Here's to Hue

The snow is about to start flying again this weekend with another 1 to 3 inches in the forecast.  This is a good time to hunker down and start thinking about how to refine the mixed perennial-annual-shrub border.  Cool colors--mauve, purples, pinks and blues--have always been a favorite, but it's tempting to do a hot-colored garden outside the vegetable garden. 

 

 

 

 

Hot (or warm) colors like reds, oranges, orange-yellow, can provide eye-popping color at a distance whereas blues and violets fade away.  That was the case this summer when I planted Salvia guarantica, Salvia farinacea and dusty miller outside the picket fence, which is about 80 feet from the house.  They flowers disappeared against the vanilla-white fence.  Time to rethink that planting.



 

 

 

A nice clump of bold cannas--the combination above (red salvia, canna, zinnias and dahlias)--courtesy of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois (www.mortonarb.org) would provide a focal point against the veg garden arbor.  And all of the flowers on these annuals attract hummingbirds and other pollinators. 

 

 

 

And, where there's not a lot of space--on a deck or patio, for instance--I could still do a few sizzling-hot combinations, like this one above--plectranthus and caladium.  Great colorful foliage for a shaded spot. 



 

One other thing I'll be looking at is how to combine more contrasting shapes in the mixed border. The stachys and coreopsis above works well but I'll be doing this in larger blocks throughout this long, deep border. 

Now, where is that snow shovel?  Enjoy your weekend.