Composing for Color

Landscape your yard with an orchestra of American colors. The red, white, and blue combine to create a patriotic balance.
Red Recital

Red is your landscape's percussion, clamoring for attention like the crash of cymbals. The color of blood, heat, and love, red will alert, arouse, and energize. Just a bit of red packs a wallop in the yard -- a whole bed of it lands a real knockout blow.

Enlarge Image Acer palmatum 'Trompenburg'(Japanese maple)
  • Red stimulates appetite, so plant it near outdoor dining areas.
  • Because red encourages activity, it's a smart choice around decks, patios, and outdoor play spaces.
  • Red warms its surroundings. It can overheat sunny spots and make shady spots feel less cool.
  • Red shrinks spaces visually, a drawback in tight quarters, but a boon in wide-open landscapes.
  • Bring out the red in plantings with clay pots, sandstone, brick, and other reddish hardscaping.
Reliable Red Flowers
Enlarge Image Astilbe
  • Astilbe 'Red Fanal':16-24 inches tall. Zones 4-8.
  • Blanket flower (Gillardia pulchella) Plume series: Up to 12 inches tall. Zones 3-8.
  • Fuchsia 'Golden Marnka': 6-12 inches tall. Zones 8-10.
  • Impatiens valleriana Super Elfin Series: Up to 10 inches tall. Grow as an annual in all Zones.
  • Penstemon 'Chester Scarlet': Up to 24 inches tall. Zones 6-9.
  • Petunia Carpet Series: 8-10 inches tall. Grow as an annual in all Zones.
  • Scarlet sage (Salvia spendens): Up to 16 inches tall. Grow as annual in all Zones.
  • Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) Tahiti Series: Up to 8 inches tall. Zones 5-9.
Enlarge Image Bee balm
  • Bee Balm (Monarda) 'Red Scarlet,' 'Adam': Up to 36 inches tall. Zones 4-9.
  • Cardinal flower (Lobelia carinalis): Up to 36 inches tall. Zones 3-9.
  • Daylily (Hemerocallis) 'Red Joy,' 'Red Rum': 16-34 inches tall. Zones 3-10.
  • Peony (Paeonia) 'America': 3-3-1/2 feet tall. Zones 3-8.
  • Yarrow (Achillea) 'Fanal': Up to 30 inches tall. Zones 4-8.
Enlarge Image Crocosmia
  • Clematis 'Rouge Cardinal': 6-10 feet tall. Zones 4-9.
  • Crocosmia 'Lucifer': 3-4 feet tall. Zones 6-9.
  • Flame nasturtium (Tropaeolum speciosum): Up to 10 feet tall. Zones 8-10.
  • Flowering quince (Chaenomeles x superba): 4-5 feet tall. Zones 5-9.
  • Hibiscus moscheutos 'Lord Baltimore': Up to 4 feet tall. Zones 5-10.
  • Scarlet firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea): Up to 12 feet tall. Zones 6-9.

See more red-flowering favorites.
Try planting some of these red and yellow combos.

Continued on page 2: White

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