Ivydene Gardens Garden Design:
The Colour Wheel

Garden Design Pages

Private Garden Design Introduction.

Before You Start What is your Budget and What are the purposes for Your Garden?

Designing for a Purpose : Areas which require answers before

answering your
Designing for a
Purpose Questionnaire.

Then, do the
Site Survey
with photographs, before

putting the
Current Design on paper or PC.

Using the
Broad Design
elements of Scale, which Garden Style to use:-

Low Maintenance Garden Style,

Cottage Garden Garden Style,

Wildlife Garden Style or

Japanese Garden Style and the

Hard and Soft Landscaping elements, to create the
Broad Proposed Design.

Then, the
Detailed Design
of each Hard Landscaping item with
Example of Detailed Design for my New Garage

followed by the
Soft Landscaping elements:
The Soil,

Changing the Microclimate,
and the (Relationship between bees and plants)

Plant Selection is influenced by

the Colour Wheel, with *

Plant Quantities determined by time to establish versus width between

plants and
Companion Planting will provide helpful neighbouring plants.

Garden Design Bibliography and further Design Concepts

Garden Design Site Map with Parallel Thinking not
Adversarial Thinking to find the ‘Way Forward’ to help you and your family create an agreed design for your garden.

See Explanation of Structure of this Website with User Guidelines to aid your use of this website.
 

How colours relate to each other is best illustrated in the colour or spectral wheel.

First, there is the harmony of adjacent colours. If blue is a dominant colour, for instance, then blue mixed with green and blue mixed with purple will harmonise.

Second, there is the contrast of opposite colours: yellow with purple, orange with blue, red with green...

Thirdly, there is the harmony of triads. For example, if one takes yellow as the initial colour, then the triad harmony colours are red and blue.

As with every guideline, principle or rule, the spectral wheel should be followed with care. For instance, the three primary colours, if used in their most dominant forms, will overpower any other colour included with them, even if those colours are related in some way on the wheel. For that reason, modern planting practice favours the more subtle pastel shades.

Psychologically, the colour blue is cold, yellow is thoughtful and red is violent. It is advisable to keep these colours together with white and black closest to the house, with the very light pastel colours towards the end of the garden to provide an illusion of extra length.

If you want to choose any type of plant by flower colour alone, then this colour wheel will aid that:-

Most of the plants of this website will have their Common Name, Botanical Name and Months of Flowering in one of the 52 colour index pages in the Colour Wheel - Flowers Gallery.

Click on number or WILD WHITE in the Colour Wheel for Flowers below:-

Primary Colours:-

Red.
Yellow.
Blue.

Secondary Colours:-

Orange.
Green.
Violet.

Tertiary Colours:-

Red Orange.
Yellow Orange.
Yellow Green.
Blue Green.
Blue Violet.
Red Violet.

Each of the 12 Colour Sections has been split into 4 Colour Groups:-

• Dark Tone or Shades (Colours mixed with Black) is the outer circle of colours.
• Mid-Tone (Colours mixed with Grey) is the next circle of colours
• Pure Hue (the Primary, Secondary or Tertiary Colour named) is the next circle of colours
• Pastel (Colours mixed with White) is the innermost circle of colours.

plus these 5 colours -
Black,
Gray234,
Gray 5,
Pure White 2 for the Cultivated Flowers,
Pure White 6 for the Cultivated Flowers and
Wild White for the Wildflowers in the White and Black Colour Sections.

The Common Name in the Index at the top of each comparison page will be in Red if it is a Wildflower,
The Botanical Name will link to its Plant Description Page and
each Flower Month will link to the respective Flower Colour Comparison Page in the relevant Gallery.

If the Flower Petal is Multi-Coloured,
then it will be placed in the Multi-Coloured Row of a Colour Wheel Colour Page that appears to have the majority space of that colour on the petal.

If you want to choose any type of plant with a particular flower colour in a or more months, then this colour wheel will help:-

Many of the plants will have their Flower Thumbnail, Botanical Name and Months of Flowering in each month of one of the 12 flower colour pages in the 12 Bloom Colours per month Gallery, that they flower in.
Click on the 1 in the relevant Flower per month Colour in the Colour Wheel below to change to that comparison page.

Inner circle of Grey is 12 months of Unusual or Multi-Coloured Flower Colour

Besides the colour of the flower, you could also use the:-

• number of petals,
• the shape of the flower and
• its natural arrangement

This is the menu for the Herbaceous Perennials:-

Ivydene Gardens Herbaceous Perennial Flower Shape Gallery: Elaborated Shape of Flower is Hats, Hoods or Helmets
Number of Flower Petals	Petal-less	1	2	3	4	5	Above 5
Flower Shape - Simple	Stars	Bowls	Cups and Saucers	Globes	Goblets and Chalices	Trumpets	Funnels
Flower Shape - Simple	Bells	Thimbles	Urns	Salverform
Flower Shape - Elabor-ated	Tubes, Lips and Straps	Slippers, Spurs and Lockets	Hats, Hoods and Helmets	Stan-dards, Wings and Keels	Discs and Florets	Pin-Cushions	Tufts
Flower Shape - Elabor-ated	Cushion	Umbel	Buttons	Pompoms
Natural Arrange-ments	Bunches, Posies and Sprays	Columns, Spikes and Spires	Whorls, Tiers and Cande-labra	Plumes and Tails	Chains and Tassels	Clouds, Garlands and Cascades	Spheres, Domes and Plates

and there is also the Evergreen Perennials Shape Gallery.

Besides the colour of the flower, you could also further refine the list of

• Bulbs for plants that grow, flower and the foliage dies off shortly afterwards, so that other plants can provide their focus:-

• Bedding ,
  Evergreen Perennials with its Alpine Evergreen Perennials and
  Herbaceous Perennials with its Alpine Herbaceous Perennials
  using the above number, shape and natural arrangement
• Conifer with its different overall shapes and foliage colours / form
• Deciduous Shrub using its natural form and shape
• Some Evergreen Shrub Heathers change foliage colour from season - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter - to the next season

as well as the use of that plant:-

• Bedding in:-
  • Bedding Out
  • Filling In
  • Screening
  • Pots and Troughs
  • Window Boxes
  • Hanging Basket
  • Summer Bedding

• The method of climbing determines where that climber is used
• Conifer use in Hedges, Ground Cover, Specimans, Containers, Borders, Water Features and Mixed Plantings
• Fern use:-

  • Cold-hardy Ferns

  • Ground Cover Ferns

  • For Hanging Baskets

  • For Indoor Decoration

  • Ferns from Lime-hating Soils

  • Ferns from Limestone Soils

  • For Outdoor Containers

  • For Terrariums

  • For Wet Soils

  • With Pendulous Fronds or Weeping Growth Habit

• Rock Garden Plant Position and Protection in the Index Pages - The following terms and abbreviations used singly or in combination will minimize the risk of planting in an unsuitable spot:-
  • C --- This means that the plant will do well planted on its side in a crevice built up on the rocks for preference.
  • P --- This plant requires a pane of glass suspended over it in winter, generally from October to the end of March.
  • PS -- A part-shady spot or facing west with protection from the south by a shadow cast by either a rock or shrub.
  • SA -- Shady position either facing north or protected by a rock.
  • Sun - This means that the plant will require a normal amount of direct sunlight.
  • W --- The plant will do well planted in a vertical position in the side of a trough or scree frame.
• Rock Garden Plants who do not have Plant Description Pages in this website with
  its list in the Site Map for linking to each;
  or
  Usually a link in *** to that page will be included in the Name field of the respective Index Page,
  which links to the Rock Garden Flower Colour of that plant with its Photo and short description and then
  click on More Photos Page alongside its description to get to the Flowers, Foliage and Form photos Page for:-
  • 5 BULBS
  • 4 EVERGREEN SUBSHRUBS
  • 5 EVERGREEN PERENNIALS
  • 1 EVERGREEN SHRUB
  • 7 HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS
• and the following for Rock Garden plants:-
  • Small size Rock Garden Plants in different Flower Colours
  • Miniature size Rock Garden Plants in different Flower Colours
  • Small size Rock Garden Plant flower in Month
  • Miniature Rock Garden Plant flower in Month
• Rose uses:-
  • BEDDING or Planting in Groups
  • CLIMBER or Pillar Rose
  • CUT-FLOWER
  • EXHIBITION or Speciman Planting
  • Procumbent or Wide-Growing GROUND-COVER
  • GROW IN A CONTAINER (Pot)
  • HEDGE
  • Growing up into Trees (TREE-CLIMBER)
  • WOODLAND and Covert Planting
  • EDGING BORDERS
  • Tolerant of POOR SOIL
  • BACK of BORDER
  • ADJACENT to WATER or
  • on NORTH-FACING WAllS

What about using the different colours of groundcover foliage provided by heathers in each of the 4 seasons?

Some heathers besides having flowers have foliage colours that change from 1 season to the next season in the UK -

• Spring (March, April, May),
• Summer (June, July, August),
• Autumn (September, October, November) and
• Winter (December, January, February).

The Shrub Heather Gallery provides comparison pages of the:-

• 18 flower colours with flower and flower stalk,
• 18 flower colours with flower and flower stalk in each of the months that heather flowers,
• 7 foliage colours with foliage stalk and form per season:-
  Yellow Autumn Foliage:-
  
  
  

  ACIDIC SAND,
  DEEP CHALK SOIL
  Erica erigena
  'Golden Lady'
  SUN
  White - H0
  flowers in
  February-April
  12 x 16 (30 x 40)
  Golden Yellow Foliage

  
  
  
• and Each of the Heather Cultivar Groups with flowers

and the Index for the heathers shown in each of these Comparison Pages is in 1 or more Index Pages in the relevant Heather Evergreen Shrub Index Gallery instead of being in the same Comparison page, due to their being too many to include within the available space.

THIS COMBINATION OF FOLIAGE COLOUR CHANGE CAN BE USED IN YOUR GARDEN DESIGN TO AID DIFFERENT GROUNDCOVER FOLIAGE COLOURS IN DIFFERENT SEASONS, together with the months of flower buds before flowering and the post months of seedheads.

Parallel Thinking not Adversarial Thinking to find the ‘Way Forward’

Universities are obsessed with history, scholarship and analysis. These do have their value and their place. But according to Professor Edward de Bono, there should be equal emphasis on constructive thinking, on creative thing and on design thinking. Knowledge is not enough. Value creation needs a different sort of thinking. So, Edward de Bono’s book ‘Why so Stupid? How the human race has never really learned to think’, needs to be read not in a defensive, adversarial or critical frame of mind but in an effort to get something from it.

……………………………………………….

Our traditional thinking is concerned with:

‘What is’

It is not good at all at designing:

‘What can be’

The difference is between ‘judgement’ and ‘design’.

………………………………………………

Parallel thinking

Argument is intended to give a defined end point: one party has won and the other has lost. Argument is a combat in words rather than with swords.

Four people are standing around a chateau. Each one insists that the side he or she faces is the best side. They argue (by mobile phone). In the end they all join up and walk around the building so each person is now seeing all the sides. Such behaviour leads directly to the concept of "parallel thinking".

The big difference between parallel thinking and adversarial thinking (argument) is that at any moment everyone is thinking in parallel.

Everyone is thinking and looking in the same direction. The directions then change so all aspects of the matter are eventually covered.

The whole point of parallel thinking is that everyone is thinking about the subject matter not about what the other person has said. For this reason there is a thorough exploration of the subject and, usually, some agreed way forward at the end.

If everyone were to think and to look in the same direction there would need to be some clearly indicated direction. This direction is provided by the symbolic ‘Six Hats’. At any one moment everyone is wearing, metaphorically, one of the six hats. So everyone ends up thinking in the same direction.

The White Hat symbolises ‘information’. Think of white and paper. Under the White Hat everyone is focusing on information.

• What information do we have?
• What information do we need?
• Questions we want to ask….
• How do we get the information we want?

If there is disagreement, there is no argument. Both differing versions are recorded.

The Red Hat is for emotions, feelings and intuition. Think red and fire and warmth. Under the Red Hat everyone has permission to put forward his or her emotions, feelings and intuition without having to explain or justify these. They exist in a person and so can be put forward. Before the first election in South Africa they asked Professor Edward de Bono to teach the method to the heads of the Peace Accord Committees. They then chose to use the Red Hat as the first hat in a meeting: to allow everyone to express his or her feelings right at the beginning.

• What do I feel about this?
• My intuition is as follows…
• I have this feeling…
• I am very angry about this…

There are many doubts…

The Black Hat is for thinking that is cautious, careful and critical. Think of black and a judge’s robes. Under the Black Hat we think of the ‘downside’; why something may not work; what he potential problems might be. This is the ‘critical’ hat.

• Does this fit our budget?
• Is this ethical?
• Will this work?
• What can go wrong?
• What are the risks?

Under the Black Hat, thinkers are encouraged to be as cautious and negative as possible. This fits both the natural behaviour of the brain and also a critical thinking culture. The Black Hat is an excellent hat and probably the most important of the hats. It is also the basis of Western thinking culture. But it can be over-used by those who believe it is enough to be critical.

The Yellow Hat is for the ‘logical positive’. Under the Yellow Hat we look for the values and benefits. We look to see how something can be done. All of this does have to be reasonable – it is not the speculation of creativity. In all constructive thinking it is important to develop ‘value sensitivity’. We have a natural ‘danger sensitivity’ but we have to develop ‘value sensitivity’.

• What are the values here?
• What are the benefits?
• How can this be done?
• What are the positive aspects?

The Yellow Hat is much harder and much less ‘natural’ than the Black Hat.

The Green Hat is the hat of creativity and energy. Think ‘green’ and vegetation and growth. Under the Green Hat everyone present at the meeting makes a creative effort. This is the time and place for creativity. Under the Green Hat we look for fresh ideas, alternatives, modifications of an idea, possibilities, etc.

• Here is another alternative…
• We could change the idea…
• We could also do this…
• There are these possibilities…
• What new approach might there be?

In ordinary thinking the critical mode is available at every moment. Under the Green Hat it is formally excluded.

The last hat is the Blue Hat. Think blue and sky and overview. The Blue Hat organises the thinking. The Blue Hat decides on the focus. The Blue Hat decides the sequence of hats to be used. The Blue Hat enforces the discipline of the hats. The Blue Hat puts together outcomes, solutions, designs, next steps, etc.

• What are we thinking about?
• What do we want to achieve?
• What is the outcome here?
• Can we suggest a solution?
• What is the next step?

This surprisingly simple framework can be very powerful. Meeting times can be reduced to one quarter or even one tenth of their usual time.

What is most important is that each thinker is challenged to use his or her experience, information and ‘brain power’. It is totally different from ‘clever case making’.

The hats may be used individually to request a type of thinking. A manager (parent) might suggest an idea. Those around would point out the dangers and why the idea might not work. The manager (parent) would listen and then say’ that is the great Black Hat thinking, now I would like the Yellow Hat’.

Normally if someone is against an idea that person is not going to put forward the virtues of the idea. But with Six Hats thinking, the person is challenged to do exactly this.

During 2013, H. Kavanagh and I took photos of the Mixed Border in the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) garden at Wisley. I have split the plants into 3 types:-

• 176 Permanent Herbaceous Perennials, (The Permanent plants stay from year to year until either they are too old, they get overgrown by bindweed in this bed or the Soft Landscaping team decide to change the plant.)
• 70 Other Permanent Plants including the Hornbeam hedge used as a background foil and separator of this bed and other garden areas; and
• 99 Bedding Plants, which are normally inserted in May and removed in November-December.

The Permanent Herbaceous Perennial Index indexes the 176 Permanent Herbaceous Perennials. It also summarises the distribution of Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, Unusual Flower Colour, White and Yellow during each month -

• May,
• June,
• July,
• August,
• September,
• October,
• November - for all the plants in those beds.

H. Kavanagh walked 5 paces, turned and took a photo of the Mixed Border bed from the path adjacent to a Mixed Border bed of the Mixed Border bed opposite across the lawn and its adjoining path. She repeated this 71 times - walking up 1 side and then down the other - and that is how the 71 parts of the Mixed Border beds were created. This does of course mean that the side areas of each of these photos will overlap with the side areas of the adjacent parts.

The following design concepts from my anaylsis of the Royal Horticultural Garden at Wisley may be useful to you together with the rest of the data on that page concerning that part of the East or West Border:-

Just looking at the distribution of those flower colours for the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials as shown above, I am unable to see any coordinated flower colour scheme in any part of these Mixed Border beds -

but

then I have had no training or gained any educational qualification which would have included softlandscaping design,
and therefore I should only marvel at what the Royal Horticultural Society with its expertise and highly qualified personnel have created and continue to create!

I wonder if the staff creating and mantaining these beds have even passed the Higher National Certificate in Horticulture! Remember it is these students who will look after the public gardens in the UK after being at Wisley. Although a member of the RHS, I am so disheartened at the mess that they have created at Wisley, that I have not been back since taking the photos of the Mixed Beds, the Alpine House and the 3 years taking photos of the Heathers where I could not validate the plant label with its plant once I started to insert them into this website. Please, please, please if you are going to open your garden to the public, do not create such a mess.

Previous Page....Next Page

As the number of plants in a Plant Gallery increases,
then that gallery will have subsidiary galleries added to it (each subsidiary gallery name is preceeded by ... in the Main Menu of each page, after that Gallery collection is accessed).
The first access to that collection of galleries will be to the site map of the gallery that contains the index of all the plants in that collection together with comparison pages of all the Flower Colours for that plant type per Month.
So, if you want a Yellow Flower on a Herbaceous Perennial in June then you should inspect that page.

The 3 rows below provide a

Garden Design Work-flow Diagram

indicating which pages in this site help with each respective section:-

Rhododendron yakushimanum

When you buy a house, you would not paint your toilet in a Gaugin Style with many colours without thinking that you wanted Magnolia paint colour in the rest of the house, because it would look out of place.

This design process hopefully persuades you to think as carefully about your use and enjoyment of the garden as you do about your lounge, kitchen and bedroom and prepare plans that will be acceptable to the whole family.

The most important design consideration is who and how long per week is maintenance on the garden going to be done. One hour-garden by Joanna Smith book helps in this part of the design process.

If you decide that you would like to redesign all or only a part of your garden

then ----->

otherwise

It might be useful to read the following pages in this Design Topic:

This page followed by these:-
Introduction
Before You Start
Designing for a Purpose
Questionnaire
Site Survey

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You may decide to simply add more plants to your existing beds

like plants to Rock Gardens using
Rock Plant Flowers 53
...Rock Plant Photos Galleries.

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Then, you can decide on the Garden Style that you wish to use in your garden, so these pages in this Design Topic may help:

The Design Itself
Broad Design
Low Maintenance Style
Cottage Garden Style
Wildlife Garden Style
Japanese Garden Style

Additional Garden Design Concepts have been written using the beds at Wisley to provide examples:-

Using the Mixed Border, Jubilee Rose Garden and Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden in the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Garden at Wisley for examples, I am still creating The Mixed Borders Garden Design Topic . The Mixed Borders Garden Design topic may help you in planning your garden, especially if you decide to show your garden to the public - i.e Make plant labels visible in your garden to aid your own plant sales.

RHS Mixed Borders

as well as from

Garden Style

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In choosing your style, there are other considerations to take into account like

If you suffer from hay fever, then bee-pollinated plants and very little grass would be useful

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Then, view these Garden Design Pages in this order or any order you want

Hard and Soft Landscaping
Detailed Design
The Soil
Changing the Microclimate
Plant Selection
The Colour Wheel
Plant Quantities
Companion Planting
Bibliography and further Design Concepts

before

choosing 1 of these different Plant selection Methods:-

1. Choose a plant from 1 of 53 flower colours in the Colour Wheel Gallery.

2. Choose a plant from 1 of 12 flower colours in each month of the year from 12 Bloom Colours per Month Index Gallery.

3. Choose a plant from 1 of 6 flower colours per month for each type of plant:-

Aquatic
Bedding
Bulb
Climber
Conifer
Deciduous Shrub
Deciduous Tree
Evergreen Perennial
Evergreen Shrub
Evergreen Tree
Hedging
Herbaceous Perennial
Herb
Odds and Sods
Rhododendron
Rose
Soft Fruit
Top Fruit
Wild Flower

4. Choose a plant from its Flower Shape:-

Shape, Form
Index
Flower Shape

5. Choose a plant from its foliage:-

Bamboo
Conifer
Fern
Grass
Vegetable

6. There are 6 Plant Selection Levels including Bee Pollinated Plants for Hay Fever Sufferers in
Plants Topic.

7. Your chosen Garden Style then changes your Plant Selection Process:-

Garden Style
...Infill Plants
...12 Bloom Colours per Month Index
...12 Foliage Colours per Month Index
...All Plants Index
...Cultivation, Position, Use Index
...Shape, Form
Index

I have moved on in March 2016 to create the Garden Style and the other design galleries for the New Plant Selection Process number 7.

Bee-Pollinated Plants information in this website using the Bee-Pollinated Bloom in Month Colour Wheel Gallery:-

Besides the plants in the
British Floral Sources of importance to Honey Bees
and
Bee Pollinated Plants for Hay Fever Sufferers
the following 3 sets of Bee-pollinated plants are suitable for Hay-fever Sufferers; except for the 2 grasses in the second list:-

• The Bee-pollinated Bloom in Month gallery compares the photos from 13 flower colours per month for many plants from the other Galleries, by clicking on the 1 in the relevant Flower per month Colour in the Colour Wheel down on the right of its pages,
• the Bee-pollinated Index Gallery provides the tabular index of another 264 plants with the relevant colour in that respective month:-
  • 51 ANNUALS
  • 2 ANNUAL - VEGETABLE
  • 4 AQUATIC PLANTS
  • 11 BIENNIALS
  • 21 BULBS, CORMS, OR RHIZOMES
  • 4 CLIMBERS
  • 31 DECIDUOUS SHRUBS
  • 26 DECIDUOUS TREES
  • 9 EVERGREEN PERENNIALS
  • 22 EVERGREEN SHRUBS
  • 2 EVERGREEN TREES
  • 2 GRASSES which cause hayfever
  • 4 SEMI-EVERGREEN SHRUBS
  • 66 HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS
  • 9 PERENNIAL HERBS
    followed by
• Click on these extra bee-pollinated plant names:-
  • ACER (Deciduous/Evergreen Shrub/Tree) in March-April
    CHAENOMELES SPECIOSA (Herbaceous Perennial) in March-May
    CROCUS (Bulb) in September-April
    CYDONIA OBLONGA (Deciduous Shrub) in April-June
    DAFFODIL (Bulb) in December-May
    DAHLIA (Bulb) in June-November
    DUTCH HYACINTH (Bulb) in March-April
    HEATHERS (Evergreen Shrub) in every month
    HEDERA HELIX (Evergreen Climber) in September-November as last major source of nectar and pollen in the year
    HELIANTHEMUM (Deciduous Shrub) in June-August - Pollen only collected when the flowers open during sunny weather
    HELENIUM (Herbaceous Perennial) in June-October
    HELLEBORUS (Herbaceous Perennial) in January-March
    HEUCHERA (Evergreen Perennial) in May-September
    HIBISCUS (Deciduous Shrub) in August-September
    ILEX (Evergreen Tree) in May-June
    LAVANDULA (Annual, Herbaceous Perennial or Shrub) in June-July
    LAVATERA (Annual, Biennial, or Herbaceous Perennial) in May-August
    LEPTOSIPHON (Annual) in June-August
    MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA (Evergreen Tree) in August-September
    MALVA SYLVESTRIS (Biennial) in June-September
    MENTHA (Herb) in July-August
    NEMOPHILA (Annual) in April-June
    NIGELLA (Annual) in July-September
    PHILADELPHUS species only with single flowers (Shrub) in June
    POLEMONIUM (Herbaceous Perennial) in April-June
    PRUNUS CERASIFERA (Deciduous Tree) in February-March
    PRUNUS LAUROCERASUS (Evergreen Shrub) in April-June
    PYRACANTHA COCCINEA (Evergreen Shrub) in May-June
    ROSES (Deciduous Shrub/Climber) in June-October
    RUBUS IDAEUS (Raspberry) (Soft Fruit) in May-June
    SALVIA SUPERBA (Herbaceous Perennial) in June-September - no bee garden should be without this plant - for those plants.