Category Archives: Color in the Garden

The golden hour

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In photography, the golden hour is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is redder and softer than when the Sun is higher in the sky. ~Wikipedia

We had three glorious days of sunshine this past week, probably a first for this year. The garden reveled in the sunshine and bloomed gloriously at the height of daylily season. pinkhems2

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. ~Marcus Aurelius

Pink daylilies bloomed with abandon

‘Mimosa Umbrella’
‘Chance Encounter’
‘Neal Berry’
‘Pink Fanfare’
‘Terracotta’ petunias
‘Siloam Angelic Love’
‘Janet Gordon’
spidery daylily
‘Pink Windmill’
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
‘Border Crossing’ and ‘Berlioz’

as did the purple and plum colored ones.

‘Shaka Zulu’ in border
‘A Breed Apart’
‘Berlioz’
‘Vampire LeStat’
‘Diabolique’
‘Amy Michelle’
‘Shaka Zulu’

Flowers with eyes seemed to follow me with their gaze wherever I went in the garden

‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
‘UFO’
‘Etched Eyes’ and ‘Diabolique’
‘Blue Eyed Butterfly’
‘Blue Eyed Butterfly’
‘Do The Twist’
‘Two Part Harmony’
‘5 O’Clock Shadow’

while the deepest colors added bass tones to the floral orchestra.

‘Smith Brothers’
‘Persian Ruby’
‘Eggplant Ecstasy’

Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there’s shadow – no, not just shadow, but fullness. You’ve got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that’s real. ~Amy Grant

According to local weather tracking, only 29% of the days this year have been without rain or other precipitation. Like any gardener, I treasure rain but it has been a dark and gloomy summer. After those few glorious days of sunshine, the rain returned with a series of furious storms that pounded the garden with wind, water and spates of lightening and thunder for most of the day. Dozens of roads were flooded in the area; after a summer of heavy rain, the soil simply could not absorb any more.

The rain began again. It fell heavily, easily, with no meaning or intention but the fulfilment of its own nature, which was to fall and fall. ~Helen Garner

dewyroseleaf

In late afternoon, the rain stopped and the sky lightened. By early evening, sunlight unexpectedly sifted through the trees and turned the garden into a golden land.

treelight

While many of the flowers were battered and sodden, their color sang to me from below as I stood at the top of the hill.  The battle with weeds and soggy garden beds were forgotten. The world was glowing.

I stood transfixed as the garden seemed to turn to me and say “See? We are fine. Stop worrying about neatness or perfection and join us as we revel in this golden hour.” rosedereschtrain

Once in a golden hour,
I cast to earth a seed,
And up there grew a flower,
That others called a weed. ~Tennyson

All text and photos ©2019 Lynn Emberg Purse, All Rights Reserved except where noted.

Purple Prose

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Purple prose: writing that is extravagantly flowery

I admit it, the garden is guilty of purple prose. It is extravagantly flowery this week, especially in shades of purple. Siberian Iris 'Reprise'

Now is the time of alliums Allium 'Purple Sensation'and columbines (Aquilegia). doublebluecolumbineThe three petaled flowers of our native spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) opened this morning. spiderwort

What potent blood hath modest May ~ Ralph W. Emerson

Not only is the garden extravagant with bloom, it is clothing itself in rich layers of texture and color. The upper garden greets me each morning with flowers and foliage under a cathedral of green oaks. frontgarden

The south facing garden in the back is even more extravagant, more “purple”. Let’s enter by the gate.MayGate

The hillside garden is in its late spring glory but the color comes as much from the foliage as from the flowers. lowergardenMay

The deep purple and white ‘William Guiness’ columbine stops me in my tracks as I pause on the steps – a dependable self-seeding plant, I love that it pops up everywhere in the garden. (Click on any photo in the mosaic to enlarge the image)

William Guiness columbine
Columbine and Spirea
Columbine and foliage plants

Nearby, Iris germanica ‘Tiger Honey’ blooms near Heuchera ‘Caramel’ and Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’, a lovely color counterpoint to the purples.

Iris ‘Tiger Honey’
Heuchera ‘Caramel’
Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’

As I descend further into the lower garden, the purples get softer surrounded by blues and greens.columbineallium

The garden bench is closely embraced by the exuberant growth of the rain-rich May garden. gardenbench

As I circle back around through the garden, I am captured by the sight of complex layers of woodland and garden intertwining their voices in a vesper song.lowergarden

As dusk falls, I retrace my steps and view the garden from above. It grows quiet as the last light retreats and the birds settle to their nests. Thank you for walking along with me in the garden and listening to its purple prose.eveninggarden

If it’s drama that you sigh for, plant a garden and you’ll get it. . . If you long for entertainment and for pageantry most glowing, plant a garden and this summer spend your time with green things growing. ~Edward A. Guest, Plant a Garden

All photographs and text ©2019 Lynn Emberg Purse, All Rights Reserved, except where noted.

That beautiful season

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That beautiful season the Summer!
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light;
And the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is the middle of the calendar year, that fulcrum on which the earth spins and twists into the depths of summer. This Fourth of July morning, the garden was at the height of bloom, sparking with floral fireworks.

hothemshillWP

The hydrangeas have grown twice their normal size from the many days of rain in June and sweep the ground with their massive white blossoms against the deep green of the woods. (click on any image in the mosaics to see a full size photo)

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Anabelle’
Pulmonaria and hydrangea
Oak leaf hydrangea

The daylilies have stepped forward into the spotlight and are singing intricate songs of color and shape. Some appear gentle, fragile, tender in tints of pink and violet.

Daylily ‘Blue Eyed Butterfly’
Daylily ‘Janice Brown’
Daylily ‘Pink Windmill’
Campanula (bellflower)
Daylily ‘Ultimate Dawning’
Daylily ‘Siloam Dan Tau’
Achillea ‘Little Susie’
Daylily ‘Mimosa Umbrella’

Others are bold and daring, as if they’ve thrown their heads back for a hearty laugh.

Daylily ‘Diabolique’
Daylily ‘Diabolique’
Daylily ‘Magic Masquerade’
Daylily ‘Scarlett’s Web’
Daylilies ‘Shaka Zulu’ & ‘Mystical Rainbow’
Daylily ‘Summer Rerun’
Daylily ‘Etched Eyes’
Daylily ‘Breed Apart’

My favorites are the dark quiet treasures, promising secrets if you listen closely enough.

Daylily ‘Eggplant Ecstasy’
Daylily ‘Her Majesty’s Wizard’
Daylily ‘Inquire Within’ and Heuchera
Daylily ‘Amy Michelle’
Daylily ‘American Revolution’
Daylily ‘Inquire Within’
Plum and pewter bed

True lilies are blooming too – Orienpet lily ‘Altari’ is so fragrant that her scent carries over the entire garden in the heat of a July morning. altariWP

The smaller Asiatic lilies are almost done blooming for the season.

Asiatic Lily ‘Landini’
Asiatic Lily ‘Tiger Babies’
Asiatic Lily ‘Matrix’ & Coleus ‘Sedona’

The woods have grown dark with summer leaves, promising a cool respite from the summer heat.

gatetowoodsWP

The trees have it in their pent up buds,
to darken nature and be summer woods. ~Robert Frost

Coming and going through the garden gate, the sheer bounty of color and life makes me pause for a longer look.

Through the gate
Down the steps

My eyes, weary of staring at luminous screens indoors for days on end, find relief and delight in the complex layers of shadow and light before me. I look across the garden at scenes of color and texture

Up the steps
Hilltop
Lilies and Coleus ‘Sedona’
Deck border
Detail on steps
Pink daylillies
Peach and gold daylilies

and look down to the tiniest leaves at my feet. yellowbluefoliageWPIt is like looking at the music that I hear in my dreams but can never quite remember, rich and wild and overflowing with life. It is a beautiful season indeed.

All images and text ©2018 by Lynn Emberg Purse, except as noted.

Green things growing

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O the green things growing, the green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
       ~Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (English poet)

greengarden

Profuse rain and warm sunny days have turned the world green. Plants grew a foot overnight and the tender veil of new leaves in the spring woods was suddenly transformed into a verdant velvet curtain. O the green things growing indeed.

herbcircletrees

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration . . . ~D. H. Lawrence

In a few weeks, flowers will fill the garden beds but for now, they are lush islands of leaves with a few sparks of floral color. Not all of the foliage is green though – deep reds, bright golds and warm bronzes have come into full leaf as well.

There are a few bright spots of contrasting colors as spring flowers give way to the early summer blooms of alliums and flowering shrubs. (Click on any photo to see a larger image)

Deutzia ‘Chardonnay Pearls’
Allium‘Purple Sensation’
Azalea near the garden gate
Azalea closeup
White azalea flower
Variegated Weigela flower

Some of the perennials have begun to bloom, bridging the floral gap between spring and summer.

Columbine ‘Wiliam Guinness’
Spanish bluebell
Japanese fern ‘Regal Red’
Geranium ‘Joan Baker’
Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Album’
Geum x ‘Peach Daiquiri’

In a few days, the garden will change again as the roses and peonies and foxglove add their drama to the scene, but for now I will treasure the blessing of green things growing.

All photos and text ©2018 Lynn Emberg Purse (except where noted)

The garden is singing

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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. downstepsjuly

Morning light brings an inner glow to new blooms, a luminescence seen at no other time of day and ephemeral in its passing. sweetcharlotte

Evening lights up the hillside and creates shadows around the arbor gateway. upsteps

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)

Pink balloon flower
Daylily ‘Secret Splendor’
Rose ‘Pink Carpet’
Daylily ‘Janice Brown’

Sometimes the darker tones rule, dramatic, mysterioso. “Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” ~Claude Monet

Daylillies ‘Eggplant Ecstasy’ and ‘Velvet Shadows’
Astilbe ‘Chocolate Shogun’
Daylily ‘Persian Ruby’
Daylily ‘Cinderella’s Dark Side’
Daylily ‘Nosferatu’ and Echinacea ‘Ruby Star’
Echinacea ‘Ruby Star’
Daylily ‘Her Majesty’s Wizard’
Daylily ‘UFO’ and Coleus ‘Religious Radish’

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.

Daylily ‘Diabolique’
Daylily ‘Etched Eyes’
Daylily ‘Etched Eyes’ and Coleus ‘Gay’s Delight’
Grape and Lemonade bed vignette
Grape and Lemonade bed
Daylily ‘Mokan Butterfly’
Daylily ‘Vampire LeStat’ and Coleus ‘Gay’s Delight’

Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.  ~Kahlil Gibran

peachblue

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.

Daylily ‘Full Moon Magic’
Daylily ‘Desert Dreams’
Daylily ‘Francis Joiner’

The new rock walls on the hillside are filling in nicely. hillsidefromdeck

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.

Daylily ‘Two To Tango’
Daylily ‘Breed Apart’
Daylillies at rock wall
Hot colored hill
Coleus ‘Sedona’ with orange pansy
Daylillies ‘Scarlet’s Web’ and ‘Fairy Firecracker’
Looking down the hillside

Each evening, Angel and I tour the garden, then go up the steps to the house for one more look. angelonsteps

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