Learn to love pink and orange
Sock it to the neighbours with an outrageous clashing border, says Louise Curley. We dare you!
Sock it to the neighbours with an outrageous clashing border. We dare you!
Orange and pink flowers offer the ultimate colour clash. They’re perfect if you long to break free from the tasteful pastels and bland monochromatic schemes that have come to dominate suburbia. Bold colours have the ability to excite and stimulate, but for many of us the strength of these hues is scary. We’re unsure how to use them and worry that they seem a little brash. What will the neighbours think? Frankly, our winters are long enough and grey enough for us to celebrate summer with vibrant colour. Take inspiration from Great Dixter in East Sussex, where the late Christopher Lloyd (1921-2006) played with colour to bold effect. He disregarded the ‘rules’ that governed the tasteful use of colour in favour of a more adventurous approach to planting. In his book Cuttings, a year in the garden (published 2008) he wrote: “Are there colours that we must use together? I think not. Well-handled… any two colours can be pleasingly juxtaposed.” You don’t need to be Christopher Lloyd to have fun with colour and to partner plants that sizzle together. And if you’d rather take a few tentative steps, you can always build your confidence by pairing these colours in container displays first. And how refreshing it is to break free the colour shackles! Our culture is beset with rules surrounding the use of colour – whether it’s the use of the colour wheel to create harmony and contrast, or ancient truisms such as ‘blue and green should never be seen’. We gardeners have even attributed ‘good taste’ to certain colour combinations. Yet in nature there are no such restrictions. Plenty of plants, for instance, feature both orange and pink, sometimes even mingled together on the same petal. It’s a brilliant way to attract pollinators and hungry birds to effect seed dispersal. The bees don’t mind a bit.
Parrots and orchids
Tulips manage to combine these colours perfectly: look for ‘Avignon Parrot’ and ‘Amazing Parrot’. The perennial wallflower erysimum ‘Winter Orchid’ and dahlias ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Waltzing Mathilda’ all feature two-tone orange and pink blooms. Rosa odorata ‘Mutabilis’ has flowers that fade from warm orange to coppery pink so both colours can be present at the same time. One of the most striking examples must be Euonymus europaeus, which has bright red fruits in autumn that open to reveal orange seeds. There’s no better way to shout, ‘Look at me!’
“Are there colours that we must use together? I think not” Christopher Lloyd