color combinations

[johno]

Just wondered what everyone's favorite flower color combinations are, and which flowers you use to create them? Mine is orange and blue. My two favorite orange/blue flower combinations are marigolds/radiccio and Mexican sunflower/morning glory. The first combo is short, so I only enjoy it while I'm near the garden. The second one I can see on my way to work in the morning. :)

[Lavandula Girl]

I like pink and blue - tulips and muscari, liriope and daylilies, lavender and yarrow, poppies and sage. I also like red and yellow - kniphofia and daylilies, crocosmia and rudbeckia. I pretty much just like flowers! I think really my least faves are white flowers, but that said, I love the gladiolus my daughter gave me - the one I mentioned in the surprise flowers thread.

[Joan]

I noticed most things in the garden were purple but I don't think that speaks for my favorite. I decided it was quite dull! I planted beautiful large gold zinnias and small bright pink pompom zinnias and it sure gave a lot of zing to the garden. I was doing almost perennials and now annuals are going to have a more important place with my flowers! I loved the color combination of the zinnias, so longwinded but there is my new favorite!

[johno]

There are endless colors of zinnias! They take up a lot of space in my garden, too.

[bluelacedredhead]

My perennial bed colours are Low Maintenance and No Maintenance, LOL
About all that I've had success with here is Blanketflower, Columbine and Shasta Daisies. (Full sun, very sandy)
I had a lovely little patch of Bergamot for a few years, but I had to fight the geese for those beautiful red flowers, and I lost. :( Eventually, they never came back. The bergamot; not the geese..We invited the geese to dinner though. ;)
I planted two packages of zinnias this year, but only 4 plants grew and ver late to bloom. I'm hoping that I will be able to collect seed from them. They are lovely yellow with red centres. Don't recall the variety? I was sent these in a trade for some Mortgage Lifter seeds.
Oh and my employer gave me some Candytuft? One transplant died but the other is hanging on for dear life. She says they are prolific and multicoloured. I'm not familiar with them, but if she's correct about them being invasive then I'm sure I'll know all about them soon...

[ipaintedmyhousewhite]

I like chartreuse/blue/lavender or purple, then throw white in there, too...I am using different things for this seasonally: green zinnias, creeping jenny, balloon flower, blue scabiosa, crocuses, fritillaria, allium, white daffodils, muscari, a creeping veronica that should flower lavender in the spring, lilic colored mums, artichoke's silvery blue foliage, dill, bachelor's buttons, larkspur, borage and the hungarian blue breadseed poppies...and I added some dark green foliage to just add some permanent structure and depth to that bed, I used a little hedge of dwarf box and then some of the "sky pencil" japanese holly.

Johno, I saw an extremely stunning landscaping job in front of a business a little north of me...it was orange and blue/lavender...I didn't notice what the dominant orange flowers were, but there were some massive cardoons that really caught my eye...the whole thing had so much personality I couldn't believe it was a business' landscape, lol.

Another combination I want to play with next year is chartreuse/pink/yellow, maybe with the cool of some blue thrown in the front. I saw a lovely chartreuse colored dwarf barberry bush I'd like to have for that bed, along with some elecampane, blanketflower, pink monarda and skullcap (the bed gets widely varied moisture and sun). Maybe a rose or two. Dotted mint is already in there along with some short lavender-flowering spearmint.

My herb garden is dominated by silvery foliage, along with soft peach and lavender flowers...I use roses and lavender for this.

I also really really love monochrome...I did a pink bed this year for a friend I lost to breast cancer, and I did a white bed centered around my pole beans...for that I used white eggplant, zinnias, cosmos, white globe amaranth & white fleshed watermelon.

The lettuce bed was divided into alternating areas of red and green...with green lettuces (some mottled) and red bull's blood beets.

Okay, that's all. I love color! And I love to play with color, whether it's painting, embroidery, garden,whatever...this is something I could go on about all day, I guess. So I'll stop now! LOL

[flowerpower]

I saw a lovely chartreuse colored dwarf barberry bush I'd like to have for that bed, along with some elecampane, blanketflower, dotted mint is already in there along with some short lavender-flowering spearmint and then some of the pink monarda and some skullcap (the bed gets widely varied moisture and sun). Maybe a rose or two.


You are growing Skullcap? Is it easy to grow from seed? If so, would you please save some for me? I think it is a beautiful plant.


I notice that most of my flowers are purple/blue, yellow and white. I have a cottage garden, so I am usually not planting by color. I meant to put a short yellow coreopsis in front of a red yarrow. But the yarrow turned out to be bright pink. It was a strange combo.

[Joan]

Does anyone grow sweet potato vine? Yesterday I saw windowboxes with the limegreen sweet potato and topped with the dark reg begonia - it was striking.
I've never heard of skullcap-is that the correct name so I can look it up?

[Lavandula Girl]

Sweet potato vine is awesome for adding that chartreuse color in the garden, isn't it? You can also get it in a fabulous dark purple color. I plant the lime colored one near my verbena in the front annual bed - the bright pink and bright green together are terrific.

[ipaintedmyhousewhite]

Sweet potato vine is beautiful...I may try to do some of that next year. Skullcap is in the works for next year, I haven't done it yet. Flowerpower, it could be kind of long to wait, but of course I'd share seeds. The way I worded my post did make it sound like I already planted it, sorry about that. The "and then some pink monarda..." was me switching my train of thought back to the planning phase, but I was too excited when I was writing it and was totally unclear. I'll go fix it now, and add some flowers in that I forgot when I initially posted.

[nikki]

My favorite color combo this year is one of my roses Christopher Marlow- it is an almost hot/rose pink with nice green foliage and the white alyssum planted along the front. It is a smaller bush rose- around 3ft and the flowers hang down in the middle of the alyssum. This was my first year using alyssum and I really love the way it looks with my roses and it smells nice too. I will be uising more alyssum next year.

I love zinnias too- they are one of my favorite annuals- I have taken them to work and everyone ewws and ahhs at them (they are not gardeners!) I have told them they are one of the easiest flowers to grow and they do not beleive me!

[Helen Wong-Joe]

pink and orange gerbera daisies.

[johno]

Helen, please tell me about how to grow gerbera daisies! My wife adores them.

[Helen Wong-Joe]

johno, it was easy because I went to Home depot and bought the small plants. Re-potted them in a larger clay pot and now they are growing really well and very healthy. You could probably buy the seeds and start them in a large clay pot or in a sunny area. I have not try growing them from seeds yet, but am thinking of doing it next year. I put the pot where there is lots of sun and watered them well everyday. The colors are amazingly beautiful.

[nikki]

A color combo I just noticed in my main garden (due to this thread so I was actually looking at it as "color combos"!) is some of my orange marigolds that reseeded themselves by my beets- bulls blood and cylindrical- the very dark purple of the bulls blood, with the cylindrical purplish greenish combined with the bright orange marigolds look very nice. It would probably look nice to edge a flower garden with the bulls blood for its pretty dark low growing foliage. I know you can get simular color in the sweet potatoe vien- blackie I think it is- might have to tuck some in my garden (or in pots) next year. Thanks for making me look!

[Lillian Osborne]

Nikki

Way old post, I know, but your thoughts on the marigold/beet leaf combination cast the deciding vote for a planting I have been considering since placing my seed orders.

A bright golden variety of Swiss Chard and MacGreggors Favorite beet in the early planting. Then add the Signet Marigold 'Starfire Mix' as soon as conditions allow for planting marigolds in the open. Starfire marigolds have that very fine textured leaf of the tenuifolia varieties, so would offer textural contrast to the more solid chard and beet foliage. The blossoms are also edible, giving the combination much possibility for the salad bowl as well as color to please the eye.

[Rim Runner]

My favorite color combination is orange and purple! There is nothing like a field of purple lupine growing amongst orange California poppies! Spectacular!

This year I am planting Jet Black hollyhock in the back of the beds, with lime green nicotiana and various shades of pink echinacea in the foreground. I am looking forward to a striking display! I really like the colors of the sweet potato vines too, which is what gave me the inspiration to try this planting.

[stonysoil]

i like bright red in the gsarden .. also oranges and yellows.. i like the look of the mexican sunflower and also bright red zinnias

[johno]

All those combinations sound great, but I'm especially impressed with jet black and lime green. I think "Envy" zinnias would look awesome with those black hollyhocks, too!

[louanne]

the few posts I read...lead me to wonder/think...
this is something I fuss with from time to time....
when I follow the suggested plant spacing..most of the time on packets..et all...I dont get the full look inplanters and garden areas that I like....
so often..in the last few years I way over plant...specially with flowers and fill....
I think the zinna and holly hock idea sounds wonderful....I really like the dark flowers..specially up close...Chocolate brown is my favorite color...specially when it is velvety...so I love planting with it...but it does look much better with bright colors around it....

[johno]

Overplanting is a good idea, louanne. There will still be a few bare spots, and where they are too thick, you can cull or transplant.

[Lillian Osborne]

pink and orange gerbera daisies.

Helen

I love the small flowered orange sherbet colored Spanish Poppy--Papaver rupifragum-- with clear pink roses such as 'Jeanne La Joie', or 'Aunt Honey'.

[emilie]

I have yellow pansies and pinks in pots right now and it is really pretty to me.
I love bright yellow and bright pink.
Em

[johno]

Maybe I missed it, but has anyone mentioned what colors go nice with terra cotta pots?

[ctack2]

Purple and yellow. Matters not what kind of flowers. Only color combo of petunias I have ever planted. Lots of public areas around here that that combo of pansies planted.
A little, tiny, small amount of white is allowed in the mix, but only if absolutely necessary.
Carol B

[Lavandula Girl]

Maybe I missed it, but has anyone mentioned what colors go nice with terra cotta pots?


I like blues in terra cotta pots. Oh, and sweet potato vine looks pretty running over the side. Some reds look good, too. One of the best pot designs I ever did was in a big terra cotta pot for my Mom. It had mini cannas in the center, and some of that wonderful chartruese sweet potato vine on the edges. I think the other flower I used was a lobelia - it was something small and blue, anyway. It was pretty all summer.

[Rainbow Hadedah]

I think orange, primrose yellow and ice pink flowers work very well in terracotta containers.

Double flowered ice-pink Impatiens, pale primrose pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) and orange Begonias brighten an area that doesn't get much direct sun. I put them together in boxy containers. They look serene in the heat of the day. They are just about the only non-indigenous flower plantings I have.