Bringing Color into Your Landscape

Bringing Color into Your Landscape

By Jessica Downs on October, 14 2019
Design Tips

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Design Color into Your YARD

color - Copy

The best part of designing your landscape is that you get to make it your own. You could create a landscape filled with green foliage or add plants that bloom in all the colors of the rainbow! At Moon Valley Nurseries, you will find anything to complete your dream yard. From flowering trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers - we can help you finish your design. 

Where to Place Your Plants

It’s best to find the right plants for your space, initially based on certain conditions. Once you know what type of colors you want in your yard, you can start to decide where you will install your new plants and trees.

Figure out how much sun the plant would be getting, what kind of soil and drainage there is, and a proper watering schedule and process. Mostly everything with a flower will need a minimum of at least four hours of sun to bloom in the Phoenix area. Once you’ve considered all of these factors, you’re one step closer to finding the perfect plant to add the best color to your yard! 

So now, you know where to place your plant that offers plenty of sun exposure in your yard, and you’re willing to commit to a watering schedule (or just installing a drip system). Now you’re ready to get that dramatic backyard oasis of your dreams and pick the best plants.

Plants to Add Warm Colors

az yellow bells

There are many plants that you can use in your yard if you want to add warm colors to the environment. Some of the best shrubs that will bring warm tones of color to your yard are Arizona Yellow Bells (pictured above), Little John Bottlebrush, Bougainvillea, and Lantana

Plants to Add Cool Colors

Plumbago-Large-5

If you want to add cool colors into your yard, such as blues and purples, you are in luck! Some of our favorite cool-colored shrubs are Ruellia, Purple Fountain Grass, and Plumbago. Of course, you’ll also get plenty of year-round green with any evergreen shrub/tree you plant in your landscape.

Adding Annual Flowers

Though they only last about six months of the year, the best go-to plant for instant, vibrant color would be annual flowers. The many shades of Vincas, Angelonias, and Pentas add fantastic color in the summer months, while also withstanding our intense heat. 

For fall through spring, you can enjoy the endless color choices that geraniums, petunias, and many more have to offer! Annuals are also a great addition to add as a “filler” around other flowering perennials! 

Design for Contrasting Colors

While some people want to fill their yards with dense, green foliage or bright pops of red and orange all over the yard, an important design factor to consider is how your plants, and the color they bring, will contrast with each other. 

Red contrasts with green colors, that one was easy! Yellow contrasts with purple and blue contrasts with orange. You can utilize this information and choose flowering plants that will simultaneously play off of each other while still creating an overall balance.

Add Color to Your Hedges

oleander

A fun idea to add a twist on a privacy hedge would be doing a gradient effect with Oleander! We have white, pink, and red oleanders available at Moon Valley Nurseries, which are just the colors we need to obtain this optical illusion. 

Simply start with a couple white oleanders along a wall, add a light pink, add another white, and then a couple more light pink, and so on. Make a similar pattern to have the colors fade into the red oleander, and bingo! By having the three colors gradually fade into each other, over time, they’ll grow and make the transition even more fluent. If you have a longer wall you’re covering, you can multiply the number of plants needed to fit. 

The effects you can create, and things you can do with plants are limitless and ever-growing! These are just a couple of simple ideas to get your creative juices flowing and thinking of ways your space can come to life with color! 

Visit a Nursery Today

Schedule a Design Consult Here

Stop by your nearest nursery and work with one of our professional landscape designers to help create a work of art! 

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