Rules For Combining Plant Colors In The Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part. ← Lily, rose and rhododendron in your garden

Which style to choose: Chinese feng shui or Russian birches?.

As for the annuals, everything is not so simple here either. The fact is that during seed reproduction, many decorative qualities often change from generation to generation. The size of the flower, and especially the color, values are far from constant.

Somehow I had to be a "guide" for a representative of a large Dutch company that sells flower seeds to many countries of the world. The company has a very high reputation. Do not think that we are talking about some kind of advertising. I was interested in the opinion of a specialist on the arrangement of the urban green landscape. I will not retell in detail his opinion about the quality of the flower decoration of our squares, I think you yourself guess about him. But a small episode of our conversation should be mentioned.

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Walking along the Champ de Mars, I asked the Dutchman if he could name me a variety of marigolds growing in a flower bed. He replied that these marigolds do not belong to any sort at all. Indeed, in order to consolidate varietal characteristics, it is necessary to grow seeds in certain climatic conditions, conduct a careful selection, etc. Therefore, those summer residents who solve their seed problems in their own area, receiving their own seeds, should take this moment into account. True, on the market you can often buy a high-quality color postcard on a bag, and what is inside you can only guess.

It should be noted that prices abroad for quality seeds are formed based on the foreign subsistence minimum. For now, we will plant African marigolds of Russian quality, because in the end, any flower carries the energy of qi.

As for the combination of color of plants, here, first of all, it is necessary to avoid excessive variegation in any style, to arrange flowering plants, especially in the background, as homogeneous and monochromatic groups as possible, as this greatly enhances the pleasant impression and influx qi.

Indeed, a continuous flower bed, made up of, for example, some pelargoniums, petunias, verbena, zinnias, cannes, dahlias, lobelias and others, will always be much more spectacular and beautiful than if we mix all these plants together in one flower bed.

How much the plants benefit from this, especially from a distance, can be seen by imagining a continuous flower bed of some such simple flowers as, for example, pink daisies, Chinese carnations. This is true not only for low, but also for tall flowering plants, such as the stock rose. The well-known stock-rose (before it was called A. chinensis - Chinese marshmallow) in China is considered an indispensable decoration for garden walls. Delphinium (spur), digitalis (foxglove) and others in more distant parts of the garden produce the greater the effect, the more homogeneous their group is.

However, if you plant the whole garden with uniform, and even more so with one-color flowers, then it will acquire a boring, monotonous appearance. Therefore, one should not overuse continuous flower beds and, giving them space, especially in the background, it is necessary to revive the view of the garden with flower beds and flower beds made up of various plants and different colors, observing the rules of feng shui. To achieve this, when planting plants in such flower beds, it is necessary to be guided by the laws of color contrasts and try to arrange them in a harmonious combination of color, avoiding, as much as possible, disharmony. When drawing up a planting plan, you can be guided by a schematic representation of color contrasts (see Fig.).

The colors indicated in opposite parts of the circle (sectors), namely: red and green, orange and blue, yellow and purple, give the strongest and most calm contrast, while each color stands out very strongly.

The same will happen if we compare the opposite colors: red-violet and yellow-green, red-orange and blue-green, yellow-orange and blue-violet. Such opposite colors always give the strongest contrasts and complement each other, which is why they are called contrasting or complementary; their combination is called harmonic, since it, being completely correct, does not hurt the eye, but, on the contrary, soothes it, which is welcomed in feng shui.

Comparison of two colors separated in our circle by only one of its sectors, such as red and blue, red and yellow, orange and purple, orange and green, yellow and blue, etc., as well as derivatives from them, for example, red-orange and blue-violet, is called characteristic. Such a combination is not as pleasing to the eye as a harmonious one, but nevertheless it gives a rather noticeable contrast, and therefore, if necessary, a similar combination can be admitted.

Finally, the juxtaposition of two colors located in our circle very close, such as red and purple, blue and green, will not give a noticeable contrast and will be disharmonious. Such comparisons should be avoided, or similar two colors should be separated by white. It should be borne in mind that white, as well as black, are good only in combination with the colors red, purple, blue and green, while orange and yellow are not combined well.

If you look closely at the colors indicated in the circle, you cannot help but notice that the colors are warm or active, red, orange and yellow - undoubtedly, much brighter and generally more prominent than the cold or passive colors: green, blue and purple, with the most the brightest of the former is orange, and the quietest of the latter is blue. Taking into account these features of flowers, we involuntarily come to the conclusion: in order to obtain a stronger contrast and better stand out the flower bed pattern, it is necessary to choose plants with warm colors when planting its main parts, and for secondary parts - with cold colors.

It is especially important in the flowerbed, of course, to highlight its external outlines well, therefore, for the outer border, you need to take only plants with a warm color of flowers and leaves, that is, red, orange and yellow, as well as white and black, which harmonize well with a green lawn background and stand out well on it. Plants with a color of purple, green and especially blue should, if possible, be avoided in the form of borders.

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When large painted surfaces come into contact, the phenomenon of edge chromatic contrast becomes noticeable, when an apparent color change does not extend to the entire surface, but only to its part bordering on another surface.

At the same time, new color tones appear at the contacting edges of surfaces painted in non-complementary colors, which is often the main reason for the impression that a particular combination is inharmonious. The harmony or inharmony of the combination of colors of two touching surfaces depends not only on their difference in color tone, but also on the lightness and purity of these tones.

The combination of two mutually complementary color tones turns out to be quite harmonious if, in terms of lightness, these tones are in the same relationship as it happens in the spectrum. This also happens in cases where achromatic colors (white or black) are mixed with them in equal amounts. So, for example, dark purple is in harmony with olive, reddish brown with dark blue, yellowish brown with dark blue.

Harmony is observed if black is included in the composition of these colors in equal quantities. On the other hand, dark blue (with a touch of black) does not harmonize with pure canary yellow, although blue and yellow are mutually complementary.

For those cases when it is difficult to find an additional color tone to a given color of the painted surface, this method can be recommended. You need to take a brightly lit small circle (3-4 cm in diameter) or a square, painted in this color and placed on a gray background, and stop a motionless gaze on it for 10-15 seconds, then quickly move your gaze to a gray or dim white surface … Then the so-called sequential contrasting image of a circle or square, painted in a color complementary to this color, but less intense, will appear on this surface.

In flower arrangements, the contrasting interactions of color tones of adjoining flower arrays do not appear as sharply as when evenly colored surfaces come into contact.

This is due to the inhomogeneity of the color and texture of the surface of the flower arrays, the play of light and shade, etc. The impression of inharmoniousness of individual combinations is often significantly weakened by the beauty of the plants themselves. Nevertheless, the laws of contrasting interaction of color tones must be reckoned with. It is necessary to achieve such combinations of colors of flower arrays, in which they stand out most and mutually emphasize each other - yin-yang.

These are the basic principles that guided the Russian pre-revolutionary gardeners in the selection of colors. I think that there is no contradiction with the principles of feng shui. It can be assumed that the ancient Chinese sages were familiar with the golden ratio. Now a lot is written about the decomposition of the spectrum of sunlight using the golden ratio, I will not dwell on this in detail.

The term "golden ratio" was introduced by Leonardo da Vinci. German scientist A. Zeising characterizes the golden ratio as "a universal proportion for the perfect creations of nature and works of art." Obviously, there are certain laws of harmony, you can, of course, represent harmony as a series of Fibonacci numbers, but, apparently, the human eye perceives it much more difficult. Although the basis of the perception of colors by our eyes is the principle of the golden ratio. The ability to perceive colors with the eye is associated with the difference in the effect of rays of different wavelengths on the visual apparatus. According to the principles of the golden ratio, it is possible to obtain any color by mixing in various proportions of purple, green and red.

In our visual apparatus, or rather in the cones of the eye, there are three light-sensitive substances, when they interact with the quanta of the luminous flux, we perceive a variety of colors. Next comes the analysis of colors in the cerebral cortex. Thanks to the synthetic activity of the cortical part, we perceive the difference of objects in shape. So in our minds the image of a spruce, a green pine is born, but the shape determines the belonging of the object to the corresponding species.