How To Use Color Wheel For Garden Design

Thankfully color wheels are a novice gardener s bff a simple foolproof way to figure out how to combine plants and flowers.

How to use color wheel for garden design. An analogous color scheme is three colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. The color triad is created by drawing an equilateral triangle connecting 3 colors in the color wheel see the chart below. The colors red orange yellow are warm and located on one side of the wheel followed by the cool colors green blue and violet which make up the other side.

There are also warm colors reds oranges and yellows and cool colors blues violets and greens. The third color scheme illustrated by the color wheel is the color triad. Try using three adjacent colors with middle one as the main color and the others on either side of it to a lesser extent.

In our illustration red yellow and blue are a triad and violet orange and green are a triad. Use foliage as well as flowers. Analogous combinations harmonize or blend together.

Red is flanked by red orange and red violet and you can use tints and shades of all the hues. That means selecting plants in colors that are across from one another on the color wheel. Analogous colors are located near each other on the full color wheel and can help you avoid jarring combinations.

Monochromatic gardens use just one color. For example red is across from green orange is across from blue and as in this bright array yellow is across from purple. The triad theme uses 3 colors that are opposite on the wheel.

Cornell university suggests you use the middle color as the predominant color and the shades on either side to a lesser extent. Based on the three primary colors red yellow and blue color wheels showcase a palette of warm red through chartreuse and cool green through purple tones with everything in between. Yellow yellow orange and yellow green are analogous colors as well.