How to use color in the garden

There's an art to using color in the garden so that it sparkles and sings.

Color is, of course, one of the major features that draws us to a garden, but preferences can be intensely personal.

Some gardeners love hot colors - including orange - others can't abide them, taking pleasure only in soft pastels.

Tips for color in the flower garden

In a small garden, you could restrict yourself to limited colors to avoid clashes. But if you have more space, why not try different color effects in different parts of the garden?

Color is a great way to be more adventurous in the garden.

Here's how:

Hot color adds excitement: Colors such as red, orange and yellow are considered hot, and they also stand out best during the hottest summer months when cooler pastel tones can appear faded-out in bright sunshine.

Avoid a riot of color: If you use every flower color in the spectrum all at the same time, you'll just give yourself and everybody who comes to visit a visual migraine. The problem with too many colors all at once is the each color cancels the next one out. Your garden will resemble the guy who wears plaids, stripes and prints together. (Remember: he's usually the clown!)

This isn't just a matter of taste: apparently the human brain, according to color specialists, has an innate dislike of too many contrasts all at once.

Pastels soothe: For subtle, relaxing effects, stick to cooler pastel shades - mauve, pink, white and shades of blue and, of course, the shades of green and other colors that come with foliage. This is particularly effective in small gardens.

Contrasts - in moderation - add spark: Use contrasting color in the garden for bold, eye-catching effects - blue and yellow, orange and purple, red and white. You won't want to overdo this because too much contrast is jarring to the eye (see the above point), but contrasting colors here and there add excitement and sparkle.

Enjoy the best of both worlds: Use the subtle and the bold by varying your color scheme with the season. For example, spring and early summer color in the garden might be a pastel theme with tulips in white and pink along with pale yellow and white daffodils, leading to pink peonies paired with Siberian irises blooming in mauve and blue.

Then, come the heat of summer, your color scheme switches to a bolder palette, in which you pair tawny orange and mahogany Helenium, pink Echinacea and chrome yellow black-eyed-Susan. Because the bloom times of the first and the second group of perennials are different, you won't create color clashes.

Single color gardens: Garden designers love single color gardens, which have the undeniable appeal of sophistication. I've seen flower borders planted all in red or white or yellow. Besides discipline, the secret to success with monochromatic schemes is using the particular color you've chosen in its varying shades, from pale and pastel to dark and rich - and playing leaf textures and colors off against each other as well.

Wite garden caution: White flowers can be difficult to incorporate, as white can make other colors pale in comparison or stick out too much. But white also glows in the evening, something to remember if you like to sit out in the garden after dinner.

In a white garden, you need to be meticulous with deadheading, as faded brown petals stick out like a sore thumb among pristine flowers. Spent blooms aren't as much of a problem with deeper colored flowers in yellow, blue, red or purple.

Helpful hint: Here's a neat trick for solving clashes of color in the garden - pick the problem flower and hold it up to the other flowers to see if you can't find a better match. But if it's mid-summer, don't move your plants right then – they will sulk or worse. Just pick the flowers you don't want in the garden, and put them in a vase, and make a note to do the transplanting job in spring or fall.

Related information:

More design secrets for color in the garden all-season

Two excellent garden design books

How to lay out your flower garden

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