Complementary Contrast: Red and Green

While my earlier February post focused on some of my favourite red flowers for the garden, I want to spend just a little time talking about a principle of colour theory that, at least in the case of red, is a textbook example of visually pleasing complementary contrast.  You remember that from art theory, right? Colours that appear opposite each other on the artist’s colour wheel are said to be “complementary contrasts” and there is a harmony about them.  While not everyone might feel that way about orange & blue, the use of lots of restful green foliage to frame brilliant red blossoms seems like an obvious design approach.

Complementary Contrasts

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let’s look at a few examples I’ve collected over the years.  How about these sweet red tulips popping up amidst fresh hosta foliage, at Toronto’s Casa Loma?  So much more lovely than emerging in bare spring soil.

Tulipa 'Pinocchio' & hosta leaves

And look how pretty this bright ‘Pacifica XP Really Red’ vinca (Catharanthus roseus) is when paired with the chartreuse-green groundcover creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Goldilocks’) at Missouri Botanical Garden.

Lysimachia 'Goldilocks' & Red Catharanthus

The deservedly popular perennial stonecrop Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ makes a fabulous carpet for this annual red portulaca at the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton, Ontario.

Sedum 'Angelina' & red portulaca

How about some tropicals?  I was wowed by this juxtaposition of dumpy little red salvia (S. splendens) and Canna ‘Pretoria’ at Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C.

Salvia splendens & Canna 'Pretoria'
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And I loved this combination of (very underused) Gomphrena globosa ‘Strawberry Fields’ with the taro Colocasia esculenta ‘Illustris’ at Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham, North Carolina.

Gomphrena 'Strawberry Fields' & Taro

This little ensemble of red coleus and honeybush (Melianthus major) with other tropical foliage plants took my eye at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, PA many years ago.

Red coleus & Cerinthe major

Of course, you don’t have to think small when considering designing a garden using plants featuring red-and-green complementary contrast. Even a humble vegetable patch, like this one at Chateau Villandry, in France’s Loire Valley, illustrates my colour theory!

Chateau Villandry Potager

And the concept works with garden furnishings too, as you can see with the sweet little iron sculpture from Toronto’s Mark Clark, left, and the traditional torii gate leading into the Japanese Garden at Victoria’s Butchart Gardens, right.

Red Garden Art & Tori Gate

Be sure to come back in March, when I’ll explore that most important of garden hues: chlorophyll-green.

15 Floral Valentines for the Red-Inclined

I thought I’d celebrate Valentine’s Day

By loving some posies on my blog today

Not just any old flowers – oh no, no… instead

I’ve chosen some favourites in show-stopping RED

1. Let’s go with a tulip for (please hurry!) spring

Do you know ‘Rococo’?  What a gorgeous thing!

Tulipa 'Rococo'

One of those feathery parrots that draws lots of “Ahhh’s”

And she’s equally lovely when cut for a vase

Tulipa 'Rococo' in vase

2. In my cottage at the lake, it wouldn’t be May

Without this sweet little wildling that grows near the bay

I’m happy the seeds that I’ve sown have grown fine

Increasing my colony of wild columbine!

Aquilegia canadensis-Eastern columbine

3. For a long time I wasn’t sure what to think

About the native wildflower called Indian pink

Spigelia marilandica is its botanical name

And yes, I like it in woodland, where it puts ferns to shame.

Spigelia marilandica-Indian pink

4. Peonies in red are a populous lot

But not all have the oomph that my choice has got

She’s a buxom thing, bred for the cold Midwest

Meet ‘Buckeye Belle’ – simply one of the best

Paeonia 'Buckeye Belle'

5. Do you have a wee glade where the soil is quite wet?

This red-flowered lovely is a sure-fire damp bet

Behold Primula japonica ‘Miller’s Red’

A candelabra primrose for a bog or moist bed.

Primula japonica 'Miller's Crimson'

6. I love red corn poppies, Papaver rhoeas, by name

As somber Remembrance day symbols they earned their fame

Papver-rhoeas-wild

But did you know that a man-of-the-cloth named Wilks

Became famous for breeding these flowers of silk

Papaver rhoeas-Shirley poppy1

Developing the “Shirley” strain in doubles of white, coral and pink

Though the prettiest still fall in the red tones, I think……

Papaver rhoeas-Shirley poppy2

7. Summer daisies are myriad but none blooms as long

As blanket flowers (Gaillardias) – provided you’re a strong

Deadheader! And if so you’ll love ‘Burgundy’ – and she’s
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Superb at providing pollen for foraging bees!

Gaillardia x grandiflora'Burgundy'-Blanket Flower

8. What about a red annual for a tropical pot?

Here’s one that couldn’t be more sizzling-hot:

It’s Mandevilla ‘Pretty Crimson’ – or “rocktrumpet” in Brazil

And its dark-red trumpet flowers are designed to thrill!

Mandevilla 'Pretty Crimson'

9. I’ve got a favourite rudbeckia with a colour that’s dandy

Not yellow or gold, but rich-red  ‘Cherry Brandy’

Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry Brandy'

Montreal Botanical Garden uses it in a fabulous scene

‘Cherry Brandy’ and Tuscan kale, with its leaves of blue-green.

Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry Brandy'-Montreal Botanical Garden

10. If your thoughts turn to kisses on Valentine’s night

You’ll like Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ in bright red-and-white

Think it’s a bit overrated? Well, don’t take my word…

It got top marks from my resident hummingbird.

Salvia 'Hot Lips' & Hummingbird

11. My favourite-of-all summer bulbs is bright-red

This is Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ in my cottage meadow bed

Crocosmia crocosmiiflora 'Lucifer'

12. Here’s a dye plant from the prairie, where it seldom rains

Meet Coreopsis tinctoria ‘Dwarf Red’ of the plains

Coreopsis tinctoria 'Dwarf Red'-Plains coreopsis

13. Back to perennials – here’s one for a damp August bower

Lobelia cardinalis – our native red cardinal flower

Lobelia cardinalis-Cardinal flower-Montreal Botanical Garden

And while we’re at it, let’s raise our glass to that colourful word

Shared by Roman prelates and this fine northern bird

Cardinal in pond-Cardinalis cardinalis

14. Another late summer perennial if your soil is mucky

Is swamp mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) from southern climes like Kentucky

And my favourite of all is red ‘Cranberry Crush’

You won’t find another flower this big or this lush….

Hibiscus moscheutos 'Cranberry Crush'-Swamp Hibiscus

15. When considering roses of red on this day

There’s a much-hackneyed phrase that I’ll borrow to say

If you want a red rose, just “go big or go home”

And choose ‘Dortmund’. Okay, that’s the end of my poem.

Rosa 'Dortmund'