How to Bring Some Color Play Into the Garden

In a garden, all five senses are engaged, but the visual — particularly the sight of color — is especially powerful.

How we use color catches the eye, making us stop, linger, and want to see more — all the things a garden should do. Color plays in the garden’s light and shadows, and it creates dimension and substance, much like adding lights and darks to a painting. In planting, the gardener becomes an artist, using greenery and garden décor as their palette. Here’s what you can do to make your garden pop.

Natural Light

The sun can be intense, washing out garden colors. Areas with concrete or light-hued surfaces need rich colors and bold foliage along the edges. Daring color and texture will grab the eye in bright sunlight. Plants that stand out include perennials like Echinacea “Magnus” or “Moonshine” yarrow (Achillea), Lavandula “Hidcote,” Euphorbia, and Salvia “May Night.” Colorful foliage — such as Berberis “Royal Cloak,” Calluna “Firefly,” purple smokebush (Cotinus), Lonicera “Lemon Beauty,” Physocarpus (ninebark) “Diablo” or “Petite Plum,” and Weigela “Wine and Roses” — adds impact.

In dark, shaded corners, look for light from variegated and chartreuse leaves: Aucuba “Picturata,” Fatsia “Camouflage,” Acorus “Ogon,” Brunnera m. “Jack Frost,” Saxifraga “London’s Pride,” Hosta, and Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra).

Pottery

Pottery adds color year-round. It doesn’t need deadheading and it doesn’t fade. Don’t limit container gardens to patios and decks — place them in planting beds, unexpected corners, viewpoints, or at the end of pathways. Use pottery like a piece of art, planted or not.

Painted Structures

Copy nature’s rich colors when painting benches, doors, and structures. Take a leaf or flower to the paint store for color matching if needed. Think beyond greens and browns — use bold hues found in nature. These colors help the garden stand out, especially when perennials and shrubs are out of bloom.

Home and Garden Connection

When linking the house to the garden, consider how color makes that connection. It can define a style or create a mood.

• Tuscan: Sun-washed earth tones — terracotta, honey colors, and gravel patios.

• Seaside: Drifting, waves of pale blue, light greens, beige, cottage white, in calming hues.

• Retro: Remember those appliance and shag carpet colors; avocado green, harvest gold, burnt orange — all reminiscent of the beautiful colors of a fall garden.

• English Garden: Periwinkle, pink, purple, the cobalt blue of Hydrangeas, and all shades of green.

• Pacific Northwest: Mossy greens, lichen grays, and burgundy fading into earth tones.

• French Country: French blue, yellow, and red geraniums spilling from pottery and window boxes.

• Mountain retreat: Natural woody browns with muted reds and greens.

• Asian: White, black, and red. Consider the simplicity of redblooming azaleas, defined by dwarf conifers and stone accents.

Foliage

Foliage can burst out of a border or create a mood and last longer than flowers. The variety is endless: coral bells (Heuchera), Choisya t. “Sundance,” Phormium “Maori Sunrise,” Yucca “Color Guard,” Fuchsia magellanica “Firecracker,” hostas, Vancouver Centennial fancy-leaf geranium (Pelargonium), Euonymus “Blondy,” Sambucus nigra “Black Lace” and “Sutherland Gold,” and black mondo grass (Ophiopogon p. “Nigrescens”). Choose foliage for color without a single flower in sight.

Changing Colors

Plants that change color with the seasons or new growth add another layer of interest.

• Luminous: Ginkgo biloba, coral bark maple (Acer “Sango-kaku”), yellow twig dogwood (Cornus sericea).

• Flaming: Burning bush (Euonymus a.), Mariesii’ doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum), “October Sunset” maple (Acer), sweetgum (Liquidambar s.), sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum).

• New Growth: Photinia, Pieris japonica, Nandina domestica

Edibles

Sometimes it’s the unexpected that delights, so why not add color to your vegetable plot? Try Royal Burgundy beans, Bright Lights Swiss chard, purple carrots, blue potatoes, lemon cucumbers, Lumina pumpkins (white outside, orange inside), “Red Sails” lettuce, and “Red Acre” cabbage.

Flowers

Flowers are the classic way to add color to a garden, but their effect can be fleeting. Make it work by thinking in terms of impact: repeated waves of one color; making bold statements. Don’t skimp. Imagine the bulb fields of the Skagit Valley: one daffodil or tulip doesn’t take your breath away, but sweeping rows of color do. In the garden, plant bulbs in masses — if you aren’t willing to plant 50 to 100 in one area, the effect won’t be the same. The same planting theory applies to perennials. Think of the lavender haze in July over the fields in Sequim, Washington. It’s the large color groupings that truly catch the eye.

Take a walk through your garden this season and consider where you can intentionally introduce color. Be brave, experiment, observe, and let the garden guide you. Notice how light shifts throughout the day and how it transforms color. Photograph your garden in every season, noting what shines and what fades into the background. Over time, these observations will guide you in creating a garden rich with color, depth, and lasting impact.

SUE GOETZ is a Pacific Northwest garden designer, speaker, and author. Learn more about her at her website.