Monday 30 May 2011

Early Summer Colours

Nymans

Colour combinations in the wild and in cultivation have lit up some of the visits I’ve made to landscapes and gardens lately.


Earlier this month, I visited Castle Hill Nature Reserve to look for wild orchids – I was fortunate to be there with orchids expert Professor Mike Hutchings of Sussex University. As he mentioned, yellow and purple aren’t colours most people would combine in clothes yet they’re lovely in nature and best for pollinators. The photos above show mouse-eared hawkweed side by side with common spotted (purple) and fragrant (pink) orchids. The unseasonable weather meant that we came across quite a few of these orchids, which had only just emerged - the usual time is around mid-June. Some of the yellow wild flowers blending with the pink, purple and blue of orchids and milkwort were familiar, such as cowslips; others were less well-known (to me, at least) - bird's foot trefoil and yellow rattle.

The bold use of yellow as a foil for more delicate hues caught my attention in the following weeks at Nymans and then in a Brighton garden belonging to friends.

Palest mauve wisteria above a wide band of irises, with brilliant yellow Himalayan poppies in their midst, Nymans.


Irises and fennel, alliums and foxgloves, 1 Belton Close.


Although at the time I wasn't thinking about them directly, I realise that my fascination with these contrasting colours comes partly from looking again at Vincent Van Gogh’s iris paintings, and in particular, his "View of Arles with Irises in the Foreground", which he described to his brother Theo as composed of "enormously divergent complementary colours that are exalted by their oppositions".

Muted shades were identified as a trend at this year’s Chelsea flower show – as in the flowing dusky pinks and whites of Luciano Giubbilei’s garden for Laurent-Perrier, designed to evoke rosé champagne, offset by white-grey rocks in the pool. Yet, on what was mostly an overcast morning, I also enjoyed the bright yellows in Jim Fogarty’s garden for the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and in Cleve West’s garden for the Daily
Telegraph, where, in the central circle, brilliant deep pink dianthus cruentus stood alone like a tiny fountain (below right).








Natural and ornamental colours were presented in sequence in Robert Myers's garden for Cancer Research UK. The soft pink, blue-green and white of beach wildflowers such as thrift and kale gave way to deeper colours and lush planting.

Colour can be like music – gentle shades calm; brilliant colours compel your attention like staccato notes.