Design a better garden with the colour wheel

Though plants have inspiring scents and shapes, they make their impact with colour. Follow these simple rules to using colour with flair.

For a successful colour combination use the wheel as your guide and mix only opposite (complementary) or adjacent (harmonious) shades. Green is the neutral of the plant world, but can still have impact.

Understanding the impact colour can have is a skill. Some people have a natural eye for colour, and mix and match colour schemes by instinct, but most of us have to learn by experimenting until we achieve the desired effect. A good place to start when putting colours together — in the garden or anywhere else — is by studying the colour wheel, which is based on the natural spectrum of the rainbow.

Schemes in which the use of colour is restrained are usually more successful than those that combine a riot of different colours and shades. The most memorable plantings often use colours that are next to, or close by, each other on the colour wheel. Such neighbouring colours are sympathetic to one another, rather than fighting for attention, and create naturally harmonious planted arrangements.

A late-summer harmonious arrangement could be achieved by filling a dark burgundy container with carmine red and dark cerise dahlias and placing it in front of a background of maroon-tinged foliage, such as cotinus. Here all the colours are in sympathy because they are close together on the colour wheel. Another way to achieve harmony is to use shades of a single colour.

For a dramatic look, choose colours that are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. These contrasting pairs are known as complementary colours, because they work together to create maximum impact. You could mix yellow and purple using daffodils and irises, or orange and blue by putting nasturtiums with lavender.

Add a Splash of Colour

Including a small amount of a contrasting colour in an otherwise harmonious arrangement produces a dash of excitement. The mainly burgundy arrangement described earlier, for instance, would really come alive if you added one or two bright marigolds or orange-centred gazanias to the planting mix.

To achieve the strongest display of pure or saturated colour, pack the container with flowers of similar colours but different shapes. But remember that saturated colour can be tiring after a while, so an arrangement or collection of pots is often more successful if it is broken up with a paler shade, or muted with a darker one.

To create a really restful effect with your container arrangements, combine different flowers in a range of similar colours and use lots of green foliage to give the arrangement natural balance.

White is a powerful and eye- catching colour — adding a white flower will provide definition in almost any display. But it can be overpowering if used in a block, except in a dark corner. Most white daisies have dark or yellow centres for relief, but you can also soften the stark effect of an all- white arrangement by including green or silvery foliage, or the velvety, richly coloured leaves of a variegated coleus.

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