Paint your landscape: when planning and planting your garden this spring, consider coordinating the colors of the flowers with the exterior of the house

Flower & Garden Magazine, April-May, 1996 by Elaine Martin Petrowski

When planning and planting your garden this spring, consider coordinating the colors of the flowers with the exterior house paint.

It's Likely You've Tried Your Hand -- And Maybe Even perfected the skill -- of perking up your wardrobe by adding just the right colorful scarf or a tie to a dress or suit. As a gardener, you apply the same skills to your garden by moving plants about and adding and subtracting others so that colors blend, contrast or harmonize in the most pleasing manner possible. It's possible to carry the principles of color-coordination a step further: capitalize on the colors of foliage and flowers in your garden by coordinating them to the paint color of your house.

Even if you're not ready to repaint the entire house this spring, you can still introduce harmonious splashes of color. Choose a new accent or "punch color" for doors, trim, shutters, moldings and planter boxes and architectural elements that merit emphasis. And if 1996 is the year you do plan to repaint your home's entire exterior, consider developing a bright, new color scheme for the house that's based on the predominant colors in your garden. The following tips will help you add interest to the exterior of your home.

* Since it's less expensive and time-consuming to change the color of the plants, as opposed to the color of the paint, begin with the flowers. Annuals provide the most cost-effective splash of color in the shortest possible time. Additionally, annuals offer a degree of flexibility, allowing you to vary the color scheme from year, to year. Annuals can be used to close a seasonal gap or to fill in the holes left by spring bulbs.

* For the greatest impact and the most color, don't skimp on plants. Arrange plants in drifts or bunches. Mass a dozen bulbs in one location, and then repeat that variety or color elsewhere.

* If your garden space is limited, use plants in containers and window boxes as colorful, variable punctuation points. For a lush effect, overplant containers so the flowers cascade and spill out over the edge.

* Use large pots planted with bright flowers to focus attention on a doorway. Choose containers that complement the style (and the color) of your home. Large, elegant concrete urns suit a home with the look of a French manor house. Simple, linear redwood boxes are ideal for the clean lines of a contemporary home. If you live in a rustic cottage, consider buckets or natural wood window boxes. Painted window boxes and terra cotta pots are well-suited to a low-slung bungalow. Don't forget to water and feed containers regularly to produce an abundance of colorful blooms all season long.

* Vary plant textures and heights. Choose plants that will maintain your color scheme throughout the growing season. White tulips and yellow daffodils can give way to marigolds and daisies and later to chrysanthemums and asters. Forget-me-nots, yellow pansies and coral tulips in spring can be replaced with blue lobelia or ageratum, yellow daylilies and coral geraniums in summer.

* Use foliage to blend or tone down strong colors. Vary the greens and play one against another to create a soothing, textured composition -- chartreuse hosta leaves, for example, against the dark, evergreen foliage of yews and rhododendrons. Silvery foliage, as well as white or cream-colored flowers, can also be used to neutralize even the most outrageous color combinations.

* Plan a strong color statement. Even the all-time favorite white house offers multiple opportunities for personalizing. Match flower colors to the house's focal point -- the front door, a pretty porch or shutters.

* Select a custom paint color based on the color of a favorite flower. The computerized matching systems now available in many paint stores can custom-mix a paint color that will exactly match the flower of your choice. Take in a few petals of your favorite magenta rose, peach hollyhock or those blue morning glories you're so fond of and let the computer formulate a trim or accent color to match.

RELATED ARTICLE: COLOR HARMONY

Ken Charbonneau, director of color marketing at Benjamin Moore & Co., a paint manufacturer, makes the following recommendations of favorite flowers that work well with the most popular exterior paint colors. Try his suggestions or experiment with color combinations of your own.

* Whites, including warm off-whites and cream, always top the list of popular house colors. "Anything goes for the gardener who lives in a white house," Charbonneau says. "Choose from red geraniums to a cascade of multicolored nasturtiums to the full range of blues and purples." Create drama with a monochromatic garden, coziness with a multihued border. "White as well as stone houses beg for you to coordinate plantings with the focal color you select for doors and shutters and window boxes," he adds.

* Bisque, beige and tan paint colors look great with hot-colored flowers -- yellows, rust and red. For minimal upkeep and a continuous display, select daffodils or pansies in spring, daylilies in summer and chrysanthemums for fall.