Sometimes you don’t choose a color palette for a foliage design in a garden, it chooses you. It’s common for me to find that I have subconsciously chosen a very harmonious color combination that is spread out all over the landscape and all it’s waiting for is for me to pull it together. Re-arrange a few plants and voila!
I tend to end up with a couple of Go-To color combinations that are very harmonious together in spite of how I might put them together initially. Somehow, they end up working with a bit of digging here, a bit of digging there, add a couple of new plants and there it was all long.
My Go-To colors a few years ago were very French Country in feeling, Lots of golds, pale yellows, blues, lavender, and whites. For some reason, it didn’t matter what nursery I was at, or what home I was helping with design elements, I would consistently fall back to this same color scenario.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a HUGE color pig. I am the United Nations of color choices when I have my druthers. But, this was something deeper, a pull if you will that kept leading me back over and over to this same color scheme until I eventually just gave in to it.
Then the oddest thing happened, once I gave in, I didn’t gravitate toward those colors anymore. I still loved them, but I wasn’t compelled in the same way to keep making the same harmonic choices anymore. Now, it’s a whole new color scheme that has me in its grip.
I’m not quite sure what I’d like to call this monochromatic-inspired color scheme other than “Refreshing”. (If you have ideas, let me know) It’s sophisticated and modern, bright and airy, and texturally alluring all at the same time. All of these except the Asparagus Fern are happy here in my Seattle area Zone 7-8 in Partial to Full Sun and all are pretty easy plants too! Asparagus Fern, I either have to treat as an Annual or pot it up and keep it under cover or inside in the winter. I have been nothing short of thrilled with the Parahebe.
Here is an example of how I used this same color scheme in a part shade area of my front yard a few years back. I KNOW there are flowers in there. Once in a while even we FOLIAGE people love flowers too!
