6 on Saturday – 12JUL2025 – Colour Combos

Chris Mousseau

It seems insensitive to complain about our weather (very hot, very humid, very dry) considering so many other places in the world have experienced worse this summer, but let me just say my rain barrels are almost empty and I fear for my tomatoes.

I was wandering about the garden early yesterday morning and noticed, here and there, some pleasing plant placements, some colourful combinations, and thought I’d share them for today’s Six. (Take a look at the Garden Ruminations site for Sixes from around the world.) The first that caught my eye was this lone, pale pink hollyhock – a lovely memory of the multi-stalked clump that, for many years, graced this spot at the edge of the driveway. This combo makes me glad I didn’t pull the developing Gaillardia from the gravel during my spring clean-up in April.

Growing by chance, closer to the house, is a tale of two Echinacea; one the usual E. purpurea that self seeds everywhere and will soon turn a large part of the garden quite purple, the other…is orange. I’m not sure how it arrived, but I do know I have, in the past, experimented with seeds given to me that came from a cross of E. tennesseensis and E. paradoxa. Perhaps there’s an interesting genetic thing going on…

The colour is much more orange in real life…

There’s a gazillion daylilies now blooming – most of that gazillion are the orange H. fulva, but I chuckled when I came across these intertwining stalks in a rather jungly part of the garden. The reddish ones are the result of me collecting seeds in the past, the purply one was purchased years ago from a daylily grower who would take you into his daylily field and dig up a clump you liked, no names attached…

(Here’s a better look at the purply one:)

…as they say, no filter

Back to coneflowers for a moment…as I was crouched down inspecting something or other, probably a weed, I glanced up and noticed how the yellow barberry, a dwarf Berberis, made an excellent background for the Echinacea…

…just as this globe blue spruce – Picea pungens ‘Glauca Globosa’ – makes a great background for this yellowy daylily:

Finally, a combo that I love when sitting on the patio. You can only catch a glimpse of the lavender swath here, but in front is a pot of canna lilies. I’ve lost the tag for this one unfortunately, but I do love it’s bright flowers. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

20 Comments

  1. All your flowers are gorgeous! The purple Lily & Canna are special. I’m curious: do you have a well for all your house water? Or Town water? We have town water. We are only allowed to use a hose for watering on even or odd days, depending on your house number, between 6 & 9 am. I don’t drag the hose around, but I fill gallon jugs & water all the potted plants…veggies & flowers that way. What I’m asking is can’t you fill jugs in the house & water your tomatoes?

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  2. Also 6 & 9 pm = mosquito time, so that’s why I water w/ jugs…all veggies & bought flowers are in pots.

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  3. Nice fiery Echinacea. All mine are straight E purpurea, but I love the variation form pale ping to deep almost purple. Mine are definitely into the swing of things. It is lovely when nature’s palette comes up with something unplanned and lovely!

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  5. You have some very pretty summer flowers, Chris, and given the lovely June and July we’re all having, that’s only natural. A lovely collection of gaillardias and daylilies. Looking forward to the rain, though, to refill our water supplies

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  6. I read this morning that there were significant rains in the midwest, so maybe the atmospheric flow is working its way your direction. I hope so.

    My favorite photo’s of the orange and purple coneflowers. Orange and purple’s a favorite combination for me; it always reminds me of Central American clothing and weavings. Although I’m not wildly enthusiastic about day lilies, I do like that purple one. It’s ruffled edges and various shadings make it more than usually appealing to me.

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  9. It’s a Southern oddity I suppose that pink and orange is a crass combination..but I LOVE IT! Especially the Echinacea mix. Sending rainy thoughts your way. Some weird varmints got my tomatoes!

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  10. The unplanned juxtapositions of colours in a garden are such a source of pleasure and digital cameras make it easy to record what are often very fleeting moments. Then if you’re like me you end up with a gazillion photos that you never look at again. The color combo is so much better first time around you don’t want to repeat it, you want the next accidental one to come along.

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    1. Many photos absolutely! I’ve started to ruthlessly delete though – anything not in focus, anything boring, any duplicates…just trying to keep the very best. Time consuming though.

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  13. All looking lovely, and the pink and orange combinations are simply gorgeous! Echinacea are proving themselves here too – definitely drought-resistant. Wishing you rain as well – everyone seems to be going through a dry spell right now, us included!

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