On Colour Schemes

I’m not very good at colour schemes. Apart from the fact that I must have been standing out of line when colour sense was handed out, half the time I’m not sure what colour my plants are going to come up until they actually bloom – by which time they’re in the containers and it’s too late. One reason is that I tend to collect seeds from my own or other people’s plants, and they don’t necessarily come up the same colour as the mother plant. Sometimes they’re even nicer, but it makes planning colour combinations a bit difficult.

I also admit to being hideously disorganised. Although I label my seed packets and trays, the labels often get mixed up and I’m lucky if the tray ends up with the same plant as I’m expecting, let alone the same colour. The little daisy like flowers in the photo above (does anyone know exactly what they are?) came from a tray labelled Oriental Poppies. Goodness knows how they got there, because I don’t remember planting anything even remotely similar. As for what happened to the oriental poppies, your guess is as good as mine.

And then there’s the space problem again. A book I once read on balcony gardening advised sternly that no balcony should ever contain more than three harmonious colours. It’s right of course – there are some stupendous colour schemed balconies around here and they look great. I’ve toyed for a couple of years with the idea of a blue white and silver balcony – based on some wonderful flower beds I saw at Chatsworth House about ten years ago. But when it comes to actually doing it, it always means giving up the idea of growing too many other things.

I’ve done a bit better than usual this year. I’m quite pleased with the yellow and gold combination in the photo above (surfinia, marigolds and the mystery daisies), and I love the contrast between the colour of this purply pink petunia and the rich blue of the plumbago. I can’t take any credit for it though – I thought the petunia was going to be white. Other results haven't been quite so good. The supposedly white antirhinnum which turned out to be a delicate shade of violet was beautiful - but it didn't go with the salmon pink pelargonium at all ...