How to Garden by Colour

Colour is one of the most exciting aspects of any garden. Your garden may bloom in every colour of the rainbow or just one or two. Let's review the basics of colour theory and how it relates to modern garden colour schemes and garden colour theory. Plus, we’ll share colourful design ideas and color combinations for your garden.

Garden Colour Theory

Warm and Cool Colours: Colours give us a feeling of either warmth or coolness. Cool colours are considers to be shades of blue and violet, and sometime pink, while warm colours are shades of red, yellow and orange. Warm colours are perceived as advancing while the cool colours seem to recede. Grouping warm colors or cool colors helps provide a feeling of coherence in your garden color palette. Neutral colours include browns, grays and greens, and these neutrals help balance bolder garden colour schemes.

Complementary colours: These are opposites on the colour wheel, like red and green, blue and orange, or purple and yellow. Pairing complementary flower colors in the garden helps provide a high impact, vibrant design.

Monochromatic colour: A striking approach to garden design is choosing blooms within one colour, and varying dark and light shades. For example, a garden with monochromatic purple blooms could include a variety of soft lilacs and lavenders, bright purple alliums and irises, and even deep violets found in bearded irises and tulips.

Using Warm and Cool Flower Garden Colour Schemes

As you plan your flower garden colour schemes, remember that plant placement can visually expand or contract the space.

When planted at a distance, warm coloured flowers will appear closer, while cool coloured flowers will appear farther away.

Planting cool-coloured flowers at the back of the garden will make the garden seem larger. Cool colours are best viewed close up, making them very effective near a patio or next to a sidewalk.

Warm coloured flowers are effective in bringing a distant part of the yard into focus. Warm colours will create a dramatic display in any yard or garden and will draw attention in the landscape.

Popular Colour Combinations for a Garden

Some of the best colour combinations for a garden are simple, high-impact pairings that are easy to repeat throughout your beds. Here are three classic garden flower colour combinations that work almost anywhere are:

• Yellow and purple – a bold, complementary pairing that makes each colour stand out.
• Blue and white – a cool, calming scheme ideal for relaxing spaces and evening gardens.
• Red, orange and yellow – a fiery trio of warm colours that creates an energetic, dramatic display.

These are considered among the best colour combos for a vibrant garden because they are easy to recognize from a distance, simple to repeat, and adaptable for many varieties of plants and garden design styles.

Garden Colour Schemes That Attract Pollinators

If you want to attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, choose garden colour schemes that emphasize bright, nectar-rich flowers. Pollinators are especially drawn to:

• Blue and purple blooms (such as salvias, alliums, sea holly, and grape hyacinths) for bees.
• Red, orange and hot pink flowers (such as dahlias, daylilies, coneflowers, yarrow, and bee balm) for hummingbirds and butterflies.
• Yellow and white flowers (such as daffodils and crocuses) that stand out in early spring borders. 

Mixing opposite colours makes each colour stand out even more—this is one of the simplest applications of garden colour theory, and also helps pollinators quickly find flowers. Try mixing perennials with bulbs to offer a variety of bloom times and flower forms for pollinators, and create more interesting garden flower colour combinations.

Flower Garden Colour Schemes for Sun and Shade

Your garden’s sunlight conditions should also guide your colour choices.

In full sun, intense warm colours such as red, orange and bright yellow hold their own against strong light and create lively flower gardens. You can let warm colours dominate and use cool colours to soften the overall flower bed design.

In partial shade or dappled light, cool colours like blue, violet and soft pink glow beautifully and are easy on the eyes. Cool coloured flowers will recede even more if they are placed in the shade, so plant them where they can be viewed close up, such as along a path or next to a patio.

In deeper shade, use white and pale pastels to brighten darker corners and rely on green foliage as a neutral backbone. Warm colours can be used sparingly in shade as accents.

Seasonal Colour Combinations for a Vibrant Garden

To keep your garden colourful through the seasons, plan your flower garden colour palette in layers:

• Spring: Fresh combinations of yellow and white (daffodils, tulips) with soft blues (grape hyacinth) and pinks (peonies) create a light, cheerful look.
• Summer: Intensify your flower colour combinations with bold reds, oranges, purples and hot pinks. Multicoloured flowers, such as Tartan Dahlia, can anchor these vibrant schemes.
• Autumn: Shift to rich golds, russets, burgundy and deep purple. Many dahlias and late lilies echo autumn foliage and keep borders glowing. 

Tips For Harmonious Flower Garden Design

Multicoloured flowers can give you clues about mixing colours. Their petals often contain ready-made colour combinations that you can echo elsewhere in the yard. After all, who knows better than Mother Nature when it comes to harmonious flower garden colour schemes?

Experiment with colours by cutting a few pictures out of garden catalogs and rearranging them. This is an easy way to test different flower garden colour schemes before you start planting. To help tie different sections together, repeat a few colours throughout the garden so your flower bed design feels cohesive rather than random. Try cool colours with a few sparks of warm colours, or warm colours with a few cool colours. By testing combinations on paper first, you can refine your flower garden colour palette and avoid clashing tones.

Whatever colour scheme you decide upon, plant in masses for high-impact colour. In other words, plant each flower in groups of at least three to twelve flowers. Grouping plants in this way strengthens your chosen garden colour schemes and makes each hue more noticeable from a distance.
Thoughtful garden design, guided by basic colour theory and a well-planned flower garden colour palette, will help you create a landscape that is beautiful, balanced, and enjoyable in every season.

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