Primary Colors

I like my flower colors hot.  Screaming hot.  Blindingly hot.  Maybe that's why I moved to Texas.

Oh sure, I've got some nice pink roses, but for the most part I want my flowers to punch me in the face when I look at them.  No soothing pastels for me.

I tried, really I did.  I went through quite the english cottage-style gardening phase 15 years ago.  But somehow some screaming red or a gaudy orange always crept it's way back in amongst the lovely blues, pinks and lavenders.

In my newest yard I have planted color with abandon - and I blame Georgetown Texas.  One of the first places I visited after moving here was the poppy festival in Georgetown.  Lovely red poppies were sprinkled liberally between the beautiful craftsman homes.  I buy bags of poppy seed at the Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg and plant every fall. These growing in front of the firecracker fern are particularly eye catching.

Subtlety has never been a word used to describe me. I seem to crash from one extreme to the other, never lingering in the middle for more than a nanosecond.  This trait certainly comes through in my plant selections.

Near the red poppies, sages and roses, a yellow yarrow has just started blooming.  It will go nicely with the yellow four o'clocks and lantana that will be lighting up in a few weeks.

Now that I have a garden full of bright colors, I find that I'm sneaking some blues in.  Bluebonnets, day flowers, salvias and agave complete the primary color wheel.  So let's see, that's three colors - maybe I am finding some middle ground after all!