Feb 15 2010
Considering The Color Of Your Garden
The four major characteristic of any gardening design are: shape, form, perfume and color. The last is usually ignored by most gardeners, which can lead to a very dull garden. Even So the vast majorities of gardeners either omit it from their plans, or (worse) group together plants that clash and offend the eye. We would be unlikely to paper our walls with a pattern incorporating flowers of red, blue, green, violet, yellow and orange, all fighting to outshine each other, but that is just the effect that many people create in their gardens.
The reason why so many gardeners fall into this trap is that they easily forget that the rules of color coordination are just as significant outside the house as inside, and they apply to natural as well as to man-made decorations. Evidently, accomplishing harmony is easier with the latter as any color you wish may be easily obtained. In the garden, this problem is further heightened with the background of the sky – bright blue during the summer months, and so different in the winter.
Winter skies are less tricky, and there are also far less brightly-colored flowers in bloom at this time of the year – indeed, color represents such a welcome diversion that we tend to accept with gratitude any that appears. This you can overcome with thorough planning. There are a surprisingly large number of plants that do flower and provide color throughout the winter months, as well as numerous twigs and branches (such as dogwood) that all contribute relief during the short dull days.
There is just no reason to neglect a consideration of color just because plants are natural. Nowhere in nature will you find so many different flowers growing in such close proximity as in a flower bed. The flowers may well bloom in our gardens in their natural seasons, but gardeners do bring together in one small plot plants from all over the world which would not normally co-exist.
In the natural world there is no clash of colors. All natural plants must vie for resources, such as the services of insects, birds and other animals for fertilization. The first plants to bloom naturally in the spring are the yellows – during late March and early April this color takes over in both the garden and the countryside. It is believed that this is due to the pollinating insects that are flying at that time of year being attracted only to yellow.
Whilst this is important to the survival of the wild plant in its natural habitat, it is of no consequence to the imported garden species which do not count upon the forces of natural selection. Other plants are bred and have no really close equivalents in the natural world -these are plants which have been produced by crossing two species, and sometimes these two species may even come from unique continents. Nature itself does not create colors that clash and you should try to do the same.
Want to find out more about spider plants, then visit Ray Bonanza’s site on how to choose the best indoor plants for your needs. Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.
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