Opposites attract in nature’s colour scheme
Long a companion for artists, the colour wheel can also be a handy tool for gardeners.
Gardening author Sydney Eddison developed a wheel that has 252 colours instead of the usual 12. That’s because nature doesn’t work with a limited palette, she says.
“In nature you have already been dealt this hand. You only have to learn how to play it,” she says.
Even all of the tints, shades and tones in Eddison’s The Gardener’s Color Wheel don’t capture the diversity of what’s really growing out there. But she says it’s a good way to start seeing colours in the garden and how they relate to each other.
“The colour wheel trains your eye to look, to really look,” says Eddison, author of six books including The Gardener’s Palette (McGraw-Hill). “You begin to understand why certain things work, or why you like a Christmas wreath that’s red and green and why you’re happy to see purple and yellow crocuses together.”
In both examples, the two colours are complementary — opposite each other on the colour wheel. And in colour theory, opposites attract.
In garden planning, colours are used to create either contrast or harmony, says Eddison, who has tended a hectare in Newtown, Conn., for half a century.
“Contrast calls attention to itself. It gives a jolt,” says Eddison, 81. “Whereas harmony is a sigh of relief.”
Colours adjacent on the colour wheel, such as the warm shades of red and orange or the cool tones of blue and green, create harmony together.
Take a colour wheel into the yard to parse out particular colours. Take it to the garden centre to help pick out plants for the summer. Then play in the soil.
Eddison recommends experimenting with colour in pots on the terrace.
“Don’t force a colour theme on the garden,” she warns. “It has different colours at different times of the year.”
Colour also changes throughout the day, depending on the light.
Look to fabrics or famous artwork for colour inspiration, she suggests. Or simply trust nature, which turns out complementary colour combinations all its own, says Betina Fink, an oil painter who teaches colour theory in Tucson, Ariz.
When planning a garden, remember that cool colours, such as blues and violets, recede, says Fink. Warm colours — reds, oranges and yellows — want to take centre stage. Green — nature’s most abundant colour in many places — is “the great peacemaker,” says Eddison.