3 Sizzling Color Palettes for Summer Gardens
Color palettes can be powerful tools for creating a harmonious look among different areas of the landscape and setting a mood for the garden as a whole. Most hot-colored planting palettes that rely on deeply saturated reds, oranges, purples and pinks are considered energizing and have the bonus of being favored by pollinators. Have a look at the following three warm-season color palettes and tell us: Which one’s your favorite?
This sunset-colored meadow planting includes orange sneezeweed (Helenium sp.), magenta bee balm (Monarda sp.) and ornamental grasses.
1. Mediterranean Sunset
Color palette: Bright red, coral-orange, butterscotch, lilac, blue-green
Let a palette of rich jewel tones and vibrant sunset hues like red, coral-orange, butterscotch, lilac and blue-green inspire the plantings for your summer garden beds. Together, these hot colors really shine in the evening, when the late sunshine illuminates the color-saturated blossoms, making them glow.
Color palette: Bright red, coral-orange, butterscotch, lilac, blue-green
Let a palette of rich jewel tones and vibrant sunset hues like red, coral-orange, butterscotch, lilac and blue-green inspire the plantings for your summer garden beds. Together, these hot colors really shine in the evening, when the late sunshine illuminates the color-saturated blossoms, making them glow.
In this perennial meadow surrounding a farmhouse outside of Amsterdam, the designer planted varieties of flowers and ornamental grasses in loose clumps, mimicking the way they would grow and spread in nature. Flame red crocosmia (Crocosmia sp.) grows alongside orange sneezeweed (Helenium sp.) and purple-blue giant hyssop (Agastache sp.). The gray-green and blue-green foliage of the perennials and young ornamental grasses forms a cooling counterpart to the fiery blooms.
This vibrant low-water garden in San Luis Obispo, California, also relies on a sunset-hued planting palette. Here we can see orange red-hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria) in the foreground, yellow yarrow (Achillea sp.) growing around the patio alongside bright purple ‘Rozanne’ cranesbill (Geranium ‘Rozanne’), and red-flowering sage (Salvia sp.) in the background.
In the same San Luis Obispo garden, red-orange blanketflower (Gallardia sp.) and trailing violet-flowering ornamental oregano (Origanum rotundifolium) spill over warm-toned boulders.
As a whole, this garden would be a magnet for pollinators of all kinds. Hummingbirds and bees would be particularly attracted to the bright purple blooms, while butterflies would be drawn to the red, orange, yellow and coral blossoms.
Attract Hummingbirds and Bees With These Beautiful Summer Flowers
As a whole, this garden would be a magnet for pollinators of all kinds. Hummingbirds and bees would be particularly attracted to the bright purple blooms, while butterflies would be drawn to the red, orange, yellow and coral blossoms.
Attract Hummingbirds and Bees With These Beautiful Summer Flowers
2. Rich and Earthy
Color palette: Dark russet, brick red, orange, mustard, tawny brown
Perennial flowers and ornamental grasses with earthy tones like russet, mustard gold and buff brown are reminiscent of North American prairies in high summer or the colors of a weathered red barn. Use flowers with these rich, somewhat subtle tones to complement the soft greens of meadow grasses or pick up the shades of building materials such as aged wood or rust-colored Cor-Ten steel.
Color palette: Dark russet, brick red, orange, mustard, tawny brown
Perennial flowers and ornamental grasses with earthy tones like russet, mustard gold and buff brown are reminiscent of North American prairies in high summer or the colors of a weathered red barn. Use flowers with these rich, somewhat subtle tones to complement the soft greens of meadow grasses or pick up the shades of building materials such as aged wood or rust-colored Cor-Ten steel.
This low-impact, environmentally friendly home in Little Compton, Rhode Island, is surrounded by a drought-tolerant meadow garden of perennial flowers and grasses. The mix of tickseed (Coreopsis sp.) in red-brown and bicolored gold and maroon blooms complements the weathered wood and barn-red color of the home’s exterior.
This meadow garden in Missouri has a similar color palette of rich, earthy tones. The layered planting of yellow-petaled, dark-centered coneflower (Rudbeckia sp.) and red daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) looks particularly stunning backlit.
In another garden, the color palette can be seen in a planting vignette of a single massed species, stunning orange-red sunrose (Helianthemum sp.), against rust and dark gray boulders.
3. Summer in Provence
Color palette: Amethyst, lavender, deep eggplant, gold, lemon
This classic combination of yellow-gold and purple will remind you of fields of fragrant lavender and golden sunflowers in the south of France (or your favorite film set in the region). On the color wheel, yellow-gold and purple are directly opposite from each other, making them perfect complements. In terms of your garden, this means that flowers in yellow, gold, purple and violet will make winning companions.
Color palette: Amethyst, lavender, deep eggplant, gold, lemon
This classic combination of yellow-gold and purple will remind you of fields of fragrant lavender and golden sunflowers in the south of France (or your favorite film set in the region). On the color wheel, yellow-gold and purple are directly opposite from each other, making them perfect complements. In terms of your garden, this means that flowers in yellow, gold, purple and violet will make winning companions.
In this farmhouse garden in Richland, Oregon, the homeowners planted a combination of dark-centered golden sunflowers (Helianthus sp.), low-growing petunias in both deep violet and pale lavender, pale pastel hollyhocks and other flowers. At twilight, the luminous colors of the blossoms practically glow against the backdrop of rolling hills.
In a different location in the meadow garden in Missouri featured earlier in this article, the designer paired native purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea) with ‘Goldsturm’ coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’) to create a beautiful vignette of complementary hues.
This drought-tolerant planting of two Mediterranean natives presents another example of a classic pairing of yellow and blue-violet. The yellow-flowering Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) forms a mound below purple flower spikes of pride of Madeira (Echium candicans), a favorite of bees and hummingbirds.