All the same colours or a Chuck it all together …

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

I have two big flower beds being dug this year. So looking around and reading and watching videos of what I should plant.

seen videos where people will only plant say white, pink and purple together. And others that are Chuck everything in together and enjoy the colour.

I seem to be the Chuck it all in together colour wise person. The only thing I really take into account is the height. And not sure I want my garden to be that curated in terms of strict colours.

I was just wandering what others did.

I'm also a fan of chucking it all in. If I like it then I plant it. I love looking at all these well curated gardens but it's not something I would want for myself

Chuck it all together. Nature is and should be free, leave the uniformity to stately homes.

the more colours the better

I choose things that will flourish in that site, taking into account the type of soil and the amount and direction of light. Usually these plants will have a basic harmony , as they have evolved or been selected and bred to thrive in a particular environment. So a hot dry site will encourage herbs, cistus , buddleja , silvery leaved plants like artemisia and artichoke, blue grasses…then you might add annuals or perennials in that silver, white, pink blue colour range.

I have a vague colour plan of mainly white, blue, purple and pink in spring/early summer, with hotter colours coming in later in the season.

But it's not strict at all - I have a brilliant red poppy in early summer which I love, an orange geum, and lots of orange and red tulips in pots in April.

I also love the look of a curated garden, but I love too many flowers to stick to just a few!

I grow plants that I like or that I’m interested in. Planting to a colour scheme would mean I missed out on plants I like.

I had a friend who modelled her garden on the White Garden at Sissinghurst. That was all very well … but Sissinghurst had lots of other gardens that weren’t white

I’m in the like it and hope it will grow camp generally. Sometimes I see combinations I love (silver-green foliage and pale pink for example) and try to recreate them but then DH will want to plant something bright orange next to them. It is his garden too so I just go along with it. He loves bright clashing colours so it’s never going to to be subtle or curated.

Yes @MereDintofPandiculation if I had a garden the size of Sissinghurst I would absolutely have a white garden, they're so beautiful. Something like Monty's writing garden - bliss. But I would also have a cottage garden, and a gravel garden, and a woodland garden, and a dahlia patch, and a pond and damp garden, and a kitchen garden... 😁

It’s good to know other people just Chuck it in and see what happens.

I’ve got some rules - no bright red, orange or yellow. It’s a very small garden and very visible from the house so needs to hang together a bit.

Although daffs are exempt as they come out before everything else. And so is DD’s prized red geranium. I’m not a monster 😆

I dug a large deep bed a few years ago and only planted it with white and silver leafed plants. It was the most miserable thing to look at. So yes I'm chuck it all in now.

I only plant white, pink, purple and blue flowering plants (if they flower). I find those colours calming, and that was why I got into gardening in my mid 40s. For me, there is more than enough of a variety of plants within that. But I also make an exemption for daffodils 😊

I'm exactly the same in the back garden. I stick to white, green, pink and blue as I find it looks more cohesive and it makes me feel more peaceful sat relaxing in the garden.

The front garden is the opposite, yellow daffodils, orange tulips and red crocosmia to brighten the street up a bit. It makes me smile every time I come home!

I think the seasons have different colours, perhaps a response to light levels. Spring is definitely yellow, daffodils, primroses, Hamamelis, Cornus mas. Then a brief blue season with bluebells before settling into the pinks of summer. In the countryside there’s another blue season, as the wild roses, orchids etc give way to scabious, Campanula and so on. Then in autumn the oranges and reds come into their own, echoing and emphasising the colours of leaves and berries. Calendulas and nasturtiums no longer look crude and garish.

@MereDintofPandiculation that is a wonderful way to look at it.

Depends on size. When i lived in a small victorian terrace with a pretty walled courtyard garden, everything was pinks and whites.

Now i have a massive 2 acre garden and love all the colours together, especially my rose bed which is a riot of colour in the summer.

Like a previous poster I'm not a fan of bright red, yellows or oranges. I really like deep red crimson, deep pinks, light pinks and blue.

I mostly grow vegetables, but even there I add as many colours as possible (you can't imagine my joy at finding that orange cauliflowers are a thing!). In the flower beds, anything that does me the favour of surviving is welcome.