Photo by spotu

You wake up one sunny Saturday morning and you know that today is planting day. With visions of bursting blossoms in your head, you head down to your local nursery to pick out some plants for your flower border. It seems simple enough until you’re standing in front of 50 flats loaded with flowers in every color under the sun.

Photo by Christina

How do you decide which plants to choose? What colors work best together? Try using a color wheel. This wheel makes it easy to figure out flower color combinations that attract you before you ever pull out your wallet. How are colors placed on a color wheel and how do they work together? Well, here’s the painless, short version:

• Primary Colors: The wheel starts with the three primary colors; red, yellow, and blue. These colors are pure in that no other combination of colors can create them, yet every other color under the sun comes from some combination of these three.
• Secondary Colors: The colors green, orange, and purple are created my mixing combinations of the primary colors. Blue + yellow = green; red + yellow = orange; red+ blue = purple.
• Tertiary Colors: These colors are labeled with a hyphenated name because they’re created by mixing a primary color with a secondary color. Hence, yellow-orange; red-purple; blue-green; yellow-green; red-orange; blue-purple.

Colors that are opposite each other on the wheel are called complimentary colors. A good example is the Christmas colors – green and red. Orange would be the complimentary color to blue. Complimentary colors stand out by making each other brighter.

Photo by wwarby

Monochromatic colors are the same basic color but in different tones or shades. This works especially well in formal garden designs (classic) such as using white on whites. Often this garden will have not only white flowers such as peony and aquilegias, but silver leaves like Lamb’s ears incorporated, as well.

The colors that lie next to each other on the wheel are called analogous. When closely related colors are used together they create a harmonious, bright and cheerful effect in the garden. Flower color and their effect will be determined by what catches your eye naturally (personal preference), the style of your garden, as well as the color of your home.