What is Color Blocking?
A few years ago, I did a backyard garden design for a retired art teacher. Her request was that the spectrum of the rainbow is displayed along the lot line of her backyard. Starting with red flowers, I used roses, quince, lilies, and other plants with shades of red for this part of her color-block garden design. Next to them, I placed plants like gaillardia, poppies, and other roses with red and orange shades. The next flower garden color schemes included orange flowering plants, then orange and yellow, and so on, until she literally had a rainbow made from plants along her backyard. This is an example of color blocking. Color blocking is simply using several different plants of one color or complementary shades to create an eye-catching effect.
Color Blocking with Plants
Complementary colors are colors that are opposite one other on the color wheel, such as orange and blue. Then there are the harmonious analogous color schemes, which are found next to each other, like purple and blue. In a blue and purple flower garden color scheme, for instance, you could mix plants like:
Delphinium Salvia Lavender False indigo Campanula Blue-colored foliage or grasses
Yellow and orange are also common shades for color blocking in the garden. Yellow and orange blocks may include plants like:
Coreopsis Lilies Daylilies Potentilla Poppies Roses
Lavender and pink can be used together for color blocking, or pinks and reds. White is also a color that can be used for a dramatic color blocking effect. Color blocking in the garden with white might include:
Lilies Dusty miller Artemisia Pampas grass Spirea Astilbe Plants will variegated foliage
At first, it may seem boring to use a block of one color (monochromatic), but when you realize all the different shades and textures of these colors or complimentary colors, you’ll see that a color block garden design becomes anything but boring. You can even create your own rainbow by using blocks of individual colors that fade into the next as I previously mentioned, or choose a pattern effect like a quilt. The ideas are endless.
