Creating Garden Colour
Whether you prefer calming blues, energising yellows or hot reds, you can change your mood in minutes by planting colour in the garden. Here a colour therapist offers a guide to plant shades to put you in a good mood.
Ever wondered how colour in your garden can affect your mood?
You might be greeted by a sea of calming mauve lavender and lilac delphiniums, mixed with cream roses against a soft green foliage background. Alternatively, a palette of rich oranges, sizzling yellows and fiery reds – typically in plants including wallflowers, red hot pokers, sunflowers, rudbeckia and helenium – may boost your energy levels.
“Colour is an instant mood-booster,” says colour therapist Momtaz Begum-Hossain, author of Hello Rainbow: Finding Happiness In Colour.
“It can lift our spirits, guide decision-making, communicate with our emotions, and inspire our creativity, but it doesn’t always get used to its full potential. By welcoming colour into different aspects of your life – including your home and garden – you’ll experience its full sensory benefits .
“Colours in nature are particularly beneficial to us, because flowers, plants, and vegetables are natural colours of the earth, so they have the most powerful effect.”
WHAT COLOUR MIGHT SUIT YOU?
For those with busy lives…
“The colours we are naturally drawn to often reflect our lifestyle, and the colours we choose to feature in our gardens and houseplants are an extension of this. If you have a demanding job with long hours that heighten your stress levels, turning to calming colours like soft blue cornflowers, soothing lavenders and purple thistles can provide great comfort,” Begum- Hossain suggests.
For those who need motivation… “If your daily routine leaves you feeling tired but you need help with motivation to keep going, then the energising reds of roses, giant poppies and fuchsias will give you an uplifting boost,” she says.
For those in need of a creative recharge…
“If you’re keen to recharge your creativity, then orange flowers will encourage new thoughts and ideas: turn to gerberas, ranunculus and anthuriums.”
Neutral or bright?
“Neutral colours include soft pastels, and plumes of small flowers with a wispiness that blends into the background. These colours promote quietness and tranquillity, and will instantly calm your mind.
“Brights radiate high energy. They command attention and could include large tropical flowers, or smaller pops of colour in balls, globes and bells. Bright colours are uplifting, joy-inducing and will lift your spirits whenever you feel a little down.”
Mix and match
“Palettes should also harmonise,” she advises.
“Not all areas of a garden or green space need to have the same colours. You can design multiple colour palettes within one space, starting with a base colour, one that you feel very drawn to, and use that to create block colour pairings.
“If blue is your base colour, you could have an area that comprises blues with purples, which become a peacock palette, and then in a different area, team blue flowers with pink petals.
“Alternatively, choose red as your base and create areas of red and white, red and yellow, and red and orange. The white area will promote peacefulness, the yellow will be uplifting and the orange will open up your creativity.”
Learn how to appreciate colours
Being conscious of the colours you introduce into your garden or your houseplants will give you a more fulfilling way to experience them, adds Begum-Hossain.
“If you’re surrounded by yellow flowers, they will encourage a natural boost of uplifting, positive energy.
Having more foliage, on the other hand, will give you a higher dose of green energy, which will promote balance and harmony.”
Mirror your home style
“The plant colours you choose will have an impact on the overall theme and design of your space. For example, if you have a Moroccan-themed garden, bold, bright blooms will be more meaningful to that outdoor space than having soft pastel petals.
“If your interiors are minimalist and functional, you may prefer to have small plants in specific areas, rather than clutter a window with a row of hanging pots. Once you’ve made a conscious decision about the ‘theme’ you can start to explore colour palettes.”
Be conscious of seasonality
Over the course of a year, try enjoying and observing the colours that are being championed by nature, she suggests. “In the springtime, let the bright yellow of daffodils and vivid reds and purples of tulips encourage a sense of your own renewal.
“In the summer, if you’re lucky enough to have wild bluebells in your garden, or can grow pots of lavender, immerse yourself in their healing purple tones.
“In the autumn, feel uplifted by an orange variety of sunflowers, and in winter, look forward to the cosy presence of red berries in holly bushes and the scarlet petals of poinsettias, which are the ultimate winter houseplant.”
Get creative with your displays
An easy way to introduce colour into a garden is not just in the plants themselves, but also in how you style them, she advises.
An ordinary terracotta pot can be transformed by hanging it in a macramé holder, or swap the expected for the unexpected, by planting in decorative containers like empty olive oil canisters indoors. Outside, use painted old car tyres in a garden to separate different plants from each other, she suggests. Other decorative elements to complement plants include lights, screens, windchimes, and ornaments.