Color Coordinating in Susan’s Front Garden

04.09.2024 - 05:54 / finegardening.com / GPOD Contributor

Hello GPODers!

Today we’re back in the garden of Susan Warde in St. Paul, Minnesota. Susan has shared various aspects of her gorgeous garden several times in the past (see some previous visits to Susan’s garden: Gardening at the 45th Parallel (Zone 4b), Rose Family Members in Susan’s Garden, Gardening Side by Side, The Summer That Was at the 45th Parallel), and today we get to see a specific update she made to her front yard design.

I like red and love orange, but five years ago I decided to limit the palatte in the front garden. Now the color scheme is limited to pink and yellow—not everyone’s cup of tea, I know. Pink with blue and purple are elegant and sophisticated, but pink and yellow is a combination that makes my heart sing. It’s not as dichromatic as it sounds. Pink includes rose, fuchsia, magenta, even maroon when the angelica comes into bloom, and the yellows encompass cream, lemon, gold, and melon, with the deeper colors appearing as the season progresses. And of course there’s white. After an early sea of scilla, blues and purples are limited to the back garden.

In early May cowslip (Primula veris, Zones 4–8) and barrenwort (Epimedium x rubrum, Zones 5–8) complement one another. The latter’s pink-edged leaves contribute to the color scheme.

Lavender is permitted as long as it’s more pink than blue. In late May, this Japanese primula (Primula sieboldii, Zones 4–8) comes into bloom. It spreads like crazy, its clumps invading other plantings, and the leaves die back (unobtrusively, at least), but it’s so cheerful that I welcome it wherever it appears. The yellow leaves of hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, Zones 5–9) contrast nicely, in form as well as color.

By the end of the month, the mollis azaleas