For gardeners who crave color—and really, who among us is immune?—the sudden decline from a giddy, glorious springtime into the dusty doldrums of summer can be a terrible shock to the system. So fight back.
The secret? A little color can go a long way. If you add a pop of blue against a chartreuse backdrop or a clump of hollyhocks at eye level, it can be enough to create the illusion that the whole garden is in bloom. Here are nine of our favorite ideas to add color to a flower garden:
Something Blue
Above: Better known for his modernist green-on-green landscapes, garden designer Luciano Giubbilei recently took a crash course on cottage garden design at Great Dixter—and got his own garden border on which to conduct experiments on color theory.
Exulting in "the looseness of the English garden, the dense entanglements of the traditional herbaceous borders, the informality and irregularity of cottage gardens," Giubbilei created a late springtime backdrop for blue—one of the rarest colors in the garden—with plantings of chartreuse Euphorbia wulfenii and feathery Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’.
Above: Photograph via Rose Cottage Plants.
Because true blue is an unusual flower hue, it draws the eye and creates an overall impression of color. At the front of the border, Giubbilei planted low-growing Myosotis sylvatica (blue forget-me-nots). More blue: "I have also chosen Camassia leichtlinii to weave through the planting," says Giubbilei. "The intensely blue, small starry flowers on vertical spires give the border a final spring whoosh before the summer perennials take center stage."
Color Wheel Cousins
Above: For more of this garden, see At Home with June Blake in Ireland's County Wicklow.
Picture a color wheel. Purple, orange, and green are the three secondary colors, each made up of a equal parts of two primary colors, and balance one other well in a garden bed. For a similar tall, orange trumpet lily in the summer garden, Lilium Orange Marmalade is $19.95 and ships in the fall from White Flower Farm.
Front and Center
Above: A brick path hemmed in at Monk's House where Virginia Woolf's husband, Leonard, became a fine gardener. For more, see Required Reading: Virginia Woolf's Garden.
Plant long-stemmed flowering perennials on either side of a path, and if they succumb to the heat let them flop over onto the walkway to call attention to themselves. For a wine-red flower similar to the one shown above (R), consider Penstemon 'Ruby Candle'; $9.99 from Dutch Gardens.
Make Eye Contact
Above: Hollyhocks grow against at wall. For more of this garden, see Camera Ready in the English Countryside at Walnuts Farm.
A 4-to-6-foot-high stem with a flower at eye level will focus attention on what's blooming. Start hollyhocks from seed with a packet of Summer Carnival Mixed Hollyhock Colors; $2 from Baker Creek Seeds.
Big and Blowsy
Above: Plant a big clump of a showstopper—such as peonies—and you won't need any other color while they're in bloom. In a temperate climate, for instance, peonies will take you through May and into June, when roses will come into their own. After roses are over, hydrangeas will keep blooming into August. Photograph via The Martha Blog.
Above: An early blooming semi-double Paeonia Coral Charm ships bareroot with from three to five eyes and is $14.95 from White Flower Farm (ships in October). Photograph by Erin Boyle.
Verbena Verve
Above: Long-stemmed verbena boniarensis explodes like a firecracker in the air, with a pop of purple hovering above the rest of the garden. It's a good companion in a perennials garden because the long, delicate stem doesn't get in the way of anything else. No wonder it's currently the most fashionable secret weapon for London's top garden designers.
Above: Verbena boniarensis in bloom. For more, see 11 Garden Ideas to Steal from London.
Gentle Giants
Above: Photograph by Marie Viljoen.
Nothing says summer like a sunflower towering above a garden bed. Easy to grow from seed, a sunflower looks friendly in nearly any setting.
With a long season (from early spring to late fall), a packet of Vincents Choice Sunflower Seeds will see a garden through those difficult weeks in August when it feels like nothing else is in bloom; $3.95 from Johnny's Seeds.
Larkspur Flowers
Above: Photograph via Whatcomflowers.
Delphinium's more delicate cousins, larkspur flowers come in all the loveliest shades of purple and blue. With their shorter stems and fewer blossoms per branch than delphinium, larkspur is less like to become top heavy or succumb to the first rain shower. It's an annual, but will self-sow freely—expect it to pop up somewhere in the garden next year, too.
A quarter-pound packet of purple Delphinium Consolida Seeds is $10.95 from High Country Gardens.
Extend the Season
Above: Above: Elephant-eared Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’, Solenostemon ‘Redhead’, and Agastache cana ‘Heather Queen’ create a burst of color in September and October.
Pair late-season bloomers such as agastache with bright-leafed plants. For more color combinations, see Color Theory: 10 Perfect Plant Combinations for Autumn.
For more of our favorite colorful flower gardens, see:
- Celia's Garden: At Home with an English Artist.
- Garden Visit: At Home in Rhode Island with Artist Georgia Marsh.
- Home Again: My Mother's Garden in South Africa.
More Stories from Gardenista