Colour in the garden

Life in lockdown has some advantages and one of those has been the time to really look at the colour in the garden. No longer dashing through en route to somewhere else, I’ve been able to really study what works and what doesn’t.

I’m not one of those gardeners who is strict about using colour – some gardens I visit have very carefully colour-themed borders. However, I do try to get combinations that look good together.

This is part of a border that tends towards yellows and blues. It’s a difficult site in full sun, which on my sandy soil means dry, very dry. Years of adding mulch have helped but I have to take care with what I plant.

This group is pleasing me now: low-growing golden marjoram (why aren’t more herbs used in flower borders?) with Euphorbia cyparissias ‘Fens Ruby’ coming through it. I was given the euphorbia years ago and it self-seeds at will throughout this border.

The forget-me-nots (Myosotis) have also self-seeded and will stay until the plants get scruffy when I’ll take them out.

This border also has yellow tulips, some yellow and white iris that are on the verge of flowering and hemerocallis for later. The bronze carex is a permanent foil to the changing flowers.

More yellow tones, this time pale tulips that have been looking good against the foliage of hemerocallis and lime philadelphus, and the acid green of Helleboreus foetidus.

Orange is one of the Marmite colours in gardening. So many gardens I visit have an absolute ban on it. It’s a colour I love and use a lot. Here, Tulipa ‘Ballerina’ is put with Geum ‘Marmalde’ – an old favourite bought at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival many years ago. It flowers early and is a particular favourite. Again, self-seeded forget-me-nots add a blue contrast.

Sometimes, a plant works not because of another plant but the background. This wallflower picks up the shades of the old brick wall behind.

One bit of colour in the garden has pleased me this year. I chose these tulips with care – both for colour and flowering time – and almost got it perfect. The bright pink were about a week later than I would have liked so the orange are starting to go over but I think the effect has worked.

I’ve planted up the three old galvanised tubs in the vegetable garden and this is against the potting shed – the perfect pale backdrop for those bright colours.

Sometimes, a mix of colours work. These wallflowers were last year’s and are flowering really well for a second time. The purple honesty is now in flower – it’s a biennial so takes two years to flower and set seed – and Tulipa ‘Ronaldo’ is also in full bloom. A bit of mix, definitely not colour-themed, but it’s been making me smile.

Of course, more often than not the very best colour in the garden comes not from my carefully laid plans but Mother Nature.

I never planted this rogue primrose next to the hellebore but the two play off each other beautifully.

And this defiant marigold in the midst of self-sown forget-me-not is stunning. It’s meant to be the currant bed but I’m rather glad they both moved in.

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