Garden Centre

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Being a girlie gardener

Today I had a visitor who stood and watched me as I prepared to type this blog. It’s a bit disconcerting to be observed while blogging. In fact he put me off so much I stopped and made a cup of tea instead. We stared out of the kitchen window into the garden.

“Your garden’s very pink, he said.

“No it’s not.”

But when he pointed out that just about everything that’s in flower was indeed, a bit ‘pink’ I couldn’t argue with him. We walked around and looked at the cyclamen and the nerines, and most of the Japanese anemones are pink (there are a few white ones though) and the rock rose is definitely pink and this thing, which is part of the potato family and whose name I don’t know because I got it in a lucky dip at a garden centre …

“That’s not pink,” I said, desperately. “That’s magenta!”

“Which is just a way of saying bright pink,” insisted my non-girlie visitor.

Now, partly this is due to seasonality – you won’t find an early spring flower that’s red for example. The only red spring blooms are polyanthus and tulips and neither of them are the first bloomers: early spring flowers are either purple or yellow. Summer is very strong on hot colours like reds and oranges, which continue through to the autumn with dahlias, for example, but once the leaves start to fall, you’re back to a different palate, usually pinks.

Even so, I’ve got to say he’s got a point – my garden is a bit like horticultural Barbie-land!

Labels: autumn colour, garden colour, garden flowers, pink flowers

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:54 AM

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