Getting the blues in the garden
October 08, 2011
A few more long views of the garden reveal just how blue and silver all my accessories are.
I used to lean more to browns, golds, and rust, but perhaps I’m trying to visually cool things down these days.
I even have a lot of blue and silver plants…
…so maybe the color scheme makes sense.
Of course, in any garden a little pop of green looks good too.
What colors do you lean toward in your garden furnishings and decor?
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I love silvery plants, and blues and oranges…Although I like to have pops of many different colors in terms of flowers. But there is definitely something irresistible about that gorgeous cobalt blue. I gravitate towards cobalt pottery, and have a cobalt bird bath near my front porch.
I like hot orange with silvery blue too, Juliet. Luckily central Texas offers plenty of choice in that color scheme. —Pam
I’m hot. Well, not THAT kind of hot. But plant-hot. Maybe I like hot colors in the garden to match our hot-hot-hot climate these days!
Hot colors certainly work well in our hot climate, Diana. They show up under our strong sun. —Pam
Your blues and silvers are just beautiful and so soothing!
Thanks, Linda. And they’re tough as nails, which is another reason I love them. —Pam
Rusty metal in one garden room. White coaster chair in cottage garden with terra cotta post. Still looking for some short culvert pipes. lol.
I hope you find some, Greggo. They seem to turn up eventually on Craigslist. —Pam
Really looking beautiful. And it is kind of fun that the plants pick up the tones. We are in the rust and gold mode here and when it is hot and dry, I can see the advantage of some watery colors!
Rust and gold must look perfect with the colors of a Wisconsin autumn. —Pam
The ability to cool anything down in the south is a challenge. You seem to have risen to the occasion.
Visual cooling is one thing. Actual cooling? We may get a little bit of that tomorrow. Highs are predicted to be in the 80s, a welcome change from the 90s and 100s. —Pam
Pam, is that an Arizona Cypress next to the path? Love the silvery blue of that tree. I like hot colors in the sun for summer-they don’t get washed out by the intense sun here. But I do like the purplish salvia ‘Nuevo Leon’ as a counterbalance, and also some pink Diascia and burgundy mauve Knautia macedonica ‘Mars Midget’ never hurt :^) In my shade border, I tend to go with cooler colors and foliage plants-Lamium maculatum, Coral Bells, and the native Dicentra formosa. We get lots more water than you do (38 inches a year) but are in zone 8b as well and summers are dry and hot. Lovely pics of your garden, as usual!
Yes, that is Arizona cypress ‘Blue Ice.’ Good eye! Your colors sound lovely. Remind me where you’re located again, Karen? —Pam
Nice and cool to look at, but I know better – I was in your fair city just a few hours ago. Hang in there, fall must arrive soon…let the blues fend off the blues!
You just missed a slight cool-down, David. Tomorrow is only supposed to be in the 80s! —Pam
I like it very much. It is so relaxing looking.
Thank you, Lola. —Pam
Pam your garden is always magnificent. And the blues make it perfect. Love it.
Thanks, Candy. Although I must point out that these long shots obscure the holes where I’ve lost plants to the drought. It’s always a work in progress! —Pam
Dear Pam,
Your blue is cool! I like yellows, pinks, and purples – your blues and silvers are pleasant. We are getting RAIN in DFW area late Saturday … wish I had the power to send it your way.
Jeanette
(formerly North Texas Gardening)
I’m glad you got rain today, Jeanette. I got a little here too—yea! —Pam
Very pretty! Blue is actually my favorite color, but for the garden I lean toward purples and whites to go with our red house. My husband jokes about how I have to paint everything bright purple!
Purple looks great in the garden—such a nice contrast with the greens of the plants. —Pam
Are your Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon & Pink’ still blooming and showing color or have they slowed down?
They’ve slowed down, but there’s a little color left. It’s faded though, and at this point I’m preferring the hotter oranges of flame acanthus and globe mallow. —Pam
I have red, blue and chartreuse. You notice it most during spring. Just this spring a friend of mine that is in the garden a lot noticed this and asked me if I did it on purpose. Tee hee…. I love your blue on blue.
Yours sounds like a lovely, vibrant color scheme, Lisa. I love those colors. —Pam
It is great to see how well it all tied together. Those smoked lilac chairs around the pool just make for a wonderful place to sit.
“Smoked lilac”—what a great description of that color, Jenny. Thanks! —Pam
In our hot weather your blues and silver are a nice cooling touch…very pretty!! I really like your stone path, too. I have a lot of red … that is when things are blooming in our cooler temps. Yellow really stands out with my esperanza, right now. Your succulent wall is looking good!
I am missing the fact that I have no esperanza—the yellows are looking so pretty all over town. I’ll be adding some next spring. —Pam
Pam, I always enjoy your posts and touring your lovely garden. Many of your photos I forward to my children, who also live in Austin and are planning their new garden from scratch.
As to colors in my own garden, I’ve never met a bloom or unusual texture/leaf I didn’t like, so I have all colors of plants mixed in together, very much a cottage garden style. Accents, therefore, are muted, rust and either zinc or the weathered galvanized tin (i.e., not shiny) such as the old zinc bathtub in front side I use as a water garden and the double washtub in back with the cactus/succulent arrangement. Lots of pots, but they are always some shade of green or green-blue, if not old metal kitchen or farm containers.
Thanks for all your inspiration!
Thank you for your kind comments, Sandy. Your collection of weathered silver along with greens and blues sounds delightful for a colorful cottage garden. —Pam
Love it Pam and think your concrete planter is superb. gail
Thanks, Gail! I just saw a big concrete wall planter in the works at a local nursery. I’ll try to get pics soon. —Pam
I love all that blue. It is cooling in our hot summers.
I tend toward blue containers, and lately, Mexican Talavera-type pots. We have lots of different colors in blooms here. I love colorful foliage, too. The gray/blue plants seem to hold up to the heat best, though.
We got rain last night, here in Wimberley…almost three inches! Hope you got some good rain, too.
Yes, the gray and blue plants tend to be very heat and drought-tolerant, which is why I’ve amassed so many. I do like to pair hot oranges with them though and need to add more of them. So glad to hear you got 3 inches of rain, Linda. —Pam
Pam, I am in Mendocino County, California, two hours north of San Francisco. As I said, tons more rain than you guys in an average year, but very hot summers, as we are inland. I love Arizona Cypresses and that is a beautiful cultivar!
Thanks for reminding me where you’re located, Karen. Arizona cypress is a gorgeous tree. I’m so glad it does well in Austin’s summers. —Pam
Your garden is so unique and so pretty! I really like it!
Thanks so much, Melissa! —Pam
What a wonderful transformation, and your decorative features are fun and bright. You have created quite a paradise.
Our house has sage green clapboards and white trim. We have cobbled walks and driveway, so a lot of gray stone, and we recently redid the pool with gray stone. Red, purple, lavender, white, and pink form the basis of our garden palette, although we are expanding to include more apricot and yellow. But we do use a lot of gray – cement benches, urns, etc. The red and pink really look lovely and we use them a lot to accent and decorate.
That sounds pretty, Cathy and Steve. I love the use of gray accents too. —Pam
I can well understand why you love those cool blues and you have used them beautifully. I like blues but since my garden is large, the reds, yellows and oranges scream a bit louder and are seen better from a distance. A cool, blue white garden should be on my list. Love yours and the shed door matching the pool is a real winner.
We gardeners always want it all, don’t we? I’d love to have a hot, screaming garden too, and if I had more room—and plenty of sun—I’d do it. —Pam
Hey Pam! What was the rock you used on the pathway from the front to the back on the right side of your house (when looking at the house)? I remember you used pea gravel on the other side but wasn’t very happy with it and I remember the right side path used something more angular and was more grippy…
Thanks,
Katina
Hi, Katina. It’s the 1/2-to-1-inch crushed limestone from Daniel Stone. I’m sure other stoneyards carry it too. It compacts nicely and doesn’t roll like pea gravel. It’s hard on bare feet though. —Pam
How inspiring!
Thanks, Dewi. I’m glad you found a little inspiration here. —Pam
Blues for me are like cool, spring water when my world is so so summer hot. The blues keep me cool. I do wish I had your pool though. Do you guys swim this late in fall? It would be too cold here.~~Dee
It’s a little late here too, Dee, although temps are expected to be back in the upper 80s by early next week, so who knows? —Pam