Home Plants Decoration Colour Highlights part 1

Colour is profoundly important in our lives and nowhere more so than in the houses we live in. Very often the first choice made about a room is what colour it should be. Colour can be used to our advantage to create a mood, highlight something special or even trick the eye. Houseplants will do all this, used either on their own or in a subtle mix with fabrics, paint, carpets and furniture. Nowadays there are hundreds of plants to choose from, and more and more flowering types are appearing in a vast range of colours. It is therefore important to consider the whole subject of colour in some detail to get the best from your plants and maybe take a fresh look at how you use them in your home.

Pinks and Reds

Although pastel colours are now very fashionable, pale powder pink is not the most popular colour for living rooms. Many people, however, choose soft coral, peach or terracotta as the basis for furnishings as it is a welcoming and warm colour and very easy to live with. It can look very rich on its own or quite restrained when mixed with cooler greys, blues or greens. The deepest plummiest reds and rusts definitely need the relief of plenty of green to emphasize their qualities while paler, peachier pinks look marvellous with soft grey greens. There are plenty of flowering plants in this colour range that can be used to emphasize the tints of furnishings or to strengthen pale tones on walls or floors. A few foliage plants also have strong pink or red colouration which is useful when you need a longer life than a flowering plant might provide. There is a great range of flowering plants to choose from here; cineraria, primula, cyclamen and azaleas all come in pinks and reds. Hydrangeas have such large flower heads that they can add great splashes of pink to a room, and there are plenty of small-flowered plants such as Catharanthus roseus or African violets as well as the beautiful pink-leaved caladiums and Hypoestes sanguinolenta. Fuchsias come in many varieties nearly all a mix of pink and red and white. Pelargoniums too are available in an immense colour range right through the red-pink spectrum. If you grow your own bulbs, try peach or pink hyacinths and for summer some lilies suitable for pot cultivation.

An aechmea in full flower has stunning sugar pink mixed with pale silvery green and many of the bromeliads have quite strong red or pink colouration on their leaves. Bougainvillea and the Christmas cactus have brilliant magenta-pink flowers which are difficult to place. Few people use this brash colour in their interiors and these plants look best in plain white surroundings or in a conservatory where they can be toned down with plenty of fresh green. Both Dutch and oriental orchids are worth considering.

Mauves and Blues

Pure blue flowers are not among the most common. Many flowers calling themselves blue are more often than not mauve or at least blue with a hint of pink in their makeup. Blues of different kinds seem at first not to mix happily but as long as they have a liberal dose of green with them, the greeny blues and mauve blues can be used together. Blue is considered too cool a colour to use often in the home, though at one time nearly every bathroom was painted a chilly ‘aqua’ or ’seaspray’, only emphasizing the freezing conditions found in most bathrooms then. Blue looks at its best where it is mixed with plenty of white rather as on old china plates where the contrast makesthe dark blue look fresh and clean. Large areas of flat blue paint or wallpaper can add space to a cramped room and certainly pale blue plus green remind us strongly of outdoors — green grass and summer skies stretching into infinity. The key to blue, though, is to add some green life to it to avoid the chill or blankness it can so easily spread across a room. Greyish blues are easier to work with and grey can always be warmed by a hint of pink, not green or yellow as they produce a hospital-corridor effect.

There are many blue-flowering houseplants which presumably shows our love of the colour. A few are true blue, some verge towards mauve and purple, and there are a few foliage plants such as Sedum sieboldi which have a steely glaucous colour which looks good in blue interiors. The pretty trailing Campanula isophylla comes in a pale- blue version and makes a splendid hanging pot or basket plant though its effect is subtle. Hydrangeas come in blue and make a strong impression. They are particularly effective placed low on a table in a shallow container. Plumbago capensis is smothered in the palest blue flowers during late summer and autumn but is really a plant for a cool greenhouse or conservatory rather than indoors. Stronger blues and purples are well provided for by such plants as African violets, cinerarias, streptocarpus and exacum, and during winter and spring a bowl of blue hyacinths gives a wonderful lift toany room. For a softer effect try the multi- flora hyacinths which have several stems of flowers with none of the stiffness of the usual type, and have a magnificent scent. Morning glories have the bluest of blue flowers and are well worth growing to stand in a sunny window for the summer. If you want your blues more subtle, try a foliage plant such as Eucalyptus globulus, which has marvellous blue-green leaves as do some sedum species and other succulents. In the vast cacti family there are many types with grey or bluish colouring. The bromeliad Tillandsia cyanea would make an interesting choice. The bracts have violet-blue flowers which can measure 5cm (tin) across. An arrangement of several different types looks marvellous.

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