Color Rose Garden Tips Using Harmony or Contrast

One of the loveliest pleasures a rose garden offers is its appeal to our sense of color. Yet many gardens are less effective than they would be if the color were more carefully considered.

Color Nomenclature: State of Confusion

Certainly, color nomenclature is in a state of confusion so far as roses are concerned. Various catalog descriptions of the same rose may be entirely different, as catalog writers may not agree upon the exact color of a certain variety.

Also, location and soil help to determine the specific shade of many roses. So you can’t always be sure just what color rose you’ll get.

Many rose growers speak only of definite color groups; to them, a rose is red, pink, yellow, white, or bicolor. But what about the intermediate shades?

Red Roses: Varieties of Shades

RED RADIANCE, CHARLOTTE ARMSTRONG, NIMANDY, NOCTURNE, CRIMSON GLORY, and NIGHT are all “red roses,” although they may vary from a light red to a blackish crimson or maroon.

The pinks and yellows vary as greatly as the reds in shades and intensity of color. Even in the whites, which have the least variations, we find various tints of pink, yellow and green.

Harmony or Contrast

What makes a good color combination?

Even the least sensitive person finds certain combinations objectionable and others pleasing. You have combined colors well if you produce harmony or contrast.

Harmony is obtained by balancing colors of similar shades; contrast, by using entirely different colors.

Harmony is more restful to the eye than contrast, but under some conditions contrasting colors are desirable.

Plant One Variety in Each Bed

When a considerable number of roses are to be planted, with wide paths left between the beds, the simplest way to enjoy their color is to plant one variety in each bed.

However, if roses of several different colors are planted in one large bed, the colors will not clash as readily as would a few colors in a small bed.

The association of a variety of colors in a mass does not allow the eye to form an impression of either harmony or contrast.

Yet, when only 2 unassociated colors are planted together, the eye can compare one with the other and register the impression that the combination is not a pleasing one.

There are many miniature and dwarf polyantha roses now available for border accents and many attractive shrub roses for background plantings, but there are some instances where other plants may be used to advantage.

Blend Other Flowers into Roses

If the desired color combination is not obtainable with roses alone, certain other flowers which will blend in color may be associated with them. These, however, should be relegated to the role of embellishments and used only in borders or in the background.

Violas, pansies, portulaca, English daisies. nigellas. nemesias and other low-growing materials may be used for bordering rose beds.

Save tall-growing plants for the background; clumps of sweet peas planted alternately with pillar roses give a pleasing effect. Try to select plants whose best display of bloom coincides with that of the roses or plants which have a long flowering period.

Blending Colors

The successful blending of Colors in the rose garden is not a difficult problem, as the color range of the genus Rosa reaches from the snow white of FRAU KARL DRUSCHKI to the deep blackish crimson of NIGHT.

There are even shades of blue, violet, purple, lavender, and gray. in some varieties such as:

VEIL-CHENBLAU
VIOLETTE
CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU
GRAY PEARL

For best effects, keep dark varieties away from dark backgrounds, because their coloring is lost when they are so placed. It is better to group them among white, yellow, or lightly pink varieties.

Scarlet Crimsons

Scarlet crimsons do not show to best advantage when planted near crimson maroons or deep velvety crimsons.

If the predominating color is red, paler varieties should also be planted to provide contrast.

When pink is the paramount color, the bed may be highlighted by planting, here and them, a variety having blooms of scarlet or flame.

Shades of Orange and Yellow

The orange and yellow shades also help to pep up the pinks. The carmine pinks, in particular, should have white or pale yellow for contrast.

Roses with marked hues of orange, terra cotta, and similar shades should be planted near cream or white varieties.

White, cream-colored, and soft yellow roses will harmonize with almost any other color.

Blending Salmon Pink With Blooms of Rich Orange

For a pleasing effect, plant salmon pinks near varieties with blooms of rich orange, cerise, or flame. Here they show to better advantage than if planted with light pinks, whites, or yellows.

The pale pinks may gradually deepen to the full rose pinks and should be kept apart from the flesh and salmon pink types.

Pale Pinks Together With Dark Crimson Roses

The pale pinks, however, look well in association with the dark crimson roses. In mixing pinks, the effect is better if the softer and richer shades are blended with brighter colors.

As a rule, the brightly colored varieties are most popular for massing, but you can achieve a delicate and restful effect by grouping the softer or paler shades.

Although I prefer a bright color in an individual rose, I believe that a bed of softer colors is far more pleasing to the eye.

Bicolors and Polyanthas

You can obtain a most vivid display by grouping together various bicolors which have a preponderance of rich shades.

The bicolors are attractive in themselves, and it is difficult to find a place for them in beds of one-tone roses, so the alternative seems to be to plant them in a bed by themselves so that each bush may be admired as a unit tattier than the bed as a whole.

Polyantha Roses

Polyantha roses, particularly, offer endless possibilities as bedding subjects if thought is given to the color scheme at planting time.

Their color range is great and they offer attractive, more or less permanent plant material for homeowners, parks, and cemeteries.

It is not advisable to mix polyanthas with hybrid teas; they are much more effective when planted in separate beds.

It is never advisable to plant roses of more than one type in a single bed, as the habit of growth differs too greatly.