Color | Deborah Silver & Co.

At A Glance: Favorite Annual Plants

Planting the annuals and containers is a very exciting time-and an exhausting one. So in lieu of writing, I thought to just post some pictures of my favorite annual plants. What makes them a favorite? This glowingly green Janet Craig dracaena will thrive in very low light.

The Vista series of petunia is very vigorous, even long into the fall.

White mandevillea vines produce large showy flowers, and the foliage is glossy and disease resistant.

Persian Shield is a color like no other, and will grow to a large size in a partially shaded spot.

Euphorbia Diamond Frost is like having a thousand tiny white lights dancing over the surface of a container planting. Cirrus dusty miller has a velvety surface, and a beautiful texture. Petunias smell like summer.

coleus are prized for the unusual color of their foliage, as are the variegated dwarf dracaena pictured above.

Cannas grow big and tall, and come in a whole range of colors. Canna Orange Punch blooms profusely.

Dahlias are the show girls of the annual world. They sport huge flowers in every imaginable color except blue. They are at their showy best in September and October. Silverberry petunias bloom profusely, and do not need deadheading.

Velvet mocha coleus is a beautiful orangy brown

All of the nicotiana varieties are charming, and beloved by hummingbirds. I grow them all.

Verbena bonariensis is tall growing, and imparts a meadow like look to any in ground annual planting.

Solenia begonias are easy to grow. Just go easy on the water. Are these my only favorites. Oh no. I like them all really. They all have something different to recommend about them. Choosing which ones to grow depends somewhat on what you need from them.

Posted on: June 1, 2014 16 Comments

Filed Under: flowers, Color, container planting, Plants Tagged With: annual flowers, container gardening

Shades Of Green

The success of this window box has little to do with the flowers. The color of the foliage is the story. The blue green foliage makes the carmine purple petunias pop. Though I have a big love for flowers, flowers come with green leaves standard issue.. As in pale green, medium green, dark green, yellow green, blue green, black green-you get the idea. Consider the leaf color when designing containers. A container garden is a landscape in miniature. When the spaces are small, every move you make matters. Every choice makes waves.

This container has nothing to say about flowers either. It has a lot to say about texture. It has even more to say about a particular shade of green. A great container is deliberate in exploring the relationships between all of the colors involved.

A succulent is not my most favorite plant. But this kind of green is available in few other plants. Not every plant in a container has to be a favorite. But every plant should be chosen for what it contributes to the mix.Grey foliaged plants can inform any color scheme. I am a big fan of the Cirrus dusty miller. The felted gray leaves look great with pink, yellow, purple , or white flowers. Gray green foliage in a container planting can cool off a hot color scheme. Interested in a cool and serene scheme? Choose cool green foliage over yellow green foliage.

I have never been so much a fan of gray in the landscape. By itself, gray recalls rainy days, and not much else. But gray foliage in combination with other flower colors shines. Gray green foliage and white flowers-classic. Gray green foliage and pale yellow-worth a look. Gray green foliage and red violet petunias-a happening. Gray, white and cool green-a tri-color container color combination is rhythmic.

Medium green is a workhorse of a foliage color.

Vinca vine is a most ordinary and widely available trailing container plant. Give it another look. This particular shade of green variegated with so pale cream yellow edges may endow your container planting with just the right shade of green.

dieffenbachia with white polka dot plant and lime licorice

Have a love for lime green? This shade of green is electric. Should you have the idea to make a big splash, lime green foliage will make your hot pink and orange flowers glow. An orange lantana standard will be lit from underneath, given an under planting of creeping jenny or lime licorice. or this crazy corkscrew rush.

The new growth of almost every plant in the spring is one shade of lime green or another. If you have a mind to celebrate the opening of the garden all summer long, lime green plants are happy to oblige.

pale green dieffenbachia will light up a shady spot.

lime green variegated potato vine sizzles.
lemon cypress

coprosma is a lime variegated plant grown for its glossy splashy foliage. it grows 2-3 feet tall, and will do in sun and part sun.

This dark foliaged dahlia has brilliant orange flowers.

See what I mean about green?

Posted on: May 26, 2014 14 Comments

Filed Under: Color, container planting Tagged With: variegated foliage, green plants, foliage plants

A Painterly Mix Of Tulips

Anyone who gardens has a fascination with what I call living color. The red of tulip is a much different kind of red than red represented by paint. Color infused by life and light is a special kind of color. It is no wonder that flowering plants are prized by gardeners. Given the winter we just endured, the first signs of color are so welcome. And no plant is more about the joy of color in the spring than tulips. I plant a mass of tulips at the shop every year. It is the perfect opportunity to explore shape and color relationships, as every plant looks just about the same. I A mass of all one color is striking in certain settings, and in small groups. A mix of color and shapes makes for a more painterly approach.

A good mix begins with a selection that blooms at slightly different times. A very early and a very late tulip will never keep one another company. Tulips with related bloom times means that the display of color will evolve over time. From the moment a bud appears to the time of bloom is about a month. The tulips in the foreground of this picture are behind those in the background for a simple reason. They are close to some fairly large lindens that shade them in the early part of the day.

The next step in choosing a mix has to do with height. A mix all at the same height means that each individual flower is not in view. A mix of heights puts the color both up, middling, and down. Once a tulip comes in to bloom, the flowers continue to grow. In a cool spring, the stems will grow to their full height, and stay in bloom quite a while. In a hot year, the stems will be short and the flowers short-lived. Given our fairly cool temperatures, this should be a good year.

Choosing the colors is the most difficult part. No one has the luxury of picking a tulip for its color any other way than via pictures in a catalog. A picture of a tulip is not remotely like the real thing. Solid red tulips can be orange red, or bluish red. Or red violet. Or red with streaks of yellow. Many tulips are comprised of several different colors overlaying one another. The edge of the petals may contrast in color with the body of the petal. Other tulips may be streaked or spattered with another color.

Tulips that have multiple color tones are great for creating a visually satisfying and complex display. This softly colored mix is comprised of tulips with subtle color variations. Choosing colors that are analogous means they are closely related on a color wheel. The overall effect from a distance is monochromatic, but up close, there are many variations. This tulip mix is easy on the eyes, but not sleepy. I like looking at pictures of tulips on the John Sheepers website. The colors represented are fairly true, and they include a written description of the colors as well. No catalog records what the inside of a tulip looks like. That warm and sunny day that mature group of tulips opens their petals wide and flat is a beautiful day indeed. I do take pictures of tulips on my own, for reference. We do a different scheme every year-why not. They are all beautiful. It is surprisingly easy to put colors together that are jarring and ill suited to one another. I do see a fair number of red and yellow tulips planted together. A mix is best with a minimum of 3 colors. The color rhythm is better, and less choppy. Red yellow and dark purple-an exciting scheme. Red yellow and orange, a closely related celebration of hot color. Red, yellow and pink is a little softer, especially if the pink is a littler paler than the others. Pale yellow, watermelon red and the palest pink is a completely different look than the aforementioned schemes. Red, yellow and white is striking by way of contrast.

A color mix also influenced by the ratio of one color to another. 25% yellow, 25% red, and 50% white may read like polka dots. a 33-33-33 blend is an even blend. A 50-50 mix with one big patch of another color is energetic and catchy.

As for this yellow tulip with anemone petals-I have no idea what it is called, or where it came from. But I am glad to have it as part of the mix.

Posted on: May 14, 2014 22 Comments

Filed Under: flowers, Color, Plants, Detroit Garden Works, Spring, Uncategorized Tagged With: tulips. spring tulips.

At A Glance: Lots Of Spring Pots

To follow are too many pictures of the spring pots we have planted up at the shop. But too many pictures of plants growing and blooming is just what I need right now. On this 18 foot antique Scottish railway bench, a collection of little mixed spring pots. Ever since the day years ago that I had a 14 year old boy put a ten dollar bill in my hand, and ask me what I would recommend for his gardening Mom for Mother’s Day, I make sure I have an answer.

The loss of the section of boxwood in front of the store is a loss I cannot really explain. Those plants had their roots entwined with a vision for a garden shop imagined 19 years ago. I would have been happy to have those plants there, always. But always is not an adjective one can routinely pair with the work and unexpected trouble that it is to sustain a landscape. Sometimes changes must be made. Though the end of this winter is not what I would have chosen, I have plenty of options to express the beginning of a new gardening season that are charged with life, vigor, and color.

A container planted for spring is all about a new season. Fresh ideas that grow out of old ones. A splash of color so welcome after an interminable winter. Spring is a season which is different every year. Ours so far is wet and cold. But these container plants revel in those transitory conditions. I admire their verve and robust habits. Bring on the spring plants.