Designing with Colour: Vibrant Landscapes with Ozbreed Flowers and Foliage

Are you looking to add some colour to your next garden design? Are you aware of the concept of “colour theory,” and how professionals use it to inspire moods and themes within their gardens?

In this article, we’ll discuss the basic principles of colour theory, and provide a palette of plants with splendid colours which you can use to inspire a calm atmosphere, or to ignite the passions. Whether you’re looking for colour from flowers or foliage, this article was created just for you.

Understanding Colour Theory for Garden Designers

Colour theory is a fundamental aspect of garden design, offering strategies to create visually stunning and emotionally engaging outdoor spaces. By mastering the principles of colour theory, you can craft gardens that not only please the eye but also evoke specific moods and feelings.

The Colour Wheel and Its Application

The colour wheel is the major tool in colour theory, illustrating the relationships between different hues. It helps designers understand how to mix and match colours effectively.

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colours

• Primary Colours: These are the building blocks of all other colours and include red, blue, and yellow. They cannot be created by mixing other colours.
• Secondary Colours: Formed by combining two primary colours, these include green (blue + yellow), orange (red + yellow), and purple (red + blue).
• Tertiary Colours: These result from mixing a primary colour with a secondary colour, offering an expanded palette for designers to explore.

Creating Harmony and Contrast

Understanding how to use colours to create harmony and contrast is vital in garden design.

Harmony Through Analogous Colours

Harmony is achieved by using analogous colours, which sit next to each other on the colour wheel. For example, combining shades of blue, blue-green, and green can result in a serene and unified garden atmosphere.

Contrast with Complementary Colours

Contrast is created by pairing complementary colours, which are opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as yellow and purple. This technique is excellent for adding vibrancy and drawing attention to specific garden areas.

Eclectically Eccentric

Rules were made to be broken. The colour wheel can inform our design choices, but at the end of the day we have all been blessed with a creative mind; as long as you’re having fun and the client’s happy, you’re on the right track. Feel free to mix and match colours to create your own vibes.

Psychological Effects of Colours

Colours have the power to influence mood and perception, making their psychological impact a key consideration in garden design.

Warm Colours

Warm colours such as red, orange, and yellow evoke feelings of warmth and excitement, making a space feel welcoming and lively. They are ideal for entrances and areas where you want to create energy and invitation.

Cool Colours

Cool colours, usually dominated by blue tones, are associated with calmness and tranquillity. They are perfect for creating peaceful retreats within a garden, providing a soothing backdrop. Shades of purple and green lean toward cool or warm, depending on the dominance of red or blue tones.

The Significance of White Flowers in Garden Design

White flowers are often associated with purity, peace, and innocence. They can convey a sense of tranquillity and serenity, or simplicity and minimalism.

White’s neutral quality allows it to stand out against darker foliage and more vibrant blooms, sometimes creating striking contrasts. This can be particularly effective in allowing brighter colours to draw attention to certain areas of the garden or providing visual relief amidst more colourful displays.

White flowers can also be used to harmonise different elements within a garden. Their simplicity allows them to blend seamlessly with other colours, softening transitions and unifying diverse plantings. Their capacity to reflect light means they can brighten shaded areas, adding dimension and depth to a garden’s overall look.

Highlighting Garden Features

Using colour strategically can highlight specific features within a garden.

Tips for Highlighting Features

To make plants or architectural elements stand out, consider using bold, contrasting colours. A vivid red sculpture against a green hedge, for instance, can create a striking focal point.

Use Restraint

If every plant screams for your attention, none of them will stand out. Not every plant can be a Brad Pitt; you need a few background actors to draw attention to the stars.

With that being said, I’ve never been very good at following this rule myself. My own garden is just full of all of my favourite plants which don’t necessarily follow the theory frameworks presented here, but it’s my own garden so the client is always happy.

Seasonal Considerations

Designers should consider how the colours interplay between the seasons. Most plants flower most abundantly in spring and summer, but you can get plenty of colour in autumn with flowers and, in some climates, autumnal leaves.

Are you going to embrace the stark impact of a bare winter garden, or are you going to plant specimens that continue to provide colour through the cooler months, like many flowering grevilleas and correas?

Evergreens with colourful foliage such as nandinas can provide interest without resorting to flowers. Tufted grasses often dry out over winter, providing beautiful coppery tones that many gardeners completely overlook.

Practical Advice for Incorporating Colour Theory

To effectively incorporate colour theory into garden design:

1. Experiment with Colour Combinations: Use the colour wheel to explore different combinations and see how they affect the garden’s mood. Don’t be afraid to get crazy; as long as you (and your clients) enjoy the way it looks, that’s all that matters.
2. Observe Seasonal Changes: Pay attention to how colours appear in different lighting conditions and seasons. Embrace the seasonal change; it’s an opportunity to design a completely four completely different gardens each year, in the exact same location.
3. Consider the Emotional Impact: Think about the mood you wish to evoke in each garden area and choose colours accordingly. For lively outdoor dining areas, consider igniting the passions with warm colours. In a quiet reading nook, consider blue and white tones to calm the mind.
4. Balance and Proportion: Ensure a balanced colour scheme by considering the proportion of each colour within the garden. That doesn’t mean that you need equal amounts of each colour, it just means to consider how the colours interplay with each other. 

Vibrant, Colourful Plant Palette

The following list classifies a number of plant genera into warm, cool, and white colours. These colours can come from their foliage or their flowers.

You may notice that some plants appear in more than one list. That’s because some genera contain species and varieties that have differing floral colours.

Other plants, such as certain Eremophila spp. may have cool, blue-toned foliage, and warm yellow flowers, meaning they tick both warm and cool boxes. Nandinas can completely change their foliage from a cool purple to a warm red from one season to the other, and have subtle white flowers, so they’re on the warm, cool and white-flowering lists.

There’s also a list for specific cultivars that have variegated foliage, which are most commonly cream or yellow-toned speckled into the original leaf colour. Most plants have green foliage, so for this next section, we’re going to ignore green tones altogether.

Warm Colours

• Callistemon
• Scaevola
• Carpobrotus
• Eremophila
• Grevillea
• Correa 
• Anigozanthos
• Pennistemum
• Tristaniopsis
• Gazania
• Dianthus
• Salvia
• Plectranthus
• Dianella (foliage)
• Dietes
• Lomandra 
• Phormium (foliage)
• Nandina (foliage)
• Alternanthera (foliage)
• Rhaphiolepis
• Aloe
• Mandevilla
• Loropetalum (foliage)
• Metrosideros
• Photinia (foliage)
• Azaleas & Rhododendrons

Cool Colours

• Westringia
• Hardenbergia
• Rhagodia (foliage)
• Eremophila (foliage)
• Liriope
• Dianella
• Poa (foliage)
• Dietes
• Dianthus (foliage)
• Nandina (foliage)
• Agapanthus
• Azaleas & Rhododendrons

White Flowers

• Syzygium
• Waterhousea & Acmena
• Westringia
• Pandorea
• Callistemon
• Myoporum
• Pennisetum
• Dietes
• Agapanthus
• Vibrunum
• Rhaphiolepis
• Nandina
• Trachelospermum
• Photinia
• Murraya
• Azaleas & Rhododendrons

Variegated Foliage

• Wyeena® Dianella tasmanica‘TAS300’
• Great White™ Lomandra longifolia‘MURU’ PBR.
• Chocomint Mist™ Phormium tenax‘PHOS4’ PBR.
• Banana Split™ Dietes grandiflora‘DI3’
• Pink Pearl™ Liriope muscari‘VS001’
• Lucky Stripe™ Lomandra hystrix ‘LMV200’
• Goldie Box™ Westringia Fruticosa ‘WES11’ PBR

Daniel’s Wrap

By integrating these principles, upcoming garden designers can create vibrant, harmonious, and emotionally engaging outdoor spaces. Colour theory is not just a tool for aesthetic appeal; it’s a means to transform gardens into living art that resonates with those who experience them.

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