'Color Echoes' Part III: Pics from your Garden

Hello, again, flower fanciers! You've found 'Color Echoes' Part III...

If you are interested in how flower, foliage, and architecture color nuances can influence the beauty of your garden, we invite you to join in posting pics of your favorite examples on this thread.

We have had a lot of fun, and learned a few things, on our first two threads (which you may want to look over, too, for excellent flower combinations) which started out as a discussion based on Pamela Harper's book on "Color Echoes" and the color discussion on 'LAtelier Vert'.

This afternoon, in fact, while checking out Barbara Wilde's 'L'Atelier' site, I came upon her photo essay on the garden at Bosmelet which is a potager divided into four flower color quadrants. A challenging concept and fun to make a 'virtual visit' to: http://frenchgardening.com/visitez.tmpl?SKU=309567217277736

My own garden is looking a bit worn out these days, but I am 'remodelling' one section using chartreuse-y greens and pale yellows. My latest addition is a creamy little lupine, along with the liriope variegated, hosta 'abba dabba do', and a lovely no-name daylily grouping...as usual my picture is no good, but...you'll have to use your imagination. (-:

Let's see some new ideas...

Happy gardening. t.

Color Echoes Part 2: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/525738/

Color Echoes Part 1: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/522565/


This message was edited Jul 18, 2005 2:31 PM

tabasco, for late summer/fall color I use these plants:

Sun
Boltonia
Obedience plant (Physostegia)
Dahlia
Sneezeweed (Helenium)
Aster
Ornamental Cabbage and Kale

Part Shade/Shade
Japanese anemone (Anemone japonica)
Toadlily (Tricyrtis)
Turtlehead (Chelone)
Autumn Crocus
Colchicum

I love Tricyrtis - it looks like an orchid, but a heck of a lot easier to grow. Mine was still blooming into late September last year. I just put in some turtlehead this year by the pond. I'm anxious to see how it does.

Genius's minds run on the same track!

I bought tricyrtis and japanese anemone Saturday at the summer sale, and have sneezeweed and phystogeia ready to put in the border, too.

I will have to get some kale--I suppose it's too late to grow from seed. Love it. Now to get some color echoes going! Asters will probably work well with the various kales for 'fall colors' echoing, right?

Here is one I didn't plan - The hydrangea will turn bluish purple by next year.

Tabasco - the New England asters would go well with the cabbages in that purplish color. They do spread. I'd dig for you except for this horrible humidity. I have more than God allows for one person so if you want to wait it out I can dig when it's cooler.

Ivy: love the pink color. Astilbes always remind me of cotton candy!
Think I'll try spray painting mine after they turn brown!

Pirl, do you grow aster 'Alma Potschke'? If you like pink, she's the one for you. Definitely my favorite aster.

This giant Astilbe was ALL brown when we moved in to our house- planted in front of a hot stone wall in full sun. I transplanted her and she grew HUGE....and pink!

All brown would be a color echo for soil but not good for a plant. Neither is crunchy!

Thanks, pirl, for your aster offer however I think I can pick up some locally and save everyone the excess energy output! It is absolutely drenchingly humid here, too...when I'm working in the garden I'm taking three showers a day. Can't wait to see the water bill... :-)

Ivy, why will your hydrangea change colors next year? Are you feeding your soil acid fertilizers or is it the nature of your plant?I like the astilbe...very striking.

Was out rearranging my 'July butterfly garden' today so that the 'color echoes' would flow better. I wonder if the swallowtails will appreciate it?! I think everybody else left for northern michigan around here!

Happy gardening. t.

Tabasco, I haven't written much on this thread,but have loved following it. I just wanted to jump in here with a comment about your japanese anemone and toadlilies. I don't know if you know how agressive the anemones can get, but they can spread tremendously. I have mine under a viburnam that has plenty of shade underneath it, and I wanted it to get thick enough to crowd out the violets, creeping charlies, and wild strawberries. It's done a wonderful job and is gorgeous. I just wouldn't want it too near my toadliles, though. if toadliles are happy they'll form a big thick clump, but they don't seem to like too much competition. (I have one clump competing with my strawberry begonias, and I don't know who will win.)

Okay, that was more than one comment. Sorry. :-)

Has anyone tried spray painting their astilbe? I know how strange it sounds but I hate seeing them die back and turn brown. I'd protect all of the foliage and then go pink.

Hi, thought I would mention a few things in my garden that work well colorwise - One is dahlia ellen huston, which has beautiful dark purple foliage and red/orange flowers. This is very easy to over winter - I started with one plant, and now I have a couple dozen. Sedum matrona also is a beautiful dark background for lots of things...I especially like it behind the small daylily green eyes wink. The dark dayliliy Dominic, and a selected chocolate (gallardia? forget what it is called...? ) that self sows, and a tall blue ornamental grass. This is one combination that I am working on. The front row is silvery valerie finis artemisia....

Pirl, What a riot! Painting the aslilbes! I do it for my white snowball hydrangeas, but after they dried, & off the plant.
Think what echoes you could produce by leaving the astilbe on the plant!

That's exactly what I want to try. I could have blue, yellow, orange - just think of the possibilites. I have two Master Gardener neighbors who would just collapse if they saw blue astilbe. They are always asking me about plants so I just might do it and invite them over. Good for a laugh but they're REALLY serious. I'll have to try not to grin!

the pink of my belladonna lilies matches the pink of green sports of purple basil i harvested last week. the almost black stalk of the lilies matches paintings we have in out foyer perfectly.

Naien - what a beautiful lily!


Here's Purple Coneflower with Lily 'Blue Eyes' in the background, a little past it's peak.

A Purple Barberry with Daylily 'El Desperado'.

naien and sanannie-- it's a pleasure to open up this thread today and see your combinations... Very different and interesting...

I continue to be amazed at the pairings with Coneflower. It's not a plant that I particularly like, but the interesting pairings on this thread motivated me to pick up three on the July close-outs and play with them in the butterfly garden. Nothing as interesting as your lily combo, though...

naien--Your photo of your striking foyer 'color echo' brings up an interesting off shoot of the garden theme--echoing interior design colors-- I planted several flowers, too, that were especially for bouquets for my living room. I love fresh flowers in the house.

Happy gardening today...keep cool, too. t.

pins--

BTW--didn't know that about Japanese anemones. I did plant five white ones last year in a part shade spot (to color echo the hydrangea, of course) and not one survived. I wonder if that was because I thought they were weeds and I yanked them?! LOL

I've had a lot of trouble making that mistake this year--being a relative 'newbie' to perennial gardening...

Pirl, I work at a florist and the same thought has crossed my mind with astilbe LOL! I'm always so sad to see them turn brown. There is a spray paint product called 'Just for Flowers' that offers a line of colored tints. They only color what is paler than the tint, so no weird colored leaves and gives a very natural looking color. We hate tinting flowers at the shop, but it is sometimes required, and at least this product looks natural. You could find it at most retail florists and some of the large craft stores.

sanannie - fantastic color combinations. The Echinacea can go with so many flowers: pink, lavender, orange. I just love it. My El Desperado is much more yellow than yours and the eye almost a reddish purple. Funny how they behave differently in other parts of our country.

tabasco - I've never gotten around to Anemones and now, I think I'm glad. I love the flowers but it does take up a big space and I don't have big spaces left. ((:-((

gemini_sage - Thanks for the tip! At this point in gardening I'm ready to try it. I just might do two in a wine color and see how it looks before I proceed. When I sprayed my one section of freestanding trellis "fence" lavender it ended up on the clematis and phlox even though I had a piece of cardboard behind it.

The photos of our gardens on tour is under Forums, Garden Talk: Southold Historical Society Garden Tour. If you'd like to see them just come on over!

tabasco I agree w/ you about coneflowers. Never gave them much thought, but now after seeing all the wonderful pairings, I've bought some. Placed them in pts and surrounded it w/ orange zinnias. neighbors are looking!

sanannie, the lily w/ coneflowers is so very beautiful

I saw a pot of them in yellow - beautiful but not at $19.99. I'll just wait until fall and hope nobody else wanted to pay that price either!

Jeeze--pirl--your 'cost of gardening' index must be really high if coneflowers are $20. Yikes!

It was the YELLOW ones, not the pink, which I already have scads of. Their only negative, to me, is that after I move them in springtime they refuse to bloom that summer. I've learned to move them only in fall.

Aside from what we purchase via the internet and mail order, there's the nursery stops, buying on Cape Cod, a plant here, a birdbath there, etc. If we ever added it up we'd scare ourselves to death!

Tabasco- Sorry I never got back to you about my hydrangea! It is a fairly new one, planted just last year. It will take a couple years in my soil to get to it's natural color here, which should be closer to blue because we have acid soil.

I have a new pink coneflower, seeded from a white one. I am noticing what a great flower it is as well. Never liked them at all. I am finding that there is a lot to be said for good "do'ers"- plants that do well in tough conditions, and the color is quite striking in my garden right now. I am glad I added pinks and oranges all over the garden this year, or the coneflower would look completely out of place!

You can't tell in this picture, but the tall agastache (or hyssop) behind my coneflower is almost right in between pink and orange- It's called "Sunset". Maybe I can get a better picture when the sun is not glaring on it.

Love your photo and the angle! Coneflowers are such friendly plants!

Pirl - what fun could be had spray painting astilbes! I got a giggle out of imagining those master gardeners visiting your garden and seeing your BLUE astilbes...that's too funny!

Ivy - I like the contrast in form, too, with the Agastache and Purple Coneflower. I'm not familiar with Agastache, is it an annual? How high does it get?

I have another variety of Purple Coneflower called 'Ruby Star'. The petals flare out rather than droop down and the colour is much more intense. I lucked out by planting it next to the phlox.

Purple Coneflower 'Ruby Star' with Phlox maculata 'Rosalinde' (earlier blooming than the paniculatas):



Edited to change Phlox 'Miss Pepper' to Phlox 'Rosalinde'

This message was edited Jul 26, 2005 3:05 PM

I love the 'Ruby Star' with the phlox. I see you mentioned it is 'Miss Pepper' and yet it appears identical to our 'Bright Eyes'. A great match. 'Zing Rose' dianthus would make it a trio. Picked mine up at an August sale for $1.00, years ago, and have separated it many times.

We loved our Agastache but it just self seeded like crazy. Don't remember the name but it smelled like licorice: wish it were well behaved for us!

I'm almost thinking of spraying the phlox pale blue and then putting up a paper lace doily and spraying white to give a polka dot effect.

I *finally* have something to post on this great thread. I've replanted and moved so many things this year that I haven't had much that's mature enough to post. The back of the berm is blooming with rudbeckia and solidago... this is mother nature's work, not my own.

This is sublimely subtle. Dreamy in quality! I love it. The chartreuse is amazing. Yes, it's God at work but we can help put them together but He gets the credit as it should be.

Boy, sstateham, that shot was worth waiting for!

This was an accidental pairing that I posted on daylilies - but I was so exciting to find. Pirl pointed out that these are "powderpuff" hollyhocks. Added note: DH came back late last night from a week out of town and this morning asked what that new flower was.

Miss Jessie with Double pink Asiatics and Pale Yellow Asiatics

d. I am always looking for lovely DL perennial combinations and I love your softly colored hollyhock idea. Your second pic is so elegant and beautiful too. It takes DLs to a new level!

ss. Your back of the border combination deserves front of the border status. Very nice rudbeckia pairing from Mother Nature!

Thanks!
I can't keep up with all the great discussions going on, but I agree, I love combining my daylilies with perennials. I didn't even know about the many exquisitely fancy daylilies out there, but I love the fact that their show varies each day - and you HAVE to go look, because it won't be the same tomorrow. Gets me out of the house with my coffee in my pj's!!

Bliss. The daylilies and the way they flow into one another: pure Bliss!

What wonderful daylily combinations!! The soft colors, and the wonderful complimentary tones!! I have looked at each of these pics several times....just beautiful!!! I have loved this thread so much, and it just continues to be an inspiration!

Great job everyone!!

Jamie