Color in Landscape Design
Red, yellow, blue. The building blocks of color.
You may have seen these hues scribbled with poster paint onto a construction paper color wheel in elementary school, striped on the scalloped circus tent at your hometown fair grounds, or if you’re lucky, decorating front yards in the form of gorgeous plant life. And I’m sure you also know, that each of those colors combined with another makes a completely different hue. From the mixture of red and blue we get violet. Combining yellow and red gives us orange (the world’s happiest color, according to Dr. Seuss). Splash blue and yellow together and you get the landscape designer’s favorite color: green.
According to our senior designer, “Color is endowed by its Creator with certain unalienable powers.” There’s no question that color has the remarkable, intrinsic ability to evoke nostalgia, create a dynamic atmosphere, or even subtly promote a brand.
Giving equal place to texture, form and layout, here at Fullmer’s we have found that using the right combination of colors in landscape is key to creating an atmosphere that best complements your vision. Blues, for a relaxing cottage garden. Reds, oranges and yellows for an exciting, high-energy poolside planting. Chartreuse, green and white for a classic entertainment space or formal garden.
In fact, after years of designing, observing and installing color for our clients, our employees have found their favorite combinations, the color schemes they fall back on automatically when facing an empty flower bed or blank print. Lloyd, our ‘founding father’ favors pink and green, a timeless, elegant collaboration of color. For Reuben, our senior designer, it’s shades of greens, purples and blues. This comes as no surprise when you learn that while dating his wife, Julie, instead of having a song to call ‘their song,’ they chose the colors chartreuse and purple as ‘their colors.’ Kent, our present CEO who can simultaneously run our company and whistle any song you give him through his teeth, falls back on the classic white and green, a color scheme that never fails to denote dignity and maturity.
What colors would you choose to brighten your landscape?
Rayna Huffman
