The Color Coordinated Garden

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Posted by @lilylady on
This past year, I contributed 4 articles to the AHS Journal on Designing Gardens with your Daylily Collections. Here is a synopsis of the articles using Color Coordinated Suggestions as you plant or rearrange your daylily collections.

Since all daylily collections look like a wonderful rainbow of color no matter what the color mix is, could they possibly look even better with some specific color placements?

We all like to have some organization in our gardens. We plant the tall ones in back and the shorter ones in front. We might even group together our seasonal bloomers – the early ones together, and the later ones together. I say, "To every one, a mate be found!" Another unification idea can be achieved when we mix some yellow or gold clumps amongst the rainbow. Yellow selves mimic the yellow throats of the other daylilies and become the repetitive color, just as green foliage does - a design ‘comfort zone’.

Grouping by color is just another way to please the garden viewing eye. Creating color vignettes within our gardens is what I am going to suggest, be it just a daylily garden or a mixed border garden.

*We could group like color hues and values together: lavender with shades of purple, pinks with the rosy colors, salmon or gold with oranges.

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*We could combine startling opposite colors like gold with red or burgundy, or near white with dark burgundies or reds.

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*We could highlight the eye of a bloom with a coordinated self of the same color nearby.

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*We could add some annuals and perennials to compliment a daylily.

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*Strong colors with strong colors, paler with paler. Purple goes great with bold gold; blue is better with a lighter yellow.

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*And might I suggest using a single repetitive color throughout the garden to give it continuity if you are planting a cottage garden effect. Burgundy, silver, or yellow plants are my choice.

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With winter coming, make some Dream Boards. Select a few of your daylilies thinking of one of the suggested projects above, then do the transplanting in early spring. Try enhancing your gardens with some thought for color combinations.

If you would like to explore further, available are a series of Garden Designing CDs which can be found on my website covering Designing with Color.

I will also be lecturing on the subject at the Mid Winter Symposium in Jan 2013 if you'd care to join us there.

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My article and photos can be used with my permission for daylily club / regional newsletters. Just ask!

 
Comments and Discussion
Thread Title Last Reply Replies
Very nice by spunky1 Oct 14, 2012 10:12 AM 0
Thank you! by lilylady Oct 14, 2012 4:56 AM 0
Untitled by CDsSister Oct 13, 2012 7:01 PM 7
Untitled by LALAMBCHOP Oct 13, 2012 3:23 PM 0

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