There are a number of underlying principles on using colour in your garden:

• Plant colour comes from foliage, fruit and texture as well as from flowers. Any colour scheme is improved by the addition of a backbone of good foliage plants.
• Match your colour scheme to the garden and planting style:
• a happy confusion of colours for Cottage style gardens
• shades of green with few muted coloured flowers for Japanese style gardens
• bright harmonies for Mediterranean style gardens
• One way to choose and blend colours is to use a spectral or colour wheel to help you select plants on a colour basis. Complementary colours are found in pairs of diametrically opposed hues: red and green, yellow and violet. Harmonising colours are adjacent hues which share a pigment: red-violet-blue, orange-yellow-green.
• Colour affects the mood of your garden:
• Hotter colours are exciting, intense and stimulating - use around patios.
• Cool colours are restful, calming and relaxing - use around secluded seating areas.
• Colours change with seasons, for instance the warm red stems of dogwood look hot in winter, then they produce cool green foliage and white flowers in summer.
• Colour in the garden is affected not only by the season but also by light, time of day, texture of plant, other surrounding colours and the amount or area of colour.
• Soil type affects plant colour; for example, some hydrangeas flower pink on alkaline soil, blue on acid.
• Use pale and blue colours at the end of borders to make them look longer, as bright colours foreshorten.
• Purple foliage adds weight and balance to a scheme.
• White draws the eye - use pale tints rather than pure white to lighten borders unless you want to focus attention on an area.
• Silver foliage cools down adjacent hot colours.