by Dolly R. Sickles

What if we consider planning our garden based on color? There are still questions to consider. Do we want all of our color to bloom at one time? Can we spread it out across the season? Across multiple seasons? How do we blend colors for a pleasing palette?

Staggered Blooming

Staggering your blooming times is actually pretty easy to plan and execute. Early in the spring/late winter, Lenten Rose, tulips, daffodils, phlox, and candy tuft are great perennials to count on for color. Cherry trees, red buds, forsythia, and hawthorne’s are great trees and shrubs. As the spring progresses and temperatures become more stable between daytime to evening hours, you can start adding annuals to your perennial beds and planters. Geraniums, marigolds, dusty miller, hyacinths, impatiens and gerber daisies offer great color and broad coverage. Shrubs begin blooming in the summer, and include rhododendrons, gardenias, hydrangeas, laurels, peonies, hostas, and roses. Vegetables and hot weather flowers come into play in the mid to late summer, and include crepe myrtles, gladiolas, canna lilies, and daylilies. By fall you can look forward to sedum, pansies and mums. Stagger perennials, seeds and annuals throughout your gardens so that you have something interesting all year round.

Blending Colors

As children, we learn that primary colors are red, yellow and blue, and that complimentary colors occur when we mix the primaries—orange, green and purple. Consider filling a sunny bed with a tall layer of pink-blooming camellias in the background, with a medium height layer of cream-colored Lenten rose and traditional yellow roses in the middle. Then scatter perennial lavender in the front, along with yellow daylilies, pink peonies, lavender scabiosa, and blue delphinium in the front and in between larger plants. Then top it off with lavender-flowering vinca along the ground.

By mixing complimentary colors in the palette, along with a balanced variety of evergreens, perennials and annuals, we have a visually pleasing garden bed with interesting color and texture year round.

source : www.wral.com