Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? No. Just as one can never learn how to paint. ~Picasso
The garden of circles is in its most colorful garb of the year and changes its appearance throughout the day as the light shifts and turns. 
Morning light brings an inner glow to new blooms, a luminescence seen at no other time of day and ephemeral in its passing. 
Evening lights up the hillside and creates shadows around the arbor gateway. 
People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and its ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. ~ Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
I’ve been experimenting with color themes for all of my years as a gardener, laying one color against another to create a gentle moment or a raucous party. July is the month of daylily bloom and the endless choice of flower color, patterns and shapes of the hemerocallis clan provides an opportunity to make visual music in the garden.
Sometimes the colors between two flowers are tender and lyrical, creating an evocative melody. (click on any image in the mosaic to see a full size photo)
Sometimes the darker tones rule, dramatic, mysterioso. “Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” ~Claude Monet
I drink purple in the morning and read on lime green. I sleep in smoky blues beneath burnt orange, and I eat in a yellow afterglow. My home is filled with the conversations of color. . . ~Ketzel Levine
What happens when purple meets yellow? Zing! or perhaps Sing! The grape and lemonade bed is in full chorus.
Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow. ~Kahlil Gibran
The peach and blue bed
Peach has always seemed to me as sweet as pink but with a little more attitude. Combine it with blue for even more pizazz, a romantic pas de deux.
The new rock walls on the hillside are filling in nicely. 
Plants displaced during its construction have settled in and are making lovely warm color combinations that subtly change each morning as the daylily blooms reconfigure themselves.
Each evening, Angel and I tour the garden, then go up the steps to the house for one more look. 
The view from the upper deck reveals the theme of circles in the garden, a visual rondo.
May your summer sing with the sounds and sights of joyful color.
Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul. ~Kandinsky
composerinthegarden 
What a beautiful garden and beautiful words! So enjoyed reading.
Thank you, Lucille – so glad you enjoyed it!
What a lovely garden! If I were one of those flowers, I’d be colored jealous
Well said, Russel Ray – the color of envy is green, is it not? 🙂
Amazing selection of Daylilies. I like the yellow/purple combination – and love teh Monet quote.
Thanks, Jason. I used to be an avid collector of daylilies but I’ve pared them down a bit to make more room for other plants. They do make the garden extra colorful in July.
Oh yes, it sings! It’s fun seeing the view from the deck…and it’s a good thing Angel is on patrol duty – you wouldn’t want any of those colors to get out of hand….I love Ketzel Levine’s quote…love that Sedona Coleus, the spider lilies, the dark bed…all your Coleus/day lily pairings… I do love peach, but those pinks, oh they’re sweet. I didn’t know there’s a pale pink Platycodon – but I haven’t gardened in years now. It’s super.
Today on a walk around a mountain pond I found a sundew. I was so excited! It’s a very, tiny one – Drosera rotundifolia – and I didn’t have my macro lens, but, well, it was just so cool to find a carnivorous plant! And it was in flower. As was so much today, and lately. My garden, it’s pretty big. 🙂 Thanks for the pleasure of yours, Lynn!
Lynn, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sundew in the wild -how cool! This is such a glorious time of year, every day in the garden is an adventure. Angel on color patrol – what an image 🙂 She will soon have a garden buddy, a new poodle puppy is coming next week. Soon to be featured in the garden. Enjoy July!
You’re going to have fun with the little guy. It’s a pleasure sharing pleasures with you, Lynn!
A composer’s ‘variations on a theme’ of colour. Thank you.
Yes, mornings and evenings are best in the garden.
Exactly right, Richard – theme and variation is one of my favorite forms. Thank you for stopping by.
Absolutely beautiful, Lynn. Give me soft light, no wind and a macro lens and I’ll bet I could spend the entire day in your garden and never be bored.
Kerry, that sounds like a challenge 🙂 Yes, I think you might be content to spend a day here and not be bored – I’m here every day and still love it after 16 years. You are always welcome to bring your camera here, my friend.
Thanks, Lynn. Maybe I can take you up on that offer one of these days…
What a beautiful garden! Well done for creating something so lovely and harmonious.
Thank you for your kind comments, Sue! I hope you stop by again.
You are–or someone is–a master gardener! Always such a surprise and joy to view your abundant flowers and greenery. Enjoyed seeing the deck, imagining sitting there looking out over it all. Lovely dog, your Angel.
Thank you, Cynthia -a labor of love. Lots of rain this year so the garden is extra lush. Angel thanks you too 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous daylily display!! What a wonderful array of color!
Thank you so much. I can’t begin to tell you how much I love your blog – you capture and share moments of beauty that take my breath away.
Beautiful, as always, Lynn! Gardening is such a challenging, lively art, and color is my favorite element, although texture is a close second. Manipulating both in 3-D, and then anticipating the flow of lifespans as buds become blooms and plants mature in community with each other…it’s such fun! Especially the surprises some combinations produce.
Your daylilies are amazing! Angel looks so very elegant! She must love her tours with you. 🙂
I so enjoy the tours your posts provide, too; thank you. xxoo
Kitty, exactly – gardening is a 3D living art form that changes and flows – challenging but that is the beauty – you’ve expressed it so well! Always so wonderful to have you stop by. Angel is always so happy in the summer when I am with her 24/7; she’s my beautiful princess.
Your garden designs are most delightful.
Thank you, tootle pedal! This is definitely a rondo form garden 🙂
Your garden is beautiful! Your July must be our May. What a pleasure to wade through your colorful, lush landscape instead of our scorching heat. A tour made even more lovely by Angel’s appearance. I spy some daylilies I must have!
I think that is an accurate translation of the garden season, Audrey. We are inundated with rain this year, with plants growing to giant heights and wide girths from the extra moisture – lots of pruning/dividing/moving going on here 🙂 Daylillies are wonderful plants, rain or shine, you’ve got some great specialty nurseries in CA.
And now I have the names of them…thanks to you!