August 2003 - Gardening Color Your World The most oft heard plea from those seeking gardening help is, "I want year-round color - simply." Both the pleasure and pain of gardening in the Lowcountry is that constant color can be achieved, but not simply. Achieving and using color in the garden is more of an art than an anything- goes endeavor, according to the well-established and executed design philosophy of Gertrude Jekyll, the grande dame of English gardening, garden design and garden writing. Jekyll lived from 1843 to 1932, a goodly span of years in which to practice what she preached. Although trained as an artist, failing eyesight compelled her to forego painting in favor of garden design, where she applied her artist's eye and vision to creating large gardens with exceptional color schemes, including some one-color gardens such as a gray/silver garden and a gold garden. Her most famous and frequently depicted garden was a long border, which began with pale white, gray and pastel flowers and moved through the color spectrum of blue, purple, red, orange and yellow before paling off to pastel flowers at the other end. The gradual blending of muted through intense and then back to mellow again was extremely effective visually. Clearly this type of garden requires great swaths of space, linear and otherwise, which we do not enjoy on Hilton Head Island - which is probably a good thing after all. Of what value then is this information? Perhaps it is simply to remind us that we should and can concern ourselves and plan for color combinations to achieve the most pleasing harmony between them. The difficulty arises in discovering bloom times of adjacent plants. This is usually a matter of experience, but keeping a garden journal with photos by the month is a helpful way of shortcutting the experience to a couple of years. Realistically, it will take a lifetime and then some. A glance at the art class color wheel is helpful in reminding us of the primary colors and their complements - the opposite colors being the complementary or contrasting hues, the adjacent ones, those subtly blending. Contrast is always effective in color relationships, because each color becomes more vivid when placed in contrast with its complement, while adjacent shades tend to co-exist harmoniously. One point on which all garden designers through the ages have agreed is that garden color schemes are enhanced by a liberal use of white, as this both blends and separates what might otherwise be incompatible hues. White and scented blooms add a special dimension to the garden scene at night. Color is fun to play with, and there are many from which to choose. From simple container planting to allocating as much space as you have available, selecting and setting out color schemes is one of the most pleasurable aspects of gardening. For over-the-top results, this project should be given the benefit of extra care and planning. For instance, consider how wonderful purple looks against the gray of dusty miller or any of the artemisias, lambs ears, helichrysum and plectranthus. Purple flowers are legion - pansies, petunias, angelonia, salvia, ruellia, pentas, strobilanthes (aluminum plant), tibouchina and the deeper blue-purple of tradescantia and scaevola. Achimenes is a stunning purple and a good reproducer for containers or ground-cover planting. Add a spot or two of yellow for sparkle. Consider implementing foliage, such as bronze-leaved cannas, which give you the bonus of lasting color interest before and after the brilliant flower has bloomed. Use foliage color, especially variegated, wherever you can for lasting appeal, as it will carry on when the flower will not. Finally, have fun with coleus and caladiums, one for sun and one for shade. No matter how you combine them, they seem to come out just fine and give a splash of brilliance to satisfy the most avid color craver. So easy and so persistent. Isn't that what we all want in our gardens? - Barbara Hodges