Adding Color to the Perennial Border

For years I was working with a very limited palette for the flower garden that wraps around the house: all white, with a few touches of red in spots. This was very elegant, but now that we’ve begun painting the house yellow, I’ve found myself leaning toward orange and blue plants. I love the yellow-orange-blue color combination, and we were really happy with how our swath of orange tulips worked with the new paint color this spring.

As is always the case with a flower garden, plants don’t live for ever. This year when I went shopping to fill in some holes, I reached for some more colorful plants to mix in with those white ones. They’re not all blooming right now, but here are a few that have opened for a sneak peak of next year’s color palette:

These apricot blanket flowers actually have orange centers, but it’s hard to tell in this picture. That makes them blend well with the little orange petunias I have sprinkled along the very front of the border:

Since I have officially given up on growing hydrangeas, I went with some blue delphiniums instead. these are a powder blue, but ext year I plan to mix in some dark blue ones as well:

Near the front door you can get a sense of how these colors work together:

The white daisies and silvery lamb’s ears have been going strong for years, but now they have some blue cornflowers and orange petunias for contrast. 

It’s always weird when you transplant new plants, because they don’t bloom at time they normally would, thanks to artificial nursery temperatures. It will be interesting to see when things bloom and how they look as part of the big picture next year. For now, investing in new plants during such a rainy spring has been a lucky move, even if the established ones are a little leggy. 

There should be more photos to post as the season progresses!