Red and Hot Colored Flowers in Garden Design

Some garden designers say red burns a hole in the landscape. What they mean is that many red or orange-red flowering plants appear to flower so abundantly that it’s all anyone can see. The eye is drawn to those colors alone.

Hot Colors in the Garden

These reds are known as hot colors in the garden as well as on the color spectrum, and for many people, they excite the viewer rather than offer the calming affect one would expect from a garden. For the most part, red or hot colors take something away from the garden rather than bring something to it. According to garden writer, Penelope Hobhouse, in her book Color in Your Garden, red in the garden is “… an exclamation mark seen from afar, deep and mysterious, close-up.”

Gardeners who love red and want red flowers in their gardens, might consider touches of red here and there, rather than massive displays of various red-flowering or hot plants all grouped together. A color expert will argue that the garden designer should plant those red or orange plants beside plants with colors on the opposite side of the color wheel. Gardeners can tone down the fiery display by adding plants with interest only in their fauna. Silver or sage-leafed plants work best.

The Effect of Red Flowers

Penelope Hobhouse believed that too many reds or hot colors overpowered a small garden border and should be used carefully and sparingly in design – that they “reduce not only space, but the feeling of restfulness.”

Red flowers are the color of blood and elicits all sorts of emotions including lust, passion, anger and even violence. Color therapists agree that some people experience a physical reaction to hot colors. Their heart rate might increase and their blood pressure might rise. Hot colors affect different people in different ways.

Red in the garden often says something about the gardener too. She is vibrant, out-going, passionate and spirited.

Red Flowers for Dramatic Effect

Red Flowers add drama and certainly have their place, but there also needs to be a place for the eyes to rest. If the gardener wants other flowering plants beside those red plants, she might consider soft-blues and creamy-whites. These plants will soften the reds, toning down the visual effect.

The garden should be a calm place of solace and beauty. If red plants are planted with thought to the garden design as a whole, they won’t burn a hole in the landscape, but will blend in perfectly with all the plants and flowers in the garden.

References

• Think Quest/Color
• Color in Your Garden, Penelope Hobhouse, Little Brown and Company, 1989