{"id":84227,"date":"2026-04-30T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=84227"},"modified":"2026-04-29T19:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:06:39","slug":"want-a-riot-of-color-in-your-flower-beds-definitely-make-a-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/want-a-riot-of-color-in-your-flower-beds-definitely-make-a-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Want a riot of color in your flower beds? Definitely make a plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Want<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking as a gardener who has admittedly incited a clash or two, Stephen Orr describes himself as \u201csomeone who thinks there are no bad colors, only colors used badly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s been there, done that, but not for lack of careful planning. The artistic challenge of \u201ccolor-scheming,\u201d as he calls it, can put any gardener to the taste test, that oh-so-subjective judgment call hanging over every move we make in garden-making:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will it look good, and (shudder) what will visitors think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of color in the garden is one of the topics that Mr. Orr, former editor in chief of \u201cBetter Homes & Gardens,\u201d tackles with a welcoming balance of expertise and humility in his latest book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Gardener\u2019s Mindset: Connecting With Nature Through Plants\u201d is a collection of essays, owing not incidentally to the fact that when learning to garden, it was in books of essays, not how-to volumes, that he found the most guidance \u2014 reassurance?\u2014 including on matters of color. Voices he credits for shared wisdoms include Thalassa Cruso, Vita Sackville-West, Henry Mitchell and Louise Beebe Wilder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Orr and his husband, Chad Jacobs, are commencing their fifth growing season on Cape Cod \u2014 their fourth garden, and most ambitious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not as easy to correct clashes as it was back when they gardened in pots on a city rooftop in Chelsea, he acknowledges. Then, any disharmonious element could simply be lifted out of the mix and relocated, and the remaining containers regrouped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now near-misses require a shovel to remediate, like his painstakingly mapped-out spring 2024 bulb display. There were to be three distinct moments over three months, each clearly visualized in his mind\u2019s eye, he said: \u201cA group of early bulbs \u2014 hyacinths, crocuses, puschkinias, squills \u2014 and then the next group, daffodils of all sorts, and then the next group, tulips, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Orr was short on firsthand tulip experience, since his two previous in-ground gardens had been in deer country. Deer don\u2019t visit this garden, so at the first opportunity he\u2019d conceived a lavish display of extravagantly colored tulips in mauves, maroons, dark purples, pinks, lime greens and oranges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, \u201cthe procession of spring flowers is daffodils and then tulips,\u201d he said \u2014 but neither genus observes a precise start date or a hard stop, a factor he\u2019d missed in his tulip mania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bright yellow daffodils were still in bloom in the bulbs\u2019 shared space at tulip time, \u201cand it just looked terrible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those daffodils? They have since been banished from the tulip beds to the backyard, \u201cwhere they can be as yellow as they want to be,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Orr enforces no property-wide color scheme, but follows a guideline: \u201cI want each visually connected area to have a cohesive relationship,\u201d he writes. (Alternatively, \u201cgarden separators,\u201d he said, like hedges and walls, come in handy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people say \u201cI love color,\u201d he replies, \u201cYes, but why don\u2019t we focus a little bit?\u201d There can be too much of a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But things can also be dull. Grouping cool colors separately from warm ones can yield good results, he said, but \u201cit can get a little boring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Orr shared some ways of thinking that have helped him find his color way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n