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Combining colours
Colour sets the mood of a bed/border. But remember it’s not just flowers that are colourful - leaves, fruit and stems are too.
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Colour theory
Colour theory is based on the colour wheel, which is basically the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) bent into a circle. Particular relationships between colours give certain results.
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Adjacent colours
Use two or three adjacent colours to create a harmonious effect. For example, red and orange (and yellow)
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 | Opposites
The most striking combinations are complementary colours that lie directly opposite each other: red and green, purple and yellow. You can use complementary pairs as great accent colour, for example, a single purple-flowered plant in a bed of yellow.
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 | Contrasts
Based on colours spaced at equal distances around the colour wheel, contrasts work best in groups of three, for example, red, blue and yellow, or purple, green and orange.
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It’s up to personal taste but as a rule of thumb up to five colours can be contrasted before it gets too much for the eye. But this needs careful planning - use a dominant ‘theme colour’ and work the rest round it.
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 | Find out which colours work well together with our fun colour wheel Flash feature. You can apply these principles to your own colour scheme choices.
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