The Clash of Colors

There's a lot of talk in the garden world about how to or how not to put certain colored flowers together in your garden.  It's especially talked about with daylilies.  I'll give you my take on if there are "Clashing Daylily Colors":  None - nada - zero! 

Have you ever visited a commercial daylily nursery?  Their fields are usually arranged in single rows of daylilies and go on for yards.  Putting them in single rows allows mowing between the rows where people walk and the clumps can be viewed from both sides.  I've never, ever, seen them arranged because the colors might clash.  

One of the commercial daylily nurseries I visited at the Region II Daylily Conference.

I'm way (as in WAY) too undisciplined to worry about clashing daylily colors.  Here are some of the reasons:

Daylilies bloom at different times:  Very early to Very late.  Some of them will never be blooming at the same time making color a moot point.

"Middendorfii" last blooms are by the end of May.

"Lilting Belle" doesn't start blooming until the end of July.

I've bought daylilies over many years so there's more of "where can I put this new one" rather than a grand overall plan.

As much as gardeners are encouraged to have a grand plan in the very beginning, it is impossible if you buy more daylilies every year.  At least impossible for me and the area I have to work.  

I'm in love with certain types of daylilies only to change my love every few years.  One year it was yellow/gold, another reds, then tall, another was large blooms and now crazy patterns.  I can almost  tell you what year things were planted by what I had been loving at that time.

This is from my "love them large" stage:  "Ruby Spider" measures in at 9-inches on 34 inch scapes.  

 Some of the best combinations of colors have been an accident.  I planted the glowing "Orange Vols" near some hosta.  They never bloomed at the same time until the last few years.  Now I have orange and lavender flowers at the same time and it's beautiful and totally not a typical color combination.

"Chicago Star" and "Blue Diana"

"Orange Vols" & Hosta Flowers

I've put the beautiful orange/blood red "Oriental Ruby" next to the deep purple velvet "Wayside King Royale".  Should not work but does.

There is also the seasonal factor where a daylily will look different from year to year depending upon weather, moisture, early/late spring and a million other factors including "who knows why".  Along with this is the plant you put in your garden may have looked one way at the nursery or in their catalog but seems much different in your zone, soil or care.  

I grant you it's difficult for people who must have things perfect or must control.  Gardening isn't a finite hobby and it's seldom in our control.  

My advice is to discard any and all worries concerning colors that might clash. 

The only advice on color I might offer is to add near white (there is no pure white daylily) here and there to provide escape and balance.  And put short scapes towards the front or they will not be seen and may die from being in the shade of other perennials.       

The mish-mash of colors has been going on for ages and is captured in the Claude Monet painting "The Water Lily Pond" aka "Japanese Bridge2".  Seriously, if Claude embraced it, who am I not to love a riot of color!