Color in the garden

Every time I walk into my front garden I can hear my mother’s voice in my head.  Unfortunately, this voice is not telling me how beautiful the garden is, but instead is asking why in the world I planted flower colors together that clash?

My mother was ultra sensitive to color combinations and clashing colors to her were like finger nails on a chalkboard.  Growing up, it was no big deal if we went to school with a tear in our skirt or dirt on our blouse but we did not dare leave the house in colors that were not pleasing with one another.  Ironically, my father was color blind.

Of course, having been raised with the strictest rules about color, I did not mean to plant things that did not blend well together.  When a nursery plant is simply marked “pink,” though, that can cover a wide range of shades from orangey to purply and that’s where the trouble comes in.

If you remember your color wheel, you’ll also remember that adjacent colors are not as pleasing together as complementary colors (those across the wheel.) So, my purplish pink phlox next to my orangey pink roses were enough to set my teeth on edge, every time I drove into my driveway (often!) To say nothing of my mother’s voice fussing in my head.

I decided it was easier to move the phlox than the established roses so last fall, I dug up “all” of my purplish phlox and replaced them with white ones.  However, based on what the garden looked like this summer, all I really did was to spread the roots as I had twice the number of purple phlox there this year as I did last year. So, I will try again this fall and will be ruthless in ridding the garden of those pesky purplish phlox.

Fortunately, especially because I love pink, there are lots of colors that look spectacular with the roses.  Like many gardeners, I try to have some color in the garden for as much of the year as possible.  In fall, Autumn Sedum offers a beautiful dusty rose color that looks great with both the late dahlias and the last of the summer roses.

But, what to do with all the phlox?  I moved them to the back yard beside things such as purple salvia, purple aster and yellow goldenrods.  Everything is complementary, looks great and Mom would be happy.