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Playing with colour
It is rewarding to create colour schemes with hardy perennials because you do not have to wait too long to see the results and, if some combinations do not work, they are easily changed for next season
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Create harmony with the colour wheel.
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Do not be afraid to experiment with colour - the possibilities are endless. Choose combinations that appeal to you, and use the principles of the colour wheel to explore the way in which colours are related.
The colour wheel
The wheel in its simplest form is made up of three primary colours: red, blue, and yellow, which, when blended, produce the secondary colours: purple, green, and orange. Infinite gradations of hue occur where the segments meet. The principal opposites are between primary and secondary colours: purple and yellow, red and green, and blue and orange. Such combinations can produce bold effects, and are especially impressive viewed from a distance.
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 Some plants create their own vivid contrasts - the bright green leaves and brilliant scarlet flowers of Crocosmia 'Lucifer', for example - but plant associations can be equally intense. Grouping blue-purple Salvia x sylvestris 'Mainacht' with yellow evening primrose, for example, accentuates the individual richness of their colours.
Using neighbouring colours on the wheel - pink Papaver orientale 'Mrs Perry' with purple catmint, perhaps - creates harmonious combinations. From a distance the effect may be hazy, but close-up it will be subtle. Planned colour-themed plantings can be striking, especially if you can maintain a continuity of colour through the season.
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Foliage colour
Unusual leaf colour plays a part in the most intriguing combinations: gold and lime, blue-grey and silver, copper and purple. The way we perceive colour is also affected by texture and light; for example, yellow-splashed foliage, or fine golden grasses give the impression of dappled sunlight, lifting nearby colours.
Using hot colours
Even in the coolest of summers, an illusion of warmth can be produced from plantings with yellow, orange, and red flowers. Doronicums and primulas are among the first perennials to make a sunny splash in spring, but summer brings the most dazzling hues. One of the first is Geum 'Borisii', with its orange-scarlet flowers. Other easy choices include orange and red oriental poppies, red peonies, crocosmias in fiery red, orange, and gold, and daylilies (Hemerocallis) in every hue of yellow, orange, and rust-red. Shortening days encourage sedums, which bear flat, rose-pink flowerheads from late summer to autumn, and heleniums, in yellow or the bronze-red of 'Moerheim Beauty'.
Using cool colours
Spring's freshness can be emphasized and midsummer heat relieved in part by planting perennials in cool shades. White and blue schemes are obvious choices but can be stark; adding restrained hues such as pale yellows, greens, and pinks enhances the effect.
Cool schemes are easy to carry through the spring and most of the summer, starting with white and pink-flushed hellebores, supplemented with wood anemones, white and blue cultivars of Primula denticulata, and soft pink or white bergenias. These
are followed by pink, blue, or white campanulas, blue or white monkshoods (Aconitum), and geraniums in shades of blue, purple, pink, and white. In
late summer use plenty of foliage plants and elegant, white-flowered Japanese anemones.
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