USING THE COLOUR WHEEL
Designer Andrew Wilson FSGD explains the importance of this tool in planting
CHOOSING A PALETTE The colour wheel provides a reference for organising colour, enabling us to make choices that sing. Central to the wheel are the bold primaries red, yellow and blue. The use of these together in a planting scheme would prove lively but the fun really starts when we mix colours. First look at the secondaries opposite the primaries, then the tertiaries, which lie between the secondaries.
SUCCESSFUL COMBINATIONS If you want to be more experimental in your choices, start by placing a triangle on the colour wheel so that each point sits on a colour. First do the primaries, then move the triangle as if it were a dial – the points will sit on colours that will work together through contrast. These are colour triads. For the tetrads, place a square or rectangle over the wheel in the same way.
THE PROPERTIES OF COLOUR Red is an advancing colour, bold and suggestive of heat and energy in colours such as orange and magenta. Blue is a receding, cooler colour creating depth and space in blue-violet and blue-greens. Yellows are sunny and cheerful. Most are warm and pair well with reds and oranges. Greenish-yellows are cooler and suit delicate combinations. Greens suggest calmness.
CHANGING STYLES Tastes have changed over the last few decades. It used to be about playing safe with softer hues and colour-themed borders. Designers Nori and Sandra Pope experimented with richer tones, creating depth but it was the New Perennial movement that kick-started garden colour and also paved the way for Piet Oudolf to show us how to manipulate colour in contemporary schemes.
“THE TREND NOW IS FOR PLANTING PALETTES THAT ARE DOMINATED BY PERENNIALS, WHICH ARE ALL ABOUT COLOUR”
ANDREW WILSON FSGD, garden designer