Garden Design Online

The easiest way to get color in the garden is with flowers … and this new book,The Gardeners Color Palette: Paint Your Garden with 100 Extraordinary Flower Choices (Timber Press, 2010) makes it even easier.  By Timber Press editor-in-chief Tom Fischer, the book profiles 100 different flowers in an array of colors that will accent gardens of any style.

The entries are arranged by color, with two pages devoted to each one … a written description with cultural requirements, bloom time, hardiness zone, and the height and spread of each plant, and on the opposite page, a beautiful color photo of the bloom.

Most of the selections are perennials, alrhough Fischer does include some bulbs, climbers (and one of my favorites, Clematis 'Comtesse de Bouchard' which has a place in my own garden), sub-shrubs and annuals.  Fischer also recommends companion plants for each flower, such as gold-variegated hostas or variegated hakone grass to go along with Yunnan meadow rue (Thalictrum delavayi). It's a handy little reference book and it will certainly get you in the mood for spring and a new gardening season.  I particularly appreciated the section on the unusual bronze, brown, and copper plants … and can't wait to try the 'Autumn Colors' black-eyed Susan, a seed strain that bears flowers of different colors, including red, orange, maroon, gold, and deep brown.  In the right garden spot, what a late summer display that would be.