delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:06

Thank you, karin! I was looking at prairiemoon's photo, thinking it was photoshopped, but something else was really, really bugging me. Besides the summer flowers with the wintery mountains.
Then I read your post. Of course! Mt. Moran! lol & forehead smack. Last week I was hiking around Leigh and Jenny Lakes taking photos of Mt. Moran. Nope, didn't see any huge flower beds there. And not that much snow on the mountain.

frenzy, I love the combo. It's a great, bold planting. I don't think a pastel pink would work at all with the bright orange, but this pink is perect.

Thanks for the compliments. I like bold colors together, but I realize some don't.

Prairiemoon-I love the photo, photoshopped or not. I like all the bright colors. Plus, it shows tons of bearded irises which are my all-time favorite flower.

OMG Gyr, I was also there last week. I hiked partway around Jenny Lake on Monday. Perhaps we passed each other? How funny is that!

Karin & GreatPlains, I guess I am pretty gullible, (g) now that you mention it, it had to have been photoshopped. And I do agree with you both, that a meadow of native plants would really look much better there, I guess I still would find that display of flower power fun in another setting and something you rarely see. Not that I would ever plant that garden, if I could, for many reasons but also because most of those plants that bloom together are over pretty quickly and then what? Nothing. A lot of deadheading.

The point of the photo though, was as an example of so many different colors and shades of colors together and I donâÂÂt really notice a clash. Which I thought might go along with what GreatPlains was saying, that some times adding another plant or color changes the effect of colors that might clash on their own. It sort of reminds me of Monet's garden and how much over the top plantings on a large scale he used.

flower-frenzy, see I like your orange and pink saturated colors much better than the pastel pink and apricot color of my pot. ThatâÂÂs a pretty marigold too, reminds me of Queen Sophia. I love bearded Iris too.

GreatPlains, IâÂÂm sure you are right about my pot. I thought the variegated leaves at least brought some interest. And I sometimes like a pot of just an overflowing single plant, too, which might seem boring to most people.

The plant combination that most sets my teeth on edge here is at the street end of the driveway border - a clump of âÂÂAlma Potschkeâ asters with a purple aster (name unknown - I suspect its's a wild one since I have no record or recall of planting it there!) DH loves the combination so I live with it.... :-)

From early September 2012:
{{gwi:248591}}

I don't have any real close-ups of the combination (not really one I want to take pictures of!) but you can see the two colors and that they are both healthy, dense plants in this view:

{{gwi:173344}}

The purple one seeds around like mad! One popped up in the middle of my dwarf Korean lilac a few years ago and I've left it there because it makes the lilac look like it's blooming in the fall! Short lilac;tall aster:
{{gwi:25883}}

On the subject of purple and orange combinations - there's one I like in the garden that is really the neighbour's combination. I leave one small clump of orange 'ditch daylilies' that crept under the fence - because I like how it goes with their purple Jackmani clematis that spills over the fence above it! Note that the clematis color is what I consider to be purple - not the colors called purple that look pink to me :-)
{{gwi:153903}}

This 'Paprika rose' with culinary sage flowers is sort of a lighter version of the same basic combination. The Paprika flowers open a stronger orangy color but fade with age. The rose is in my 'hot' area that shades from pink trough peach to orange and rusy reds.

{{gwi:248592}}

I like to play with colors but do have strong likes and dislikes. There is very little yellow in the garden for instance - in large part because there is a very large chunk of yellow in the garden - the house! So any yellow has to work with that, and it's not easy to find one that does.

Thanks to everyone who posted photos (though I do understand how one might not have photos of combos that one finds awful that are not currently blooming.) I find that when discussing color a photo works so much better than a verbal description. I've been out of town, but I'll see if I can get some photos in the next few days.

I assumed the mountain photo and all that was enhanced or photo shopped or whatever. I guess my comment about liking it was directed at the color combos since that seems to be the topic of discussion. IMO, they still all work in that photo. Could I ever recreate that or would I want to try - no.

flower-frenzy - Yes, I love that too.

Another thing I've noticed about myself is I really get into more off-beat color combos in spring and fall. I was browsing some fall catalogs this week and coming up with some really wonderful tulip combinations with colors I normally wouldn't try during the summer months. In fact, it was difficult for me to come up with combos I didn't like. Same goes for fall, I just seem to crave all the color I can get in any combo I can get. I would assume it has something to do with being color starved by spring and anticipating the color deprivation when winter finally arrives. I love beds totally devoted to mums in every color - all randomly mixed. I works for me.

Kevin

woodyoak, I like both of your orange/purple combos. I think it's fascinating that one is basically a tint of the other combo.

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:08

Greatplains-you had me laughing out loud. It's a tie for me between the Mountain meets Tropical theme and the McDonald's theme. Why???? is right. Maybe the hamburglar lives there. ;)

My neighbor down the road has some kind of palm tree planted in their front yard. The problem is that I've yet to see a truly tropical plant look good here as it's just too cold in the winter. Her tree is droopy and dead one one side, but still she keeps it because it "goes" with the cannas planted in a circle around it. To top off the tropical theme, she has one lone pot (complete with 80's floral themed stencils) of crocosmia 'Lucifer' in the front surrounded by 3 small potted begonias. They are peach.

My neighbor accross the street takes the cake, though. Her grass is dead, except for the weeds sticking up out of it. Then, she has two shrubs in front of her house that are each bare on one side. To top it all off, she decided to "plant" her driveway by lining it with marigolds planted in styrofoam cups. It's awesome. Lol.

This post was edited by flower-frenzy on Thu, Aug 1, 13 at 1:22

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:07

Reading about these rather odd (and horrible) neighbor's gardens is making me shake with laughter.

The first house I bought had plastic flowers stuck into the dirt. Talk about a low maintenance planting!

In my current neighborhood, someone has one of those tallish thin shrubs. On either side are two much smaller shrubs, clipped into round shapes, The overall effect is exceptionally phallic to say the least.

Oh my! I have tears in my eyes from the vivid descriptions! Plus, I feel much better about my gladiolus crashing the BBQ. :). ALL the plants in that section are coming out the fall. I am done struggling with my compacted clay soil and we are putting in a retaining wall and bringing in tons of top soil, re shaping and expanding the garden in the process of course. I get giddy thinking about it.

trove, that sounds excellent. And more garden area to play in - never a bad thing!

Great Plains-that cactus garden sounds truly ugly. I usually try to respect other people's landscaping choices, but I might have to picket if I lived next to that house.

A2Z-wow, phallic is right. They've probably never went outside and took a good hard look. Then again, maybe it's on purpose. You never know with people these days!

Frenzy, I'm not going to repeat what my husband and I privately call that group of bushes, but use your imagination. **g**

Well count me in as another who isn't feelin' the orange/pink combo.

I planted a 'Tie Dye' Helenium in back of my 'Becky Towe' Phlox this spring, because I really wanted a Helenium (one of my fav plants) in this bed. All I can say is "EWWW!". It might have worked if Tie Dye had ACTUALLY had "purple-pink shades" like was touted, but alas it does not!
CMK

Oh my, Karin, what are the odds of that? We were there on Monday! Most of our hiking was along Leigh Lake followed by a loop of String Lake. We only did a short section near Jenny Lake later. Beautiful area. I'd love to return during late spring or fall sometime.

christin, I'd never heard of 'Tie Dye' so I decided to look it up on the web. Here's what one catalog says:

New variety with rolled up petals described as yellow and purple-pink by the breeder - ignore this they're yellow and orangey-red but still very nice

So yeah, with that particluar pink you've got, for me that clashes badly. Love the rose campion with Becky. A big stand would look great.

I tried skimming through the posts again, but still could not find the no orange with purple entry(s). Personally, I love that combination! It works with foliage, too. Such as orange flowers with my Agonis 'After Dark'.

Bright pink and orange are tougher for me to embrace, but if one of the flowers were smaller and airy...I could see it. Part of the problem could be my reaction to pelagoniums in general. But that is a whole 'nother thread topic.

That Becky Tower Phlox is so pretty CMK! The Nora Leigh I had, was white blossoms with a pink, eye, that did not stand out that well, that one sure does.

I read the posts on the neighborhood gardens last night and had a good laugh. I'm not sure which one was the most surprising... the tall tree stumps with cactus growing out of them, the long row of shrubs of different varieties all equal distance apart and pruned into squares, or the red and yellow annuals in place of a lawn. I must live in a very boring area, because I can't even think of anyone's front yard that competes with that...lol.

Woody, your asters are so large! I always trim mine back by half before they set buds so they will bloom later for me, and I missed one this year that was in the middle of a bed and I cant' believe how tall it is. Is it the color combo you dislike? It's hard to tell from the photo, is it pink and purple? I love your Lilac blooming in the fall. Maybe you'll start a new fad. (g)

Thanks Doug and PM2 ;-)

I really love orange and purples/blues together! I know posting a "like" combo is off topic to this thread but...

Here is an orangey Salpiglossis with 'Freelander Blue' Prunella. Some Carex buchananii hair made its way into the shot as well, lol.
CMK

PM2 - I cut my asters back several times until early July when I leave them alone to set flower buds. I don't cut back the one in the lilac to let it grow tall. Yes, what I don't like is the pink and purple combination - with the right pink and the right purple it would work, but the strong pink of Alma is just at odds with that purple! Interestingly, although the purple seeds around a lot, if I was going to get rid of one of them, it'd be the Alma. The Monarch butterflies LOVE the purple one but barely visit Alma at all.

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:09

-GreatPlains, I just so happen to like loud checkered shirts lying on top of delicate floral print quilts.
CMK

Woody, that is surprising that you cut yours back, they are so BIGâ¦! It doesnâÂÂt surprise me the butterflies prefer the purple one, didnâÂÂt you say it is a wild one that just showed up?

Well, I think not a lot of people have photos of ugly color combinations. Either everyone is great at putting color together in their gardens, or they play it safe like me, or they donâÂÂt take photos of them, like me too. Maybe I should be trying to get a little more wild in my color choices. (g)

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:11

Christin, I love those two plants together, Heavenly!

What a great thread! Just wanted to comment on the pink/orange combo. Never, ever would have considered it, but one day I was cutting zinnias for bouquets and had a preponderence of bright orange ones and hot pink ones in the bucket, and wow, did they look great together. I haven't recreated that color combo in the garden, but in the vase it was hot!

I had a dear friend who I swore must have been color blind, as every year she would buy a huge mish-mash of annuals - all types, all colors - and plant them randomly in her beds. I found it rather jarring and uncoordinated. She loved it. To each her own!

Dee

This is a really fun thread. I bought a bunch of "basic" perennials last year even though I didn't really have spots picked out. Good prices, so I snatched them up. I had an empty spot in the garden and plunked them all in together. The pink phlox has to go. From one angle,the phlox, coreopsis and liatris look great together. From the other direction the coreopsis, daylilies and liatris are OK. But, all together, it just doesn't work. The phlox is coming out.
{{gwi:248595}}

I have a question to a2zmom: is the plant on the right on your picture an Alcea rugosa? If yes, I'd like to know if it sends runners. I want an honest answer.

The reason why I'm asking is because I've seen an English nurseryman describing it as with "running habit". And I've never met an Alcea with a running habit.

Prairiemoon's pic looks like a picture of Schreiner's iris gardens with the Tetons stuck on top!

All the color snobs just better never go to Mexico and see how they do flowers there. Well, some places there anyway. I kind of agree with maybe it was greatplains and the idea that it isn't just color but form and style that can sometimes clash. I really like orange and purple, pink and orange, pink and yellow-- there's a lot of ways that these colors can be great together.

One of my disappointments was some intermediate iris that had a much longer period of bloom than I was expecting, and their dark apricot pink really clashed with the tall bearded iris that were next to bloom. They look much nicer now that I have moved them. I think you can plan, but there are always surprises like that.

I haven't decided if I like Dianthus Firewitch next to Lil Sunshine caryopteris on one side and Happy Returns on the other with Allium sphael in between. They didn't all bloom at the same time, but I really liked it in the spring, and I really liked the allium.

wieslaw, that is indeed a rugosa (good eyes!) and it definitely does not run. I planted it in 2011 and it's come back faithfully so far exactly where I planted it.

Supposedly it's more rust resistant than Alcea rosea but truthfully, looks just as rusty by the end of the season as ever other hollyhock I've ever grown. Oddly enough, I have one group that grows in dappled sunlight and they got a lot less rust and a lot less Japanese beetle damage.

No pink and yellow? Sorry, this photo combination is one of my favorites. It varies from year to year where the cone flowers and rudbecka self seed.

{{gwi:248597}}

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:10

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:14

Okay, this is supposed to be an ugly combo thread, not a pretty one! Some of youse guys are posting pretty pics. ;)

I was a veggie and tree/shrub gardener for years at my previous house, thinking that flowers were too "froufrou". Then I moved to this house and realized there was no sun in the back yard for a veggie garden, and started to grow perennials.

My first perennial garden (the front garden) was in 2005 and it was colorful and happy, but ouch I was such a newbie there were there some ugly combos. Here's one - short and squat red and orange 'Magellan' Zinnias and tall gangly pink cleome. Oh and throw in the blue foliage of Dianthus firewitch. Yuck!

{{gwi:248598}}

This post was edited by terrene on Sat, Aug 3, 13 at 13:12

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:12

Some great comments on here, and some of the nicest "ugly" combos I've ever seen! And some of the neighborhood stories.... where do you start!? LoL

I'm a color disaster. My wife frequently points it out in my clothing choices and even I can pick it out in the garden. But it doesn't bother me and having such a lousy track record makes it look like I walked on water when I get it halfway right!
Here's a bad one. It's got variegation, chartreuse, pastels and a bold red... and a couple weeds for good measure.

Almost everything goes well in front of the nice warm orange brick of our house. Nice lavenderish phlox seedlings, chartreuse sweet potato coming down from the deck and that lovely orange background. Yeesh.

One more :)
This phlox selfseeded in. Even I don't like the pink in there.

Ok just one more since I just took pictures. Not really perennials for me, but Tropicanna canna is right up my alley as far as tacky color combos go. Hot pink, faded blue, orange, and the canna... no agapanthus in there but if I could I probably would!

kato, i have to agree that that particular shade of pink is really jarring in that location.

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:15

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:17

GreatPlains1, please, what is the name of the pink flowers in the background of your photo of the y & p near the sidewalk?

delete post

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 4:13

Kato, take out the pink and purple petunias (?) in your container, and that Canna with the coral new guinea impatiens makes a nice combo!