Home Plants Decoration Colour Highlights part 2

Yellows and creams

Yellow means warmth and sunshine, light and brightness. Golden yellow is not commonly used on large areas in interiors but toned down with white or cream the softer shades of sand and butter yellow are very popular. As in nature large patches of bright yellow need the contrast of plenty of green to cool them down. Imagine a bed ofdaffodils in strong sunlight then imagine the same flowers planted in grass. The first is overpowering, the second is calmer and much more pleasing. Yellow and green is one of the freshest combinations you can use. To make it sparkle even more add lots of white too. Creamy-yellow rooms need a highlight or two of brighter yellow and there are plenty of flowering houseplants which come in all shades of yellow from pale primrose to chrysanthemum gold to fill the bill. The hybrid broom Cytisusxracemosa has brilliant yellow flowers which smother the plant, almost obscuring the foliage beneath. It flowers from winter to early summer and likes plenty of light. It is a little temperamental and requires special attention. Many spring flowers, especially bulbs, are yellow — daffodils and crocus, tulips and pale lemon hyacinths. A favourite colour for chrysanthemums is rich golden yellow, and there are softer creamier colour variations too. Some orchids can be found in shades of yellow and the calceolarias have plain and spotted yellow varieties. A few foliage plants havegolden versions or simply leaves which are splashed or edged with cream or yellow. Crotons often have wonderful yellow and red markings and the aphelandra has bold cream veining on its leaves plus a brilliant yellow cockscomb flower. The little primroses, grown as houseplants from Christmas onwards through to spring, are available in ever brighter colours year after year but somehow the original yellow type retains the freshness of the wild flower and by some strange trick always appears to have more scent than the other ones. A basket of four or five pots of yellow primroses is a marvellous cheer up for a kitchen or dining room table on long dreary winter days.

Greens

Green is a popular colour for many rooms. It is calm and restful and provides a good background for other colours that might be used with it. It has always looked good with wood and therefore with traditional furniture. Green reminds us of the countryside and natural things and gives us a feeling of space and quiet even in a busy city setting. It comes in dozens of variations and, as in nature, mixing greens together is usually very successful. There are not only bright acid greens and strong emeralds but also pale almond greens and the subtle colours of moss. Most of the dark or intense greensneed plenty of white used with them to work well, but the paler shades are successful when used in large areas with perhaps some darker green plus one or two colour accents.

Most colour schemes benefit from the addition of a different colour, not necessarily a contrasting one, to emphasize the quality of the main colour. Green seems to need this extra touch more than any other colour so that a small amount of pink or yellow or blue can lift a green scheme enormously and bring it alive in a quite spectacular way. In a garden we may miss the subtlety of the green foliage until we see it in relation to a colourful flower. There are plenty of gardens created from just foliage but this takes great skill to make enough interest simply by shape and the subtle variations of green leaves and their textures. Indoors, because of the furnishings, this problem does not exist quite to the same degree.

A totally green room filled with plenty of plants creates an impression of outdoors inside; wonderfully cool in the summer, it can feel chilly in the winter. Bright, strong greens are best used sparingly in kitchens, bathrooms or children’s rooms, while all the pale soft greens can be used successfully in living rooms, halls and bedrooms. They all benefit from plenty of foliage plants; flowering plants also look good against a background of green. If you plan to have a room with lots of different foliage plants then consider how many shades of green there are available. Some such as the fern Aspleniuvn nidus have bright lime-green glossy leaves as does the maidenhair fern, while plants in the spathiphyllum family, for example, tend to have very dark-green leaves. In between the two extremes are dozens of shades and textures. Some plants have soft downy leaves, such as the African violet; others in complete contrast, such as the aechmeas from the bromeliad family, have sharp spiny-edged, leathery leaves.

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