An annual meadow bursts with bold
colors: hot pink cosmos, striped
mallow, blue bachelor's button,
red flax, and yellow-and-burgundy
coreposis.

Go for the Bold

Bold garden designs take a fresh look at color and its capabilities. They dare to stretch color to extremes. The hottest pink juxtaposes with golden orange. Deep velvety purple pairs with vibrant yellow. Scarlet ignites when standing next to orange or magenta. A palette of rich, saturated hues dazzles the viewer from dawn to dusk.

The bold garden relies on color celebrities of equal intensity, used in dramatic vignettes. Give a brilliant pair the limelight by placing them front row center in the border, and then repeat the colors in the background, creating an echo of the original color match.

To discover a good match, get close and look at the whole blossom. No flower has an absolute single-color affiliation. Striping, patches, sheens, stamens, undertones, or throat all contribute to the flower's petal palette. One or more of these shades may harmonize with a likely partner. Also consider how the flower petals change color as they unfurl, then fade. Some roses may turn three or four different hues from bud to full bloom that could suggest color partners.

Plant shapes and bloom times also play a role in bold matches. A marriage of unusual forms creates major chemistry. For example, Angelica archangelica towers in a shade garden and frolics spiritedly with the large, dark leaves and bright flowers of ligularia and gooseneck loosestrife. Bold matches are limited only by the variety of flower colors available.

Success depends on timing. If you seek a color match and just can't find a flower partner that blooms at the same time, put foliage to work. The most breathtaking garden pairings often involve foliage understudies, not flower stars.

Related Slide Show: Best Red Flowers for Your Garden

 

The tropical leaves of canna shout
"bold" in the background of this
garden, a fitting backdrop for the
brazen colors of the marigolds in
the front of the border.

Turn to perennials, shrubs, and bulbs to form your bold design's foundation. They'll give it stability with annual repeat performances.

Another bold approach involves a cast of thousands. Bright-flower summer annuals star in a mass planting that Victorian gardeners called bedding out; this bold scenario complements or contrasts colors. Or shades of the same color work in an analogous scheme. Mass plantings stop traffic with their sheer intensity of color. This type of bold garden requires lots of maintenance: fertilizing, watering, and removal of faded blooms keep the color showstopping.

Meadows result from nature's improvised mass plantings. Many a happy color accident happens when annual wildflowers mingle and turn up in unanticipated pairings. Predetermine the boldness of your meadow's color scheme by blending the seeds of your favorite hot hues. The meadow will perpetuate your brilliant scheme yearly by self-seeding.

Once you've got the knack of gardening boldly, surround yourself with color, overhead and all around. Think vertical and horizontal. Turn to trellises and arbors to raise the colors to new levels.

Gardens alone don't always instigate a bold design. Your color adventure may begin with a house color or an arbor painted in a favorite hue that calls for a coordinated garden. There again, foliage may provide all the highlights needed to support a bright house exterior or a hardscape accent. For example, a garden design featuring a complementary flower color mixed with white or silver will hold its own next to a periwinkle blue or lemon-yellow house.

When you go for a bold look, consider more than the plants. A warm-color fence, arbor, or chair, painted a rich hue of terra-cotta, apricot, yellow, or blue, brings out the brilliance of nearby, well-matched flower hues.

Related Feature: Using Color to Create a Tropical Garden