Designing with Color

In Color Theory, we learned a little bit about how light and color works, and learned some basic terminology to help us talk about color. Color wheels can help with identifying primary and secondary colors, and understanding how colors relate. Now I’d like to use Penelope Hobhouse’s book, Color in Your Garden, to list some of her observations about how to use color in the garden.

• Colors are not seen in isolation – each is perceived in relation to neighboring colors.
• Colors change constantly in the garden. Color is effected by light and shade, viewing distance (close and far), and weather and environmental factors. Surface texture can make colors appear dark and bold to light and matt.
• Bright sunlight appears yellow, so in midday sun red and orange flowers may appear dull. In a temperate climate with overcast skies, muted greens may appear to glow and white flowers shine, while bright colors look garish.
• The eye sees color before shape, and sees red, yellow, blue and green most distinctly. The eye’s natural focus coincides best with green or greenish yellow in sunlight, making green feel restful.
• Red (the longest wavelength) requires you to refocus your lens, as does blue and violet (the shortest wavelength). Red objects appear to advance to foreshorten distance, and blue and violet objects seem to recede into the distance.

Designing with color (color wheel painted by Jason Quisenberry)

• Distant colors in the garden tend to fade due to the atmosphere’s scattering of light. Bright red and orange objects in the foreground tend to retain their defined form, even when you move away from them, while dark toned blues and violets blend and blur as you move away from them.
• The eye registers hue and decodes color by its properties including lightness and darkness, dullness and brightness. The eye exaggerates differences between adjacent colors, and is influenced by emotion, personal and cultural bias.
• The eye is subject to several optical phenomena. (1) Successive contrast – stare at a vivid color, then at a white paper. The after-image is the color's opposite on the color wheel (for example, the after-image of blue is orange). (2) Simultaneous contrast – two colors side by side are simultaneously affected by the after-image of the other, and each color appears tinged (for example, juxtaposed blue and yellow objects may appear to have a tinge of  violet).
• Colors retain their truest colors next to white. Gray reflects all light rays but less strongly than white. Gray foliage appears lighter or darker as neighboring colors become darker or lighter, while gray leaves accentuate the purity and brightness of adjacent flowers. Next to gray, pure hues glow vividly, while pale pastel tints brighten. Gray leaves become tinged with the haze of nearby complementary colors.

This is just a summary of some of Hobhouse’s observations, and not hard and fast rules. Color preference is very subjective and personal (part of what Hobhouse calls “the mystery of color”). But being aware of these observations and ideas can help the gardener design with color, in a similar way that the artist designs a work of art.