In early spring, I am often so eager to buy flowers that I go to the nursery and snatch up everything that catches my eye. This is especially so when I am buying annuals. But it is a good idea to think about color before you buy plants.
If, like me, you have a garden full of plants already, your safest bet might be to buy white annuals. I like the annuals white cosmos, angelonia, wave petunias and small million bells, as they are deer resistant and look good with any other color.
If you love strong colors, go for zinnias, marigolds, sunflowers and red and purple salvias. Hot colors have strong impact, even at a distance.
If you think about the color wheel and choose colors, like purple and yellow, on opposite sides of the wheel, you get immediate zing.
If you prefer a harmonious color scheme, choose those colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.
You can also select plants for color balance, for example, three to five colors that meld well together such as yellow, orange, red, purple, and white, for mass impact.
Repetition of the same color in a garden is also a good strategy to unify existing plants. For example, either chartreuse, or purple, can be planted in a variety of spots in your garden and can function as accents as well as tying everything together.
This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on thinking about color.
