"Color Echoes, Part II" Show us your Favorites!

We had lots of interesting 'Color Echo' discussion and photos, based on Pamela Harper's book and Barbara Wilde's website, on our last thread, http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/522565/ so we thought we would start a new one to make it easier to join in...

BTW If you are interested in another a good internet article on creative use of color in your garden, check out Lynn Purse's 'Creative Gardener' website http://www.creativegardener.com/color.html

To get us started posting color echo pics, here's today's shot of our butterfly garden--liatris bulbs echoing hardy geraniums (can't see too well) and the yellows of coreopsis and 'prairie sun' and yellow and white of shasta daisy 'becky'... no butterflies, though!

Have fun gardening this weekend. And please let us see your pics! (don't be shy!) t.

And another shot--

Who says it has to be just plants??!! The green of the mouth area matches the lilypad perfectly. No matter how much we try, we will never improve upon nature!

Victor

Victor, I agree with you and I'm sure we all do. Your photo is lovely and so subtle that many people who just like to mix up twenty colors, shades, etc. will still notice it and wonder why it looks so darn good. With some plants I enjoy the big mix but those types of planting should be separate from the gems.

Tabasco - I have yellow and purple combos in my garden, but yours are incredible! I think the color echoes make it look crisp and precise. Not just a mish mosh (like my front garden!).

Sanannie, I LOVE that Sedum combo. it is scrumptious.

Tabasco - you certainly don't need to be a butterfly to be attracted to your butterfly garden! So pretty. What is it in the bottom left of the picture (a rock?) that echos the big blue spruce in the background?

Victor - wow, the frog pic shows what a great teacher we have in Mother Nature.

When I first looked at these flowers today, from far away I assumed that the centres of both flowers were the same colour. Then when I looked at them close up on my computer monitor I could see that the centres of both flowers are not the same colour at all, and then I noticed that the pink in the Verbena actually matches the shadow around the centre of the dianthus, not the centre itself. Cool.

Beautiful photos! Many of the color echoes in my garden have been happy mistakes. Here's a couple daylilies that I planted last year and I think the color of the Nortic Night picks up the eye color of the Web of Intrigue very nicely.

Susan

Here Jungle Mask, Kabuki Ballet and America's Most Wanted are set off by the purple color of the shrub.

Susan

original lilies I tried from the bulbils plucked of stems and these are my favorites. Then 2 years laters I drug home the barberry and jammed it here and voila.... accidents do happen.

8ftbed, beautiful combo! One of my favorite color combinations to.

We had a bullfrog in the pool yesterday that we had to resuce. I didn't think to ask him to pose for me before we let him go. Too bad :(

I love the baryberry and lillies - very cool colors! Since I've been moving plants and putting in a big new bed, I don't have anything that looks good enough to take a shot of. They're all split up, cut down, or new babies.

The underside of Sedum 'Purple Emperor' leaves matches the Blue Fescue.

We are getting some very sophisticated color echo examples above-- the subtle yet revealing cobinations are a delight to the eyes.
I can only imagine how interesting your gardens are...

Of course, the frog is a real bonus to your artistry, victor!

More 'color echo-ing' with hemerocallis--not as complex as yours, lincolntess, but a sweet little combo for the sun garden...

--the coral/yellows of the verbena (?) and the daylily play off each other...and the leaves of the verbena pick up the blue of the spruce....

It's interesting what the eye can see and the brain can register when you take the time to look, isn't it....

Tabasco~
I love this last one, I tend not to be drawn to yellows...but I do like this combo! I think the plant with the Daylily is Lantana...It looks just like a plant in a hanging basket I was given...it's tag said Lantana 'Cotton Candy' and was pink/yellow.......

Very nice pics all of you....these just keep getting better and better....Great thread!!!

Jamie

Well, I didn't find Pamela's book at the store or library in the past few days, but there' s been so much good info in thread that I was inspired by it this morning.
I bought a Weigela 'Rhumba' (small, only 3'x3') at the flea market yesterday for a specific spot. But then this morning when it came time to plant, I changed my mind. I decided it's yellow-green, purple-edged leaves would nicely echo the Diabolo ninebark that's only been in the mixed border for a couple of months. It needed a few other companions, too, so I moved a Sedum 'Vera Jameson' that wasn't doing much in the spot it's been in for 2 years and also a Tuscawilla Pink Joe daylily that also needed a new home. The light in the pic doesn't show as much of the purplish pink of the sedum as I'd like, (and the daylily's not even close to blooming yet) but I think it's already a good example of the beauty of color-echoing.

Wanted to edit above to say I plan to put in dark heucheras when the co-op plants arrive, as well as geranium sanguineum - all for more pink and chocolate.

Exactly! Very intricate combinations Mickgene--can't wait to watch the progress. Pink and Chocolate--quite a fashion statement!

I know, Jamie, I always mix up lantana and verbena...I think they are from the same family or are the same sometimes, or something like that!

The funny thing is 15 years ago I hated yellow, and then, I don't know what..., (maybe a hormone adjustment?) I look around and everything I have is yellow...and it's not that I like yellow...it's just that I always end up with it?! I think a psychologist could write a book on this...

Coreopsis and Rudbekia Hirta 'Prairie Moon'... naive, but effective...

I love your Ninebark and Vera Jameson combo, Mickgene! I was looking at my "Diabolo" closely today and I counted 6 colors! Red, pink, blue, yellow, green, and purple.

There's a house down the street that used to be painted chocolate brown, a quaint cottage type house with nice scrolly millwork. Every year, the owner would fill her window boxes with pale pink pelargoniums. She echoed the colors of the house in the garden with Chocolate Joe Pye Weed, or Heucheras; and geranium Striatum. I used to love to walk past every day.

Mickgene, I love Ninebark too. The pink daylily will look lovely with it!

Last year I saw a white daylily in front of a Diablo Ninebark and wow, did it ever pop. So, last fall, I moved my daylily 'Pony' (which wasn't very showy on its own) in front of Diablo. When it blooms, I'll try to get a picture of it. Here's 'Pony' on a dark background so you can see what I mean. I'm hoping she'll pick up some nice tones in the Diablo Ninebark.

I found a couple of colour echos in my shade garden today.

Ever since I saw a picture in a magazine, I'd been looking for a vase with those ring thingys for ages. Yay WalMart! I initially thought it would look good with a purple coral bells - but the silver-overlay on this coral bells ('Silver Scrolls') seems to match it even better.

Hosta 'Liberty' and the yellow foxglove Digitalis lutea.

Black Magic, Illustris and Water Lilies.

Sannie~
I am so impressed by your garden. How long have you been at this location? All your plantings appear so established, and lush - really wonderful! How far back does that bed go in the bottom picture...just seems to go back, and back...I find myself leaning this way and that, trying to see beyond....like that will help, what a ditz I am...LOL ;o)

OK, Ok...enough questions, back to this thread....I love the foliage effect in the first pic, nice tuxture, and color contrast. And the planter? bird bath? just seems made for that spot, and I agree with you about that Heuchera...just goes great with it!

Fantastic pictures - Incredible gardens! You inspire me in my own efforts.
Jamie

Thanks, Jamie, for your kind words. But it must look like a large planting because of the camera angle, I got right down to the level of the Hosta - which is only 2 years old and the split rail fence in the background is only about 15 feet back. What we'll do for a good picture, eh? Dirty knees, wet legs, the odd poked eye, and of course the dreaded butt-plant!

sanannie--love your color echo inspirations--especially the digitalis and the 'liberty' hosta. I tried that digitalis with h. 'patriot' and they didn't come back this year and I was in 'mourning' about them for a week!

It's so great to see everyone's color pairings!

sanannie, I can see where the Pony daylily would be a real looker paired with the right companion. Is it all pink? The 3 darker petals look like they have a lavender cast to them. It's going on my "wants" list. I wasn't able to pull up the Liberty/foxglove pic. I saw the most beautiful Liberty I've ever seen on an episode of the Victory GArden Saturday and so I'm sure with the foxglove it must be lovely.

Ivy you're absolutely right about all the tones of the Diabolo. I didn't really see it until reading the comment about it in the other thread. I have another that I planted at the edge of my woods that I now feel the need to highlight with things other than the Sambucus nigra 'Black Beauty' and 'Guincho Purple' that I planted on the same hill.

tabasco, sorry to hear about your loss. I'm surprised about the hosta (I've no experience with foxgloves, yet.) I've never had any that didn't come back. Some that never seem to get any bigger, though! Any idea what happened?

Stunning shots: Love Victor's shot where the veining matches the water lilies, all of sanannies - wonderful combinations, the tabasco's photos, mickgenes - they're all so well done.

Pamela mentions in her book that "orange and pink" is a combination that many dislike. Well, here goes..........

sanannie, you are a garden artist extrodinaire! Your gardens are so amazing and your pics are better than a lot of gardening books. Thanks for sharing your great ideas.

tobasco, the same thing here with yellow. I've never been drawn to bright or golden yellows, but found I had tons of them. I've finally got them all in one big island garden where I've added lots of reds and oranges so now all my firey hot colors are right at home together.

Not being a big orange person, I really like the combination with the pink. It softens it quite a bit. I have a jillion ditch lillies that remain only because I haven't gotten around to those beds yet. In the adjacent beds, though, I've used pinks, soft purples, and blues to soften the orange impact until I get around to them.

The plan is to move the lillies to the back berm, where they don't upset my blue and purple color scheme, and where I need something to help choke out the weeds. There's a lot of rudbeckia and dasies back there that they would go nicely with.

Mickgene - Yes the Daylily Pony is a kind of washed out lavender on the 3 petals. That's why I was dissappointed with it in the garden, because it just 'disappeared'. So I'm hoping that in front of the Diablo Ninebark it will 'pop'.

Pirl - I love orange! And what a great combo with the lilies picking up the centre of the echinacea. Ten years ago I wouldn't touch orange with a ten foot pole, but now I love it.

Pirl, I'm glad I'm not the first to post this combo, then. I went out alittle while ago to take a pic the Monarda 'On Parade' next to the Strawberry Candy daylily, whose pink-toned center really shows well against the pinkish-purple of the monarda, I think (although the pic itself isn't great, but you can see the color tones well in this blurry one.)

Canna Lily

sanannie, I have this Elly Launius blooming for the first time ever today and thought it would look nice next to Pony. It'd be almost an ombre effect between the 2 of them. :)

Yellow and purple

Pirl, that looks like the perfect orange to pick up the orange in the echinacea cone. I had that in mind when I planted Orange Velvet daylily next to mine, but the daylily is not really the right shade of orange. I like the jolt the orange gives the bed anyway, may have to find a darker orange sometime.

Susan

I like everyone's ideas for hemerocallis combination plantings...sometimes I find it difficult to add daylilies to the garden without just "plopping" them in somewhere...they are such hardy and robust flowers it's a shame to not use them more 'intelligently' in mixed borders...so thanks for the good ideas...


BTW--for anyone who feels that their 'intuitive' color sense could use a boost from the 'intellectual' analysis of color, here's one of my favorite online color references--Cornell's Color in your Garden page... http://www.explore.cornell.edu/scene.cfm?scene=home%20gardening&stop=HG%20-%20Flower%20Garden%20Design%20-%20Color&view=allViews

Pirl....lovely combo....I have a new echinacea that combines the coral/orange/pink/purple....thought of it reading this thread...would be a good transition plant between the hotter oranges and the cooler violets...I hope it retains the purple on the underside of the petals and the coral on the upperside...(we shall see)

Big Sky Sunset - not quite open yet

What an inspirational thread!
Here is another Heuchera marmalade, with Bronze Carex

A Purple and Silver Bed- I finally got it weeded so you can actually see the plants- this is new so they need to fill in a lot.

Tabasco - thanks for all the really great links.
Mickgene - What a brilliant idea to pair Pony and Elly.
Great pics everyone.

Here's Hosta 'Blue Wedgewood' and Heuchera 'Can Can'.