Need inspiration for your garden color scheme? Pantone, the system used to match colors for everything from fashion to print, has a beautiful and inspiring palette each year. For example, the colors for 2018 were "verdure." Meant to invoke gardens, vegetables, and earthiness, it’s the perfect group of colors to inspire your new flower bed, or your entire garden. Read on to learn how to use Pantone color palettes in the garden.
What is Pantone?
Pantone has a color of the year, which for 2018 is a stunning purple called Ultra Violet, but it has also arranged several palettes for the year. Pantone’s Verdure palette is earthy, vegetal, and inspired by cottage gardens. The colors include rich greens, pale blues, and pretty purples, as well as cream and light yellow. Together, the colors invoke health and growth, perfect for garden design. Whether you want to use the latest color palette or a particularly favorite one from yesteryear, incorporating these colors into the garden is easy.
Color Palette Garden Designs
Use the Verdure other Pantone color palette as a jumping off point to inspire the direction for a new bed or garden area, or use your chosen palette religiously, challenging yourself to use only the outlined colors to determine what you grow. But don’t limit yourself to using the palette only to direct plant choice. Pantone color palette garden designs can also be applied to your outdoor living spaces and for any non-plant elements in the garden. For instance, paint your terracotta pots for an easy change on your patio. Choose the cream, lavender, or berry colors on the current or whichever you are using. Use the colors to select a patterned table cloth for your patio table or to choose a couple of new throw pillows for your chaise lounge. The pale blue in the Verdure palette, for instance, is a great choice for painting wooden furniture or trellises that need a little pick-me-up.
Choosing Pantone Colored Plants
The best part, of course, in using the Pantone palette in the garden is to get inspired in choosing what plants to grow. The olive and celery greens in the 2018 Verdure palette can be mimicked with a number of plants. Look to plants that are known for variety in foliage, like hostas, coleus, and dracaena. You can even find flowers in these shades of green, like green-to-white hydrangea and green hellebore. The purples in the Verdure palette should be even more inspiring. Choose purple-blooming herbs like lavender, rosemary, Thai basil, and sage. Flowers like blue poppy, forget-me-nots, vervain, and allium also add a pretty shade of purple or blue. Annuals in purple, like petunias, are great for edging beds and for containers. And now may be a great time to be inspired to choose a purple-flowering shrub to anchor your garden. Consider lilac, butterfly bush, or rose of Sharon. To add some cream and yellow to the garden, choose a white allium, white or cream roses, lily of the valley, gerbera daisies, daffodils, or white clematis. A flowering tree that produces pretty, creamy white blooms is also a great addition to a Verdure inspired garden. Consider southern magnolia, dogwood, or Japanese crape myrtle. The ideas are endless and bound only by your preferences and chosen color palette.