Of all the colors, orange is the most maligned. Maybe because it’s a cross between lurid red and zippy yellow, fiery orange exhibits a kind of hyper hybrid vigor—it’s more than the sum of its parts, way more. Perhaps because it is aggressively in your face, orange is a color that almost forces people to[...]
In taking some photos this week in my garden, I was struck by how the use of one color in a very ‘boundaried’ manner can make for a memorable composition. As gardeners, color plays such a prominent role in our creations, that it is easy to forget that ‘less’ can sometimes prove to be more effective. Gazing[...]
I’ve got a thing for dark foliage. I love its smoky, sultry color, the way it can deepen a planting and lend it an air of mystery at the same time. It’s also a great foliage contrast with almost any other color and since I’m one of those who believes in building gardens from the[...]
Text and photographs ©Nancy J. Ondra 2008 The point of this month’s Garden Blogger’s Design Workshop is to indulge in some sumptuous color at a time when many of us don’t have much to celebrate in our outdoor gardens. But when you consider that browns are such a big part of our surroudings for a[...]
In the last post on red, I talked about using red as the la piece de le resistance, as that startling, snazzy ‘something’ that will knock your socks off. In this piece, I want to talk about red as the conductor or framework of a composition. I think gardeners find red to be such a[...]