there was a good page on all the different color-ways. this one came up that might be of interest, although it gets pretty technical. I have a vague recollection of learning about this so long ago and so it's been forgotten, so it's fun to look at it again and try to make sense out of it.... and to apply it in the garden is a real challenge given the four dimensions gardeners deal with. thanks to Caitlin bringing up the color wheel I have discovered that I have a lot of clashing going on right in the front yard!

http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm#analogous

Thanks to everyone for sharing their pics. I'm finding lots of good ideas here.

Painted Daisy and Valerian

Delphinium and Miscanthus

Paul, thanks for posting your container pics. Your pinks are totally different from Robindogs. But maybe some of yours aren't pink at all but rather magentas? (Now I'm obsessed by the color wheel) In any case, very pretty container plantings.

Marilyn- Robindog-- When I saw those pinks today in your garden they reminded me of this thread. Great photo! -- and great to see you here. I've been lurking, and have been tremendously inspired by this and the old threads. I'm so glad it's been revived. So far my favorite combos are too new to get decent pictures, but I'll keep trying. Soon...

Pam

tabasco< Salvia MayNight is an early bloomer. Its hard to plan companions for iris.Nepetas are all I have seen
In my garden iris bloom almost alone and bring color between tulips and lilies. When I started my garden I didnt have a plan.4 years ago the house was new I just wanted some plants from my old place and put them in the ground anywhere.
I have to work around the random plants that bloom later than iris so it doesnt really matter if there are echoes or not.
In otherwords Pink iris can bloom next to yellow lilies that arent goin to bloom until after the iris are done.
Pink and Yellow dont thrill me.

Lupine and allium would bloom with irises. They normally start in late May so that should work for you.

I found 2 echos this morning
Giraffe lilies and Sundown echies.

I think Brindisi or Bonbini lily and pink yarrow

Very pretty, Jo Ann.

Here's Bonbini with phlox so yours must be Brindisi, Jo Ann.

Ohhh yes.

The colors on Bonbini are so variable that it's impossible to make reliable color matches. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

You go, girls! Those are some brilliant combos!

And love the Delph and the miscanthus, paul! Saw that in your other post and hoped you would add it here!

My garden appears rather clashing now that I looked at the color wheel and also your pairings!

Wish I had some to post but afraid not today. (Wish I had planted more lilies!)

Keep 'em coming! t.

p.s. I am in mourning today because some nasty deer came in last night and ate all of my haute couture designer daylilies. Of course they ignored the Home Depot budget acquisitions! (And I even went out and bought 20 of those new anti-deer stakes and one of them trampled right on it!) Sob!!!

I am partial to the jeweltones in the midrange values.