Give the color red a break; just check its temperature

Can a color be controversial? It can if it’s in the garden, and if there’s one that illicits strong opinions more than any other, it’s red.

Some people have an adament no-red policy in their garden, while others embrace its boldness, but I think the reason it is a touchpoint for so many is because it’s not an easy color to work with.

Since reds vary so much in tone — generally from pink-red to orange-red — and therefore in temperature, mixing and matching is a complicated matter. But used judiciously, red can be an excellent color in the garden.

Blocks of red will draw your eye across a garden, so intentional use of the bold color is important, and not for the faint of heart. This can work to great effect in containers near a front door, a surefire sign that the entrance is HERE.

But one bit of red will often look out of place, so even if a bold statement is required, it can be helpful to add a smattering of red around the garden to make it feel cohesive. 

And this is where the specific color of red is important. Cooler reds, often confusingly called blue-reds, work better with chartreuse, purple or cool-toned pinks. Warmer reds, on the other hand, play well with orange, yellow and a “true” green. Plants with smaller red flowers will complement other plants that bring out their undertone.

Spigelia (sometimes called Indian pink)is one of my favorite red-flowering plants to incorporate into a garden, despite it being only marginally hardy in our area. Growing just 2 feet tall, it carries tubular red flowers with yellow centers on top of sturdy stems, and even in an established clump it offers just enough red to accent other plants but not enough to pull focus from other parts of the garden.

Another excellent red accent perennial is mountain fleeceflower (Bistorta amplexicaulis, formerly called Persicaria amplexicaulis). There is a wide range of cultivars out there, many of which have long, skinny flowers on thin stems that are held above pointed foliage in red tones, but sadly none of them are that plentiful in garden centers. One of my favorites is ‘Fat Domino,’ which sports a great name and bigger-than-usual dark red flowers with dark green foliage.

Of course, there are oodles of annuals sporting red flowers, but one that is a little less in-your-face is pineapple sage, which rewards patient gardeners with neon red flowers late in the season after producing mounds of pineapple-scented chartreuse foliage all summer. 

Any color that requires gardeners to revisit their elementary school color wheel lessons will always be more challenging to incorporate into a garden, and a lot of people seem to take it out on red in general, banning it from their garden. 

Maybe we need to tone down the temperature on the color controversy, but not necessarily the color. Red can have a place in the garden if you want it to. Just check the color wheel first.