Blowing hot and cold in the garden

I was trying to explain to one of my gardening classes the merits of planting green ‘no colour’ gardens; a scheme that has been very much in vogue for the past two years. I could judge from the lacklustre response that this was rather like explaining to Barbara Cartland that the colour pink had had its day.

You see, we all love the idea of colour in the garden. One of my pupils, an avid Manchester United fan, has to be carefully steered away every summer from turning her plot into a bedding plant catastrophe of red and white in homage to her favourite team. Yes, colour is lovely but it must be used judiciously.

A few rules – colours simply divide into hot or cool, and you should be wary of mixing the two. So, any colour with warm yellow in it is hot; any colour with a blue tinge is cool. Take red – the orangey red found in some pot geraniums is obviously hot, while the bluey red of Rose ‘Deep Secret’ is distinctly cool. So try putting buttery yellow flowers such as Rudbeckias with the hot reds and oranges of Heleniums and Crocosmias for a fiery late summer display. Or, if cooler pastels are more your thing, use blue daisy-like Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’ with bluey/pink Japanese anemones – ‘Hadspen Abundence’ is compact and beautiful. In fact, our cool Northern light means that pastels are often the most natural choice of plant colours for our gardens.

Another point to remember is that hot colours advance towards you and cool colours recede into the distance. So a I often plant warm colours near the house, and cool colours further away – this tricks the eye into thinking the garden is longer than it actually is. Every little helps!
And for those of you with shady gardens, or those who mainly access your gardens after dark (I shan’t enquire why), please remember that pale colours sing out in the gloom, whereas blues and reds disappear as the sun sets. So plant white spires of Phlox paniculata with a luminescent alabaster rose ‘Francine Austin’ for a glowing display that will come into its own after lighting-up time. Enjoy the summer!
Anne Britt is a garden designer. To find out about her daytime classes, email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it